March 28, 2014 Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12:28b-34. One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, Which is the first of all the commandments? Jesus replied, The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. The scribe said to him, Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that (he) answered with understanding, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And no one dared to ask him any more questions. Friday of the Third week of Lent Commentary of the day Saint Anthony of Padua (c.1195-1231), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church Sermons for Sundays and feast days You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart “You shall love the Lord your God.” Your God is what is said and this is a reason for loving him even more, for we love what is our own more than what is not ours. It is certainly the case that the Lord your God is worthy of being loved. He became your servant so that you might belong to him and not be ashamed of serving him... Your God became your servant for thirty whole years because of your sins, to snatch you away from slavery to the devil. Therefore you shall love the Lord your God. He who made you became your servant on your account; he has been wholly given to you that you might be given to yourself. When you were miserable he restored your happiness, giving himself to you to bring you back to yourself. And so you shall love the Lord your God “with all your heart”. All: you may not keep any part of yourself for yourself. He desires an offering of the whole of yourself. He wholly bought you with all of himself that he alone might possess you, the whole of you. Therefore you will love the Lord your God with all your heart. Dont, like Ananias and Sapphira, keep part of yourself for yourself for then you will perish as they did (Acts 5,1ff.). Love wholly, then, not in part. For God has no parts but exists wholly in every part. He wants no share in your being who is wholly in his own Being. If you keep back a part of yourself then you belong to yourself and not to him. Do you want to possess everything, then? Give him what you are and he will give you what he is. You will have nothing more of yourself, but you will have all of him together with all yourself.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 00:37:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015