“love ….with all your heart, your soul, and with your mind” Gospel of Matthew
These words from this Sunday’s gospel of Matthew are nice words that demand some sacrifice and hard work to make real.
Lydia is 83 and has been married to her husband, Herb, for more than 60 years! Today she is standing in the parking lot of a rest area off a rural New Mexico highway. "Did you see an older gentleman in a white pick-up truck?" she asks some folks standing nearby.
They did, and they tell her that he had driven off just a few minutes earlier. Lydia lets out a sigh of frustration. Herb has become so preoccupied with their trip that he has driven off without her from the rest area. She asks if she can borrow someone's cell phone so that she can call him, but when she calls their number a phone rings in her purse. Herb had given her his phone to hold on to during the drive.
Lydia grows worried, then anxious, then upset. How will she ever find him?
By now a crowd has started to gather. A couple of truckers offer to use their CB radios to put the word out to help locate Lydia’s husband. Someone invites her over to a picnic table for a cup of coffee while she waits.
An hour later, the white truck appears in the parking lot. Herb gets out in a panic. The two catch sight of each other and rush toward one another.
But just before they embrace, they stop just a few feet apart. Lydia looks at Herb. He stares back in silence. They just look at each other for what seems like forever. No words, just a ‘pause’.
Moments pass and then Herb begins to cry. He reaches for Lydia and hugs her. He tries to speak, but he is sobbing so hard he can't. She holds him and then takes his face in her hands. When their eyes meet, he says, “I am so sorry. I can’t believe I was so stupid. I was so afraid you wouldn’t be safe. I feel so bad for what I did!” Lydia, tells him she is fine and that everything is going to be all right. She continues to hold him until he finally regains his composure.
He explains that he was already on the highway when he realized he had left her behind. There was no place to turn around. He had to continue straight ahead until he reached an exit. By the time he had made his way back, he had driven almost 50 miles.
"It's OK now," Lydia says as she rubs his arm.
Whatever anger or anxiety she'd felt had disappeared. Something had happened during that ‘pause’ when their eyes met. Everything that was wrong was forgiven. All the anxiety, the worry, the fear was dispelled. All that mattered was they were together again.
To love with our whole heart and soul and mind, as this couple does, enables us to move beyond our own fears and hurts in order to forgive, to welcome back, to comfort and support.
This couple's love transcends the need to blame and criticize, to seek satisfaction in inflicting the same hurt on the other. How do you think you are doing in these unique days in following the great commandment of the Gospel: to love with the same selfless compassion, care and completeness our God has loved you? Maybe we all need a little ‘pause’ this week.
