Weekly Reflection from CMMB 10/26/14

Your Weekly Reflection 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time “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 yourself.” Mark 12:30–31 Do we see (as Jesus suggests and hopes) that the two great commandments—to love God and neighbor—can be distinguished but not separated? We dare not think that on Sunday we love God, and on Monday we love the neighbor. Rather, we should see and realize that every act of love of neighbor is also an act of love of God. So, too, from loving God, we are pushed and directed to love our neighbor. The letter of John expresses this clearly. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20–21). St. Teresa of Avila, whose feast we celebrated recently, was a no-nonsense, down-to-earth woman. She thus once wrote: “We cannot know whether we love God, although there may be strong reasons for thinking so. But there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbor or not.” Rev. Peter Schineller, S.J. CMMB Board of Directors Share Tweet Forward O God, fountain of love, pour Your love into our souls, that we may love those whom You love with the love You give us, and think and speak with the love You give us, and think and speak of others tenderly, meekly, lovingly. And so loving our brothers and sisters for Your sake, may we grow in Your love and, dwelling in Your love, may we dwell in You. Our mailing address is: CMMB 10 West 17th Street New York, NY 10011