Autor: Gustavo Rizzo

Today we do not understand, just as the apostles also did not understand, and for that reason we drift away from faith. That is why I do what I do, because I never accepted blind faith; I always needed to understand, I always needed to seek answers, I always challenged what I saw, heard, and felt.

It was not easy to understand, and I know that, before the reality of things, I understand nothing. Yet I know that the understanding I had, the reflections I undertook, the conclusions, and the example that this has brought into my life may help those who also seek the same thing I seek: the truth.

I hope that my reflections may contribute to someone changing their life, attaining a state of spirit of greater peace, gratitude, joy, and love.

God, generous in love, of infinite mercy. All that we seek, all that we want, is to be happy, but, in our ignorance, we wander through so many places, seeking a happiness that is often only temporary. We all want the same thing and, with time, all of us will understand how to attain this happiness within ourselves. We may seek the answers in every place and learn many things, but all truth converges toward what Christ taught us: to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In this is the whole law.

We Christians believe in the resurrection of Christ, but few truly understand and comprehend, in depth, what was taught by Christ. We hear that God is love, that we must love God, that we must love our neighbor, but we treat this only as a commandment, a teaching, and we do not understand it, and we continue living life, valuing and giving more value to material things, to the things of this world, than to God. When Jesus says that we must love God above all things, the Prince of Peace, the Christ consciousness, teaches us how to reach the kingdom of God and find eternal life.

And this teaching is clear in saying that God must be the highest priority in your life, must be the central value of your being. Our values dictate all our behaviors, all our way of thinking, of seeing the world, and, when you accept Jesus in a superficial way, unconsciously, merely saying words without understanding their depth, merely out of fear, convenience, or social custom, that does not save you. Because, at times, we say words that are not in coherence with our thoughts, feelings, and actions. You do not need good works to be saved, but rather, truly, in body, soul, and spirit, to place God as the central value in your life. After that, good works are a reflection of what you first changed within and not without. To love God above all things is to value Him above everything. When you value something above everything, you will seek it every day.

There is nothing more important than our relationship with God; there should be nothing more important than that. Each one of us has different values, principles, and philosophies of life, and, many times, each human being values different things, but Jesus, in declaring the first commandment, showed us what our greatest value must be, our highest priority, that which we ought to value above all things.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” — Matthew 22:37–38

It is impossible not to love God after understanding how real He is and how much He loves us. There is no greater love; He loves us infinitely, as a true father loves his children. It is indescribable.

Today I take this further step in recognizing a new change, one that I know will make all the difference in my life, from this day forward and forever. I recognize that to love God above all things is my supreme value.

Each day I perceive this and believe in it much more.

I am infinitely grateful to the Lord and to all the angels of light who brought me to where I have arrived. I am not able to describe the transformation that they have allowed within me. I am no longer the same. I died, but I was reborn. I was renewed.

All my perceptions, beliefs, ways of seeing the world, spirituality, life, others, and myself—everything has changed so much and so completely.

I believe that I am beginning to love myself: truly to accept that I need nothing in order to be happy. I need nothing. I have the Lord, and He is enough for me. And I shall always seek to love Thee with all my strength. Jesus, I love Thee; what Thou hast done echoes even to this day in our hearts. I love Thee greatly and desire always to have Thee in my heart, always to remember Thee in my thoughts and to live in Thy presence. Thy love transforms me, each day, into a better person, more forbearing, calmer, and with far greater peace. It is in the trust I have in Thee that I find all the peace within my being. I feel peace, I am at peace. Thank Thee, Jesus, for having answered my prayer.

Thank Thee, my God, for everything in my life. Today I come unto Thee because my promise was not in vain. I desire to love Thee above all things, I desire to place Thee first, I desire to value Thee and our relationship above each and every human value. I desire to be able to say, with sincere honesty, that there is nothing more important than God in my life.

Jesus, as a person, as a man, in His human part, was our neighbor. He told us that the greatest commandment was to love God above all things, and the second commandment was to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

Jesus, as man, was our neighbor; He made Himself equal to human life and became human. If He was our neighbor, He loved people in the same way that He loved Himself. Jesus loved His neighbor and valued the life of each person; this means that He also valued His own life. Just as He would not give anyone over to sacrifice, neither would He sacrifice Himself. And He did not want to; He asked God to take the cup away.

The One who allowed the sacrifice of Christ was God. The cross does not represent Jesus’ love for the world; rather, the cross represents God’s love for the world and Jesus’ love for God. Jesus not only revealed the law; He lived it to its utmost: He loved God in such a way that He gave His life for Him.

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” — Matthew 22:36–40

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” — John 3:16