I keep the commandments. Do I love God?

Many believers today still think that the measure of a successful Christian life is: I keep the commandments. And they were very meticulous in keeping the commandments. We hear something of this in the Gospels. Was there love too? Or was it just such a slavery to regulations? Slavery is not a relationship. It’s just putting up with some necessity, I don’t enjoy it at all, it gets on my nerves. Friendship, that’s different. That’s my choice. I get a kind of joy out of it, and I try to avoid the kind of things that are detrimental to friendship. And God calls us to move from the attitude of a slave to that of a friend and son in our relationship with him. Each of us can ask ourselves. What am I keeping these commandments for? I am afraid of hell, or I have to be, God is satisfied then.

God has given us the commandments so that through them, our friendship and our relationship will grow. God does not want us to be such slaves to sterile purity. God gave me the commandments for my better life. Jesus speaks plainly and harshly about the scribes. This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And the heart is the key. Do you want to measure your relationship with God? See how you are to people. Pure religiosity means having our eyes open to those who need us. What good is it if my hands are clean, but they are empty.

Relationship cannot be taught. But we can use the means to help us. Commandments, prayers, confessions, God does not need these. We require it. He gave it to us to sustain and strengthen our relationship with Him, but also with the people we live with. Confession, for example, allows us to return to God. If I am interested in returning to God I am grateful to God for the gift of confession, if I am not interested he ignores that gift. If I love the Lord of God, I go to Mass, because it is a time when I can meet with Him. Friends meet. They take time for each other. And they don’t look at their watch. If I love the Lord God, I want to tell him how I live, what I’m sorry about, what I’m glad about. If I love the Lord God, I know that the commandments are there for my happiness. They are not easy. The spiritual life is not about commandments, it is about relationship. God is a friend who has given us instructions. He calls us to freedom, not slavery. Even when I don’t understand everything, I know He wants me well. And that is why I accept his way. Let us strive to please Heavenly Father, with a thought, with a good deed