Day 121: Irreligiosity
Some days I suffer from irreligiosity. I know people who would say that’s not “suffering”; just the opposite. But even on my irreligious days, I don’t feel that way. Every day, I know the arguments for religion (or for my religion), and the arguments against it. That doesn’t change. All that changes is faith.
On those days, I still go to Mass and I still pray. I do so partly out of expectation and out of habit.
Mostly, though, I do so out of humility. On my least religious days, I still concede that I know nothing. (In fact, on my least religious days, I concede this most of all.) For that reason alone, I might as well get on my knees.
I heard the Gospel reading today, Matthew 22:34-40:
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."