Loving the Lord means accepting his commandments and keeping them. “Commandments” in Greek is entolai, a term built with the stem of the verb tello (put) preceded by the preposition en (inside). The commandment is a word that God puts within us, so that we protect it by making it the root of our life, of its attitudes, of its gestures, of its words. That of God is not a commandment imposed from above, to be observed; it is a word put inside, to be kept, so that it will keep us in love. If by accepting it we guard it, it will manifest and mature the love of the Father within us, which will enable us to love as we are loved. In this way a virtuous circle is triggered: the more we love God, the more he will manifest himself to us and we will be able to know him; the more we get to know him, the more we will feel loved by him and we will be able to love him and love each other. This is also the dynamism of the Spirit who remains with us “forever”. We can understand better: that it remains with us “until eternal fulfillment”. The presence of the Spirit in us not only ensures us a chronological duration but a fulfillment and a fullness: he remains with us to fulfill all the promises of God. Here is the hope we must give reason for, not in words, but with sweetness and the respect that comes from a life that knows how to love.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey