This question amounts to saying: how can we love God, because Jesus is, according to the Credo,
" God of God, Light, of Light, true God of true God."
In Gospel of Mark, a man asks Jesus:
"Which commandment is the first of all?"
Jesus answered, "The first is, `Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." (Mc 12 28-34).
In another passage of the Gospels Jesus said: " If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words " (Jn 14, 23-26).
What is the meaning of:
« he will keep my word»?
And what is this word?
St Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus wrote: " To keep the Word of Jesus, it is the only condition of our happyness, the proof of our love for Him. But what is this Word?... I think that the Word of Jesus, it is Himself... Him Jesus, the Word, the Word of God! (Jn 1,1). "
« He said to us further in the same Gospel of st John, when he is praying for his disciples: " Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. " (Jn 17, 17) ; and in an other place, Jesus learns us that he is the way, and the truth, and the life."
" So we know the Word that we have to keep; as Pilate, we don't ask Jesus, "What is truth"? We own the Truth. We keep Jesus in our hearts!..." (Letter to Céline, 7 july 1894).
To keep this Word and to live it is an demanding objective, because Jesus also said:
"He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; " (Mt 10,37).
What is the meaning of : " with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength?"
Instead of searching the precise sense of each word (heart, soul, mind, strength), all you have to understand that the Love' God concerns the all entire being, with all its faculties: feelings, thoughts, intelligence, desire to please to God, ...
Love of God and Love of the neighbor are linked
As wrote st John, " If any one says, " I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. » (1, 4, 20).
Jesus said indeed: " the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me " (Jn 16, 2).
It is not only happened at the time of Jesus, but also these days, wtih islamic fondamentalism, for example.
What do those words mean: " to love the neighbor? "
It means that we have to practise the golden rule : " So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." (Mt 7,12 ; Tb 4,15).
Is it possible?
The old Covenant already called to perfection:
" Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy." (Lv 19, 2)
and Jesus said:
" You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5,48).
It seemed impossible or, anyway, an ideal which can only to be reached in the next world. However, remind us this thought of St Augustine:
" Why this perfection would not be ordered to the men, although nobody obtained the perfection on his earth? People don't run properly, if they ignore to which way they have to run. Then how they would know it, if there was not precepts to show the way to them? »
A Luke' Gospel page well explains " How to love God "
" One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house, and took his place at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment [...]
Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much;." » (Lc 7, 36-50).
For this woman, perfection is reached, not as a performance worthy of admiration, but only because his heart is given at Jesus-Christ. Jesus is very important to her.