.Dear friends, here is my reflection for the 30th Sunday of the year. The theme is Love Divine. On my bookshelves there are many works on spirituality.
One of them is Saint Francis de Sales' Treatise on the Love of God, which is more than 500 pages long. Meditating on this weekend's Gospel, I asked myself how, in just 1,000 words, I could possibly begin to speak of our Lord's great commandment that we love God and neighbour. This is why I'm giving now the first of two reflections which I write, one for this Sunday and another for next Sunday, when we celebrate the Feast of All Saints.
When we speak or think about the love of God, what image comes into our minds? In my own case, there are two, the first being the image of the crucifix, where Christ, the guiltless one, shed the last drop of his precious blood for us and for our salvation. The second image is that of the sacred heart of Jesus, pierced through with the wound of the lance, crowned with thorns of human indifference, and yet burning with an inextinguishable blaze of fire for us. I would like to encourage you today, when reading or listening to this reflection, to keep in your mind's eye the first of those images, the image of Jesus Christ crucified.
The cross consists of two wooden beams, one upright, the longer of the two, the other horizontal, the shorter. To me, this image not only reflects the immeasurable love of God for us, but also our own response to our Lord's greatest commandment, to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and our neighbour as ourselves. The upright beam represents our own upward movement in love for God.
The horizontal beam stands for the outward motion of our love for humanity. This week I'm going to reflect a little on that upward beam. Loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind means recognising that God is not merely one part of our lives, but in fact their very origin, their purpose and their final end.
Christian love begins with the recognition of God's love coming, and then motivating us to offer our own lives to Him. St John tells us we love because He first loved us. The heart of prayer is not first of all our effort to reach heaven, but rather our willingness to open ourselves to the God who has already drawn close to us.
Loving God is for the whole person. Loving God with the heart means placing our deepest desires and affections in God's care. It does not mean that we must abandon our responsibilities or relationships or our ordinary joys, but it does mean allowing God to become the centre from which everything else is understood.
Our friendships, work, family life, hopes and struggles can all become places where divine love is both welcomed and expressed. To love God with a soul is to entrust our entire life to Him. I believe that there is a God-shaped gap in every human soul.
St Augustine wrote, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Our innermost being hungers for meaning, peace and communion. No material thing can satisfy this longing completely.
Success fades, possessions wear out, and human approval, well, that's as changeable as the weather. God, in contrast, trusts and stays ever faithful in moments of uncertainty when our faith teaches us to say, into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit. This surrender is not weakness.
It opens up a new horizon, freedom of knowing that we do not have to carry the whole weight of our human condition on our own. Loving God with the mind means seeking truth and allowing the gospel to shape our understanding. Our Catholic faith is not opposed to reason.
It invites us to think deeply, to ask honest questions, and to grow in wisdom. Loving God with the mind means examining the values that guide our choices, asking whether our decisions reflect Christ's mercy, justice, humility, and concern for the vulnerable. It also means resisting the temptation to let fear, prejudice, anger, or self-interest become the unquestioned masters of our thoughts.
Loving God with all our strength means making God visible in our actions. Prayer and devotion are essential, but love can never remain just an inward feeling. Love expresses itself in the choices we make, in the choice to persevere, to be generous, forgiving, and willing to serve.
Yes, one may feel tired, discouraged, or spiritually dry, and still love God faithfully by continuing to pray, being faithful to a promise, caring for someone in need, or choosing what is right even when no one is watching. These are the ways in which love becomes a daily offering, truly the gift of self, but more about that next week.
The Mass gives Catholics a privileged way to grow in this love. In the Eucharist, the Church remembers Christ's self-giving and receives Him as the living bread of life. We are drawn into the sacrifice of Jesus, who loved the Father completely and offered Himself for the salvation of the world.
The Eucharist teaches us that loving God is not a private achievement. It is a communion with Christ, with the Church, with all those whom Christ has gathered into his body. Loving God, however, does not mean that our lives will be plain sailing.
Jesus Himself experienced rejection, suffering, loneliness, and the agony of the cross. At times love may require persevering faithfulness in the midst of unanswered prayer or painful uncertainty. The believer may not always feel God's presence, but faith rests upon God's promise rather than our own changing emotions.
To remain with God during a season of darkness can be one of the most sincere forms of love. This upward movement towards God also changes the way we see the world. When we learn to adore the Creator, we begin to receive creation with gratitude rather than treating it merely as something to possess.
When we recognise that every human being is made in God's image, we become more attentive to the dignity of others. Love of God purifies our vision. It teaches us to see beyond appearances, status, usefulness, and difference.
In the end, loving God is a response to grace. We do not climb towards God by our own strength alone. God continually seeks us, calls us, forgives us, and gives us the grace to return.
Our task is to answer that invitation with trust. Each prayer, each act of gratitude, each moment of repentance, and each choice to live according to the gospel turns our hearts towards Him. Slowly, through ordinary faithfulness, love becomes the direction of our whole life.
We truly lift up our hearts to God. Amen.
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