Beloved friends in Christ,
Loving God and our neighbors is the fulfillment of all the commandments. The Old and New Testaments clearly show the centrality of keeping and observing God's commandments. God alone is the subject of our most profound display of love. The Jewish people said the shamai prayer daily, in the morning and the evening: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deut 6:4-5). Jesus reiterates this commandment and completes it by demanding the love of neighbor: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mk 12:31).
But what form of love is referred to in this scripture verse? What does it entail? Why is it mandatory to love God and others? We must answer these questions correctly to fulfill the law of love. The biblical koine Greek word translated as "love" in this passage is "agape." This form of love is divine in origin, a love that connects us to God in a unique way. It is a disinterested love that gives itself to the other only for the good of the other. When we say we love God, it differs in form from saying we love our spouses, parents, pets, or ice cream.
There are other words for love that describe our acts of love towards those subjects and realities. There is love that is classified as eros, storge, filia, filautia, xenia etc. To love God and neighbor is to do so unconditionally without considering what good we derive from it. We learn to love God and our neighbor from how God himself loves us: He loved us while we were unlovable when we were sinners, St. Paul says (fr. Rom 5:5). We were ugly and unattractive to love, yet God reached out to love us without placing a condition for doing so. His love is not a one-time act but a continuous, unchanging reality. It is who God is: God is love" (1 Jn 4). "HE LOVED US," Saint Paul says of Christ (cf. Rom 8:37), in order to make us realize that nothing can ever "separate us" from that love (Rom 8:39), wrote Pope Francis in his new enciclical letter.
In like manner, we are to love God with all the faculties and abilities we have received from him: heart, soul, mind, and strength. Nothing must be spared in loving God in any circumstances we find ourselves, good or bad. We must not allow anything to separate us from the love of God (see Rom 8: 35-38) because God alone deserves our uninterrupted self-giving and sacrifice. To love God in the way He demands entails giving our heart, soul, and body to him in worship. This is why, for instance, we are obligated to offer him sacrifices of prayers, especially the Holy Eucharist. To love God unconditionally, whether things are going well with us or not, is to strive to keep his word and do his will daily (Jn 14:3). We must always ask ourselves before we act if our actions are generated by love if they are in keeping with his word and will as taught us in the Bible and the doctrines of his church.
God mandates us to love our neighbor because it proves in deeds that we love God. If we don't love the human beings we see, how can we love God, whom we have not seen? (see 1 Jn 4: 20). There is no boundary or restriction on who we should direct our Christian love to. To love our neighbor- whether they love us or not, will determine how God will judge us on the last day. St. John of the Cross reminds us of this when he said, "At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love (CCC 1022).
To love is to be Christlike. We are Christians; our identity is love. Do we love as Jesus commands us? We must respond to this question with every deed we perform or carry out towards God or our neighbor.
November is dedicated to remembering and praying for souls in purgatory. As an indication of the love we have for our neighbors, including our brothers and sisters God has called home, please pray for the repose of their souls. The best way to pray for them is to offer the sacrifice of mass for the repose of their souls. It is a Catholic tradition to visit our loved ones' places of rest in the cemetery to pray for them. Please visit them in the graveyard and pray for them as an act of love. Requiem aeterna dona eis, Domine/Grant them eternal rest, O Lord.
Remember that our monthly adoration time is tomorrow, Monday, November 4. Since this is a vocation awareness week, we will have an adoration for vocation. We must not cease to cry to God for vocation to the priesthood and the consecrated life. Let us ensure we come out in large numbers to offer worship to our Eucharistic Lord.
Tuesday, November 5, is General election day! It is our civic duty to vote. The church taught us that we have a moral obligation to vote (CCC 2240) and to form our conscience in light of Christ and his church's teachings. May the Holy Spirit direct us, and may we have a peaceful, free and fair election.
In His Sacred Heart,
Fr. Bernard Alayode, OP
Loving God and our neighbors is the fulfillment of all the commandments. The Old and New Testaments clearly show the centrality of keeping and observing God's commandments. God alone is the subject of our most profound display of love. The Jewish people said the shamai prayer daily, in the morning and the evening: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deut 6:4-5). Jesus reiterates this commandment and completes it by demanding the love of neighbor: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mk 12:31).
But what form of love is referred to in this scripture verse? What does it entail? Why is it mandatory to love God and others? We must answer these questions correctly to fulfill the law of love. The biblical koine Greek word translated as "love" in this passage is "agape." This form of love is divine in origin, a love that connects us to God in a unique way. It is a disinterested love that gives itself to the other only for the good of the other. When we say we love God, it differs in form from saying we love our spouses, parents, pets, or ice cream.
There are other words for love that describe our acts of love towards those subjects and realities. There is love that is classified as eros, storge, filia, filautia, xenia etc. To love God and neighbor is to do so unconditionally without considering what good we derive from it. We learn to love God and our neighbor from how God himself loves us: He loved us while we were unlovable when we were sinners, St. Paul says (fr. Rom 5:5). We were ugly and unattractive to love, yet God reached out to love us without placing a condition for doing so. His love is not a one-time act but a continuous, unchanging reality. It is who God is: God is love" (1 Jn 4). "HE LOVED US," Saint Paul says of Christ (cf. Rom 8:37), in order to make us realize that nothing can ever "separate us" from that love (Rom 8:39), wrote Pope Francis in his new enciclical letter.
In like manner, we are to love God with all the faculties and abilities we have received from him: heart, soul, mind, and strength. Nothing must be spared in loving God in any circumstances we find ourselves, good or bad. We must not allow anything to separate us from the love of God (see Rom 8: 35-38) because God alone deserves our uninterrupted self-giving and sacrifice. To love God in the way He demands entails giving our heart, soul, and body to him in worship. This is why, for instance, we are obligated to offer him sacrifices of prayers, especially the Holy Eucharist. To love God unconditionally, whether things are going well with us or not, is to strive to keep his word and do his will daily (Jn 14:3). We must always ask ourselves before we act if our actions are generated by love if they are in keeping with his word and will as taught us in the Bible and the doctrines of his church.
God mandates us to love our neighbor because it proves in deeds that we love God. If we don't love the human beings we see, how can we love God, whom we have not seen? (see 1 Jn 4: 20). There is no boundary or restriction on who we should direct our Christian love to. To love our neighbor- whether they love us or not, will determine how God will judge us on the last day. St. John of the Cross reminds us of this when he said, "At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love (CCC 1022).
To love is to be Christlike. We are Christians; our identity is love. Do we love as Jesus commands us? We must respond to this question with every deed we perform or carry out towards God or our neighbor.
November is dedicated to remembering and praying for souls in purgatory. As an indication of the love we have for our neighbors, including our brothers and sisters God has called home, please pray for the repose of their souls. The best way to pray for them is to offer the sacrifice of mass for the repose of their souls. It is a Catholic tradition to visit our loved ones' places of rest in the cemetery to pray for them. Please visit them in the graveyard and pray for them as an act of love. Requiem aeterna dona eis, Domine/Grant them eternal rest, O Lord.
Remember that our monthly adoration time is tomorrow, Monday, November 4. Since this is a vocation awareness week, we will have an adoration for vocation. We must not cease to cry to God for vocation to the priesthood and the consecrated life. Let us ensure we come out in large numbers to offer worship to our Eucharistic Lord.
Tuesday, November 5, is General election day! It is our civic duty to vote. The church taught us that we have a moral obligation to vote (CCC 2240) and to form our conscience in light of Christ and his church's teachings. May the Holy Spirit direct us, and may we have a peaceful, free and fair election.
In His Sacred Heart,
Fr. Bernard Alayode, OP
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