Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB
As we
come to the close to the end of the Church year, the gospel readings that we’ve
been hearing have been focusing more so on the end times when the Lord will
come back in all his glory. The Lord in today’s gospel tells us, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.” (Luke 17:33) What the
Lord is calling us to do here is to remain focused on love and service of God.
We are to place our whole life into the loving hands of God.
Further,
we are not to make worldly things more important than that of our service and
love of God. There will always be things that happen in the world that will
take our focus away from God’s presence in our lives. There will always be
wars, there will always be crime and poverty in our country and around the
world, and there will always be political debates that divide us as we recently
heard with the hatred and attacks going back and forth between the candidates
and their followers. These are things that the Lord is not pleased to see and
hear. It is in these political fights that takes our focus from the love God has
for all of us.
In our
first reading, Saint John is teaching us something that the Lord Jesus Christ
has always emphasized: Let us love one another. (2 John 1:5) John goes on to say that we
need to “walk according to the commandments.” (2 John 1:6) As Jesus has always pointed out,
the commandments are broken down very simply: Love God with your whole mind,
heart and soul; and love your neighbor as yourself. Loving our neighbors is not
always an easy thing to do, especially when we allow political bickering to
interfere with our love for each other. By living out our lives with the love of God
and love of neighbor, we will then have nothing to worry about when the time
comes for the Lord’s return whenever that may be. The Lord will see our love of
God and love of neighbor and bring us to the glories of heaven.
As we
approach the Blessed Sacrament, let us put aside all hatred and animosity that
we may have towards other people, and ask the Lord to help us to love all people as He loves us.
From Arlene B. Muller
ReplyDeleteAmen. It is important that even though we may need to be passionately in support of the pro-life cause & other causes in line with Catholic & Biblical teaching, we must not let our strong position & defense of an issue result in a lack of respect or lack of charity toward anyone & to be careful that when we attack ideas we do not attack persons. Not easy sometimes.
But first & foremost we have our citizenship in heaven & regardless of whoever is in political power here on earth, JESUS CHRIST is LORD & KING & His Commandments, especially His two great Commandments to love Him & to love our neighbor transcend any rule of law and/or earthly authority. To the extent that it is possible to obey earthly laws without disobeying GOD we must do so, & we must respect & be charitable toward our political leaders, even those with whom we passionately disagree. And we must prioritize loving & serving GOD & people & living for Our LORD in every area & circumstance of our lives.