October 25
Weekend Bulletin
Children’s Bulletin
Parish Bazaar Volunteer
Parish Bazaar Bake Sale Baker
Raffle Tickets for Chest
Totally Catholic Jewelry
Deacon’s Digest
That love your neighbor command…
Love your neighbor - just what is that supposed to mean? To adequately answer the question, we need to define the verb and noun: 1. What is love? First - what is NOT love? In the context of Jesus’ remarks, love is not a gooey feeling or an infatuation. It is not so much an attraction to another or (maybe) not even a friendship. This love He speaks of is Agape - the total gift of self for the good of the other. It is a gift of service and sacrifice while expecting absolutely nothing in return. 2. Who is “neighbor”? Once again, the neighbor is NOT just the people who live by me or have a cubicle near mine at work. Regardless of their religion, country of origin, skin color, male or female, or any other distinction highlighted to eliminate a person from our neighborhood. A neighbor is ANY other person in the world. A great way to think about that is Jesus’ description of neighbor in Luke’s Gospel in the parable of the Good Samaritan. And so we love our neighbor in the context of the definitions above. But how? Loving our neighbor is a difficult thing to do when there are persons or groups who we are not particularly fond of. They may be of a different political party, perhaps they are Muslim or some other religion, maybe they are immigrants and we don’t know their “status” or what if they are poor and we figure it’s their fault anyway. In today’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t give us any way out. He says we must love our neighbor as ourselves. To love our neighbor, we need to have a healthy love of self. Love of self cannot be a selfish one, an arrogant or aloof one, or one with a lot of false humility or damaged self-esteem. WE need to be healthy in our self-image so that we can see others rightly - as beloved sons and daughters of a good and loving Father. We start by realizing that we are loved. God loves you. Unconditionally. Totally. Freely. God loves you the same as he loves every other person - no more and no less. We keep this knowledge of God’s love for us in the forefront of our minds and the fullness of our hearts by doing what Jesus says in the first part of his answer to the lawyer: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and with all your mind - this is the first and greatest commandment.” God is love and is the source of ALL true love in the world. If we are tapped into that wellspring by our love of God, then loving neighbor comes to us more naturally. Indeed, it has been said that the measure of our love for God is shown by the person we love the least (or hate the most). Do you love God the way Jesus commands? Do you love your neighbor in ways that cause you to work for their good without expecting payment or credit? That, as Jesus says, is the foundation for ALL of the commandments and ALL of the prophets. Start this week by doing something unexpected for the person that would least expect kindness or a loving act of service from you. The importance of prayer in our lives is seen in the scriptures for this weekend. In multiple ways, Jesus mentors us in that importance in so many ways. I love the response of people asking for prayers when I say I will keep you in my prayers. I believe if we don’t say that at least once every day, we are failing God and others. Finally, I ask you: how is your prayer life? That question is the first thing my spiritual director asks when I meet with her once a month. She always tells me that everything in my life should either flow from prayer or leads me into prayer. Praying is one of the most important tools we have to meet the needs of our life and to help prepare us for the life to come. My family has faithfully reminded me of the importance of praying for those who have died. We often use to stop at the graves of those of our family to say a prayer. My parents taught us when we were leaving the cemetery to say a concluding prayer for all those buried there. So I ask you: do you have hearts of gratitude? Do you have the lives of loving service? And how is your prayer life? These questions should be asked every day. These are important keys to a life with God!