Oneness

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Daily Reading: Mark 12:28 – 34

Focus Passage:
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mk. 12:28 – 31)

The foundation of life with God is the experience of God’s Oneness and the experience of God’s love. These are non-negotiables, the foundation on which the rest of life relies.

Christian spirituality has long held that the end of the spiritual life is Oneness. We are invited into a deeper union with God, which brings us into a new relationship with self, others, and the world.

A human experience of union with God sounds like heresy to some Christians. Jesus insisted, though, that God’s essential nature is Oneness. And Jesus prayed that his followers would experience Oneness as he was one with God the Father (Jn. 17:11, 22).

It is not enough, though, to understand God’s Oneness conceptually. We are invited to live in God’s Oneness, to experience it at ever-deeper levels of our souls.

God’s Oneness means is no division. It suggests that tensions and extremes which seem to be at odds are actually held in creative unity by God’s mystery. God’s unity coheres all things.

Humans are invited into God’s Oneness as an expression of the image of God within us. As persons created by and for God, we are made for this union. And within our souls, we already experience this unity, even if we are unaware of it.

Further, God’s presence in our world is characterized by love. God’s love reaches toward us; thus, we are created to love God completely and to love others with a God-like love.

In fact, our Oneness with God is most complete when we live in love, when we give ourselves to the gratuitous expenditure of love.

The person who steps toward this Oneness with God, living in generous love, moves more deeply into the “kingdom of God.” The kingdom is “not far” from such a person. They have an ongoing experience of this kingdom’s domain, the realm of love. They have access to the wealth of wisdom found in deep connection with God and extravagant love.


For Reflection:
Reflect today on Oneness. What is your experience, even if fleeting, of this Oneness?

Meditate on Oneness as God’s design for you, others, and the entire created world.



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