“So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. …Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt…”
Deuteronomy 10:12-22, Friday Lent One, Morning Prayer, the Daily Office Book, Year One
Truly our God is the God of compassion who hopes for us to find through the difficulties of life the power of love. To love God by loving ourselves enough to risk loving the poor and strangers, is to reveal the joy of compassion. Care for the sick, the poor “orphans and widows” and “the strangers”, the aliens, even the “illegal” ones, who reside inside our borders. Likewise for all of these aspects which reside in you. Do these and come into the joy of realizing God’s compassion with your compassion.
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