FROM THE DESK OF FR. FRANCIS KALAW, PAROCHIAL VICAR.....
The hardest and most challenging part of my life as a priest is not preparing and delivering my sermon but to live out every word I utter during the Holy Mass. Whenever I preach about mercy and forgiveness, then you would expect me to be merciful and forgiving. Witnessing is very important in our lives as Christians. He demands us to love constantly and consistently.
The focus of our readings this Sunday is all about love. The first reading from the book of Exodus, Moses reminds the Israelites not to be oppressive but compassionate. In the second reading, St. Paul appreciates the Thessalonians for their constant love of God and of the people of Macedonia and Achaia. In our Gospel Jesus speaks about the law of Moses in Deut. 6:5, You shall love the Lord your God, with all your hearts, with all your soul and with all your strength and he added Lev. 19:18, which says, you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.
This word love which is the summary of all the hundreds of rules memorized and observed by the Jews is very simple; easy to read and understand yet difficult to apply in our daily lives. We always talk about love; we demand love and command others to love. Yet, sometimes, if not most of the time, we refuse and are afraid to love because when we love God and our neighbors. It calls us to lessen the time for ourselves; or we need to let go of our comfort zones and give up what is precious to us. Loving God and others requires us to be self-forgetting and self-denying so that we have more time to attend to the needs of others.
Furthermore, both of these commandments are interrelated and complementary. We cannot separate love for God from the love for neighbor. Our generous donation to the church and other charitable institutions does not please God it if is obtained by illegal means. Our act of kindness to others may not be used to cover up our sins and silence our conscience. If we really are serving the church, make sure our obligations to our employees and subordinates are met justly.
On the other hand, love for our neighbor cannot last long without love for God. Without God’s grace, we can easily give up loving others who cause us pain, stress, frustrations and injustice.
The love of God for us is endless. He best expressed his love to the least, lost and last by his glorious crucifixion. His love is not self-centered but other-centered and he challenges us to do the same!