Love God, Love Neighbour

Love God, Love Neighbour
Pentecost 24; Mark 12:28-34
Do I love God
with heart, soul, mind, strength?
Whether I love with all
of all of the above
I have to doubt.

Over the years my heart
has had its passions
and its breakages,
built its walls,
and found safe ways
to value and appreciate,
but how whole-hearted
in God’s eyes?

My soul, that intimate stranger,
has no form or face
I can be sure of –
sometimes me, often mystery.
Mind, brain, psyche
are entangled in soul,
reflected in words and song,
focused in listening.

As I grow old,
memory, skills, emotions,
purpose and energy
all drift in and out
of who I have become.
As for strengths,
I still have some,
honed by age,
but fear my weaknesses,
and looming losses.

Do I love my neighbour,
and love myself with insight
that grounds concern for others?
Yes and no, here and there,
real enough but never enough.
I cannot bear the news of the world,
the daily deluge of random pain
I cannot touch or heal.
Yet I have sat with the dying
and their grieving families
and felt a love and rightness
in our presence together
beyond my own capacity.

I think it’s the same 
with my love of God:
gift from beyond, 
resonance within –
together it exceeds
all that I know
of all of me.
	Barbara Messner 31/10/2024