Pascal,

The first part of the Great Commandment is not an easy thing to expostulate upon. How does one “love” a Mystery and an abstraction one has never seen? And yet we can, but the journey to arrive at that state of being requires a kind of maturity and humility that comes only from having some inner calm. An inner ability cultivated over time to appreciate beauty and be humbled in awe of the universe and creation. God does not need our love, so God wanting us to love Him/Her must be rooted in a greater wisdom that understands us completely. That understanding knows we cannot rest at peace until we expend energy in seeking God out. It’s a journey that tests us in every way, because we can never fully understand God. We are fragile beings, and so our existence is fraught with suffering and destruction. Job’s story is in many ways our own.

To me, to love God means being humble and open to being filled by the Holy Spirit, so as to incrementally grow in a relationship with this Mystery. We seek out that which we love, so to love God is to always, restlessly be seeking God out in our encounters with the hints of God’s existence – in creation and in our fellow human beings.

And that is why the ultimate proof that we love God is in how we love our fellow human beings. To know what this means, we have to look to the life that Jesus of Nazareth lived and try to follow that life as best we can. That is why both parts of the Great Commandment are joined in a kind of symbiosis. They aren’t opposed to each other.

Religiosity that is devoid of, or relegates to an inferior position, the love for human beings is a deception.