A clear message is given in Luke 8:19-21— Our relationship with one another and God is a deep connection that never ends and is to be nurtured. Jesus shares that he loves us as one loves a family member. In turn, Jesus wants us to love him and each other as we love our family. 

Leaning into this understanding is comforting, complex and profound. To understand that Jesus offers the same love to us all…the same love as he had for his family is amazing. Jesus’s love is circuitous and forever. He passes on to us—John 13:34 - Love one another, as I have loved you.  

I know putting Jesus first in my life allows me to provide and love my family and others with a greater capacity. As a grandmother, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, and neighbor I am blessed to understand our imperfect love for each other. I know for all the successes at giving love I equally fail when it is most needed. Jesus is always there for me the same as I want my family, friends, and neighbors to know I am there for them. They can always count on me.

So, in my prayers I ask for forgiveness for when I fall short of this type of love. I pray to be one another person can count on when in need whether family or stranger. I pray for help in upholding the first and second commandments…to love God with all my heart and mind and to love our neighbors.  

A favorite poem of mine that speaks of this love is by Father Pedro Arrupe, the Superior General of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1981, who wrote this piece on Falling in Love!

“Nothing is more practical than finding God,
that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
What seizes your imagination,
Will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
What you do with your evenings,
How you spend your weekends,
What you read,
Who you know,
What breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love,
Stay in love,
and it will decide everything.
Fall in love with Christ; it will change everything.”