Some small reflections...

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Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
-- Book of Common Prayer

In many versions of the Book of Common Prayer, Eucharist services always involve a summary of the law, as a simply-stated reminder. This is reminiscent of Hillel's advice to the man who wanted to be taught the whole of Judaism while standing on one foot, a formulation devised about the same time and place in history as Jesus' summary of the law. However, what is simply stated is not so simply understood. What does it mean to love God, especially as fully as Jesus commands us? And, what does it mean to love one's neighbour as oneself?

I propose no easy answers to these questions. There is something inexpressible about the love of God, which is often better expressed in negatives: it is not blind obedience, either to scripture (however interpreted) or to the authority of the church or one's own feeling of passion or calling. It is not a necessarily a command to monasticism or isolation, or twenty-four-hour-a-day contemplation and prayer, although this might be a component of how some manifest love of God in action. Neither is it necessarily, on the other end of the spectrum, a command to complete self-sacrifice for a 'cause', although again this may be part of the expression of the love of God.

For me, the love of God, in relation to my own soul, means a yearning, a longing to listen, to discern the will of God, and to do my best to live out the calling I've discerned, in relation to the community in which God has placed me, in recognition of the reason and limitations with which God has blessed me. Love of this sort is a process, a spiralling motion toward a more perfect understanding, a more perfect relationship with God. (I use the image of spiralling because a pendulum motion, back and forth, remains static in absolute position, whereas a spiral involves back and forth motion (closer and further away from God) while the plane on which this movement takes place also moves to a different (hopefully higher) level.)

Hand-in-hand with this motion is the activity in community. Life in the community gives one great opportunity to see and become part of the love of God. However, it also provides many temptations. In the sufferings of people one is tempted to ask 'where is God in this?' It is fairly easy to imagine the love of God in the happiness and joy of the community, when people are working together harmoniously, and all is well.

In a tale from Jewish folklore, there was a rebbe with a great reputation for perfection of spirit, who spent all his time in study of the Torah. He heard of another man travelling nearby, with a great reputation for discernment of imperfections. So, he called the discerner to his home, and asked him, 'Please tell me what my faults are.'

The discerner answered, 'You have none.'

'But surely I must have at least one fault,' the rebbe said.

'No, you have none,' the discerner answered again. 'You have easily avoided them by staying in your study and concentrating upon the Torah. However, should you leave this room and live among the community, you will find your faults there.'

This story, which I learned a long time ago, illustrates to me the potential for self-deception, and life in the community is great check, for one's relationship to the members of the community can be an indication of the direction of one's relationship with God. Similarly, the seminary experience serves to act as a tool for discernment, refinement, and community, and in listening and responding to the stories of other individuals, as well through the directed learning of the curriculum, I can better examine my own relationship with God and my own communities.