To Know, Love, and Serve

In the 1800s, our country was experiencing a tremendous influx of immigrants from all parts of Europe. Most of these people came from places like Ireland, Poland, Germany, and came in such great numbers that our country was faced with the problem of how to take care of such a great number of new people. Most of these immigrants settled in the northeastern part of the country and slowly made their way west. The normal problems of such a great number of new people also had a tremendous impact on the Catholic Church in America. The bishops of the country had to face this with a full range of meeting the needs of the new Americans.

So the bishops decided to hold meetings of all the American bishops to try to answer the many problems the growing new American population brought with them. The bishops met in the city of Baltimore on several occasions in the hope that they could minister to these millions of people. Among their concerns was “how do we provide a Catholic education for the very large number of European Catholics who immigrated here?” One of the products of their work was the formulation of an education tool called the “Baltimore Catechism.” Some of our readers here will remember this famous series of questions and answers aimed at helping the new and growing number of Catholics.

Among one of the first questions in the Catechism was “why did God make me?” The answer was, “God made me to know, love, and serve Him in this life so as to be happy with Him in the next.” When we think of the progression in this answer: KNOW – LOVE – SERVE, we can readily see how logical this is: You cannot SERVE someone you do not LOVE AND YOU CANNOT LOVE someone you do not KNOW. It just makes sense. So, I would like to point out the first of these: to KNOW. The more we know about God, the rest follows in loving Him and in serving Him. All three of these (know – love – serve) are built upon our life of prayer, our attendance at Mass, and our devotions (especially our devotion of Mary). And when we set our sights on reading and gaining knowledge of God through the Bible, God speaks to us and gives us direction in our lives. This is especially true when we do not know or are not sure about the future – all the more reason to desire to know more about this loving God Who sent to us His only begotten Son, through whom we gain even greater knowledge and understanding of Him.

God wants us to serve Him, and for sure, He desires that we love Him. But it all begins when we try to get to know Him. And while there are so many good authors and great saints whose writings help us, we should keep His Word, Sacred Scriptures, as the best place to start. May this new year be one of growing in the knowledge of Him, of falling in love with Him, and of a deepening of our desire to serve Him with our lives.