Hopefully you had a blessed week!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength…you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Those are the words of Jesus when one of the scribes asked Him which is the first of all commandments.
Jesus refers to two Biblical passages and joins them to form two faces of one supreme commandment of love. These are like the two beams that make up a cross: one points upward and one points sideward. For Jesus, these two dimensions together constitute what it means to be an authentic Christian.
How often people overstress the love of God. They want to shut other people out of their lives; they want to live for God alone. They think that people only disturb and keep them away from God. This kind of thinking is wrong. It is selfishness.
There are also people who do just the opposite. They are totally involved in helping people: the sick, the rascals, the poor, the drug addict, the people with problems and et cetera. They work all day and half the night helping others. They are so busy that they have no time to pray.
We cannot do God’s work without God! Jesus in today’s gospel said to us clearly: “Love God and love your neighbor.” One saint put this new commandment in this way: “We should fold our hands in prayer in church and then we should open our hands to others outside of the church.” We cannot love without loving people. We cannot love people without loving God.
How can we apply this new commandment of love into our lives? There is a chapter in the book entitled Loving Each Other – The Challenge of Human Relationships authored by Leo Buscaglia that lists suggestions from the participants in a survey on how to make relationships work. Love is a kind of relationship too. Some people call these suggestions the Ten Commandments of Love. Here are the lists to help us in our love relationships.
- Take your time. A love relationship is not built overnight, so be patient and take your time.
- Don’t smother each other. Give them space and allow them to move. Don’t let them feel that they are required to spend every waking hour with you.
- Don’t brood. Stop self-pity and self-blaming. It is because we are not as bad as we think.
- Exercise feelings. Feelings have meaning only as they are expressed in action.
- Forming a relationship takes a lot of looking. But looking can be fun. Grow up together constantly.
- Don’t be afraid. Stop all worry. Most of what you are worried about you’ll have difficulty remembering a week later.
- Learn to listen. You don’t learn anything from hearing yourself talk. See all criticism as positive. Anyway, you are always free to reject it if it is unfair or does not apply.
- don’t lose touch with the craziness in you. Keep the child in you alive and playing. Keep laughing. It exercises your heart and protects you from cardiac problems.
- Don’t be afraid of disagreements and arguments. The only people who do not argue are people who Don’t care or are dead. After an argument is over, forget it. Learn to bend. Don’t hold on to anger, hurt and pain. They steal your energy and keep you from love.
Stop playing games. Relationships are not sporting events. Stop wrestling for control.
Be blessed, be holy, and be loving!
P. S. On Monday we begin the month of November in a special way dedicated to those who died. Come and celebrate with us:
All Saints Day – November 1st – holiness is for everyone! Mass: 9 am and 7 pm
All Souls Day – November 2nd – “Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord…” Remembrance Mass: 7 pm
Please do not forget about First Friday, Mass 9 am, with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament afterwards, and First Saturday, Mass 9 am, and the rosary following.
Happy November to you all!
Fr. Tom