Last Sunday’s readings show the continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that Faith works through love.
In the First Reading we hear the First Commandment: You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. The Jews would repeat this Commandment twice per day in their morning and evening prayers.
In the Second Reading from Hebrews reminds us that without Our Lord, we are nothing. But Jesus triumphed over human mortality. God has unconditional love for us, He just desires that we obey Him and love Him back.
In the Gospel, a Scribe was impressed by Our Lord’s responses to the Sadducees and he was moved to ask Jesus:
Which is the first of all the Commandments?
Jesus seeing his sincerity responded:
God is the One Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
The second is:
You must love your neighbour as yourself.
The Scribe reflected on the words of Jesus, repeating them. Then Jesus encourages him saying:
You are not far from the Kingdom of God.
The Commandments are all summed up by love and our prayer and works of charity prove our love for God.
This reminds me of the story of a holy Nun who was caring for a terribly ill patient. The sick man was a leper, and the leprosy was well advanced and there was a putrid smell of rotting flesh. But the nun attended to the patient with great gentleness and kindness. It was as if she didn’t notice his external appearance and the smell. A visitor to the hospital stood and watched for a few moments. When the nun had finished; the visitor went up to her with a grimace of disgust and said:
Sister, I wouldn’t do what you just did for a million dollars.
The nun smiled and said:
Neither would I.
True love for our neighbour can’t be based on how much we like our neighbour or how much we can get from our neighbour. This will never lead to Christ-like love. True love for neighbour can only come from the First Commandment. That is a true love for God in whose image our neighbour is created.
The quickest and surest way though to grow in love for God and neighbour is to live in the Divine Will. It begins with one’s desire for God’s Will to reign them. Then God gently purifies us of self-love. When all selfishness and self-will are annihilated, we arrive at perfect peace. There is now room for God to reign in your heart with His Will. The gift of the Divine Will is the greatest of all gifts. This is the gift which Adam and Even lost in the Fall. Through the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, Jesus is restoring this gift in our day. When we live in the Divine Will be begin even now, to live our Heaven upon the earth. In living in the Divine Will we become more in tune with creation and grow in our appreciation of Christ’s Real Presence with us in the Eucharist and all the Sacraments. We also become more focussed in prayer, for example, in the Holy Rosary and other prayers. We are strongly encouraged to do daily spiriting reading. In addition to the Scriptures, the Book of Heaven is strongly recommended. During November the Church encourages us to pray especially for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. They can no longer merit, so they desperately need our prayers. Although they can’t pray for themselves, they can pray and offer their sufferings for us. It is a great act of charity to pray for the dead. We need to also remember that through acts of charity we can make atonement for our past sins. Let’s strive to be holy and remember to show our love for neighbour by praying and having Masses offered for the dead during this month of the Holy Souls. Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever.