Let us love one another

 

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.