30 Sun A "love God" not so easy...

Following Mt 22.34-40 we get the message: for Jesus the FIRST commandment
is "love the Lord your God with heart + soul + mind".
At first, it looks quite simple... and some people feel: it's sure: I love God  (???)
The jewish people got "JAHWE" as a gift and this people saw how JAHWE has
guided his people and cared for his people and how he sent redemption
(in a good way written in the Bible).
Such a God is very good for the people and to love such a God is healty and
understandable (for the single person as for the people as such).

Today  (also in 2014) the recommendation "love God" is much harder.
Inbetween we got the distinction between
a) the real MYSTERY of God
b) the ideas or pictures or imaginations we got about God 
   (the story of the religions in the world shows this art of God-making)
c) the constructor of these wonderful or terrible imaginations about God. 
Today we know: the culture and our brains etc... are busy constructing the pictures, the ideas of God. The language has an indicating symbol "God" -
but "God as such" is total a MYSTERY (unrecognisable).
And here now the field of difficulties widens. Do you love your picture of God or
the unknown MYSTERY of God ???  Do you communicate with the God you know (picture) or with the real God (you cannot imagine) ???  Do you love the revealing God  - but you have forgotten that what is revealed is a cultural act.
What humans see is a human-god, what lions see is a lion-god.

Because of these and such difficulties Jesus has a solution: "love your neighbour".
It's easier or better: it's more real. But pay attention again ! There is also a difference between your real neighbour (could be your friend)  and the picture you have about your neighbour (friend / wife etc...)
The way to discover the reality is steep - and to love what we like (pictures) is easier as to love the reality (the real person).
This GOSPEL may be a reminder that we are on the way to learn the skill of love and by the way: LOVE is less about receiving than about giving.