April 5, 2011Dear Family of Mary!
In this message Our Lady tells us that she wants us to comprehend "that love is the way by which you must set out - love for God and for your neighbor." Today I wish to share something that Fr. Slavko Barbaric wrote about love. It is from his book on Confession, Give Me Your Wounded Heart. Fr. Slavko was in Our Lady's school for many years and he was able to distill the essence of her messages. He speaks with Our Lady's gentleness and deep wisdom. We do need to comprehend, to understand with our hearts, that love is our only way. "Often I have struggled with the question, 'What is the greatest sin?' I have asked others this question. I have searched through Holy Scripture. On different occasions, I have discovered different answers. Finally, I think I have found the correct answer. You see, deeds of darkness are only the end result. The cause is much more difficult and subtle to diagnose. We can never remove the consequences if we do not first remove the cause. Now, what I want to tell you is this: All sins are really nothing more than the result of a lack of love. And all the problems in which we find ourselves are caused by a lack of love. Where love is missing, the doors are open wide to evil and to sin. All wars, all family and personal conflicts, all deficiencies, all injustices, murders, abortions, all of them are the consequence of a lack of love for life and for the Giver of Life, the Creator of all. Therefore, the absence of love is the greatest sin. "Not even hatred is as dangerous as the absence of love. While hatred can temporarily overcome love, if love is present it will eventually cleanse and heal. But when love is absent there is no hope that things will be eventually healed. Then, the doors to every possible evil open wider and wider. If we look for a comparison, we could say that it is much more serious to be without light and not even want to find the light, than to be temporarily in darkness. God breathed into man's heart not only the gift of love, but also the deep desire to be loved and to be accepted by others. None of us is indifferent to whether others like us or dislike us. "In Baptism, we were given the divine seeds of faith, hope, and love as gifts. Through Baptism, God prepares the soil so that these seeds can grow and develop. When these seeds mature, when we cultivate their growth and development, we become the image and likeness of the Father. If we are not committed to doing this, then love, faith and hope are left only as seeds and the talent remains wrapped up and hidden, not necessarily destroyed but unused. "When we fail to cultivate love, we commit the first fundamental sin, which is the starting point for all other sins, all troubles and all destruction! If we are not working every day to cultivate our love, then spiritual death is already present and with it will come all other evils. "Nothing is more essential for man than to be committed to growing in love. With this commitment, he will do everything possible to develop love toward himself, toward God, toward his neighbor, and toward all creatures. This love will make him strong, and he will eventually stop living according to the standards of the world. On the other hand, as long as love is dependent on being loved in return, it is immature love. As long as we calculate whether or not to return love in the same measure we have received it, or if we say, 'If I am not loved then I am not going to love,' then our love is conditional. Then our love is no different from the love of pagans who know how to love those who love them and lend to those from whom they hope to receive in return. However, when we are committed to love and determined to do everything to make our love steadfast, then we become capable of th
e most beautiful acts in the world and we learn the only right and effective way to defeat death and destruction - which means we learn how to defeat sin. "With this kind of love, it is not hard to imagine all wars coming to an end, the hungry having food, the sick being treated with dignity, the rejected having someone to accept them, the persecuted being honored with freedom, the sad becoming joyful, and the wounded becoming cured and healthy. Only love can accomplish this. If we are not convinced of this now, and do not even dare to dream such a dream, it is only a sign that we have not understood what love can accomplish. It is the same love that has been poured out into our hearts, as Saint Paul teaches in Romans 5:5. Without love, all interior and exterior pains will overcome man and destroy him. And the greatest threat to love is sin, because regardless of the kind of sin, its presence always chokes love in the heart." (Fr. Slavko Barbaric. Give Me Your Wounded Hearts. p. 27-30) The love Fr. Slavko is talking about is God's love. We can't make it ourselves; we can only cooperate with it, as it works in our hearts. As Our Lady said, "That is, my children, the love that has no boundaries; that is the love that emanates from truth and goes to the end."The love that comes from God, is of God and goes back to God is the love we need to allow to grow in our hearts. It has no boundaries, and so it will enlarge our hearts beyond all we could have imagined! In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
www.marytv.tv
Posted via email from deaconjohn's posterous
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