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Being Like God

U. S. A. | SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

August 21, 2015. Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope

By Father José LaBoy, LC

Matthew 22: 34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them a scholar of the law tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.

Introductory Prayer: Dear Lord, I believe in you, because you have a plan for me that will bring me to be like you. I hope in you, because your example and your grace give me the strength to be able to identify my will with yours. I love you, because only by loving you can I be transformed into you and be holy.

Petition: Give me, Lord, the grace to practice charity faithfully.

Wanting What God Wants: What is true love? Quoting the Roman historian, Sallust, Pope-Emeritus Benedict shows us what the authentic content of love is: “To want the same thing, and to reject the same thing was recognized by antiquity as the authentic content of love: the one becomes similar to the other, and this leads to community of will and thought” ( Deus Caritas Est , 17). This quote helps us understand that to love is to identify our will with God’s will. This leads us to be like God. This fact corrects the error of our first parents who disobeyed God.

Love Has Two Dimensions: True love has two dimensions: love for God and love for our neighbor. The first epistle of John, known as the “Magna Carta” of charity, expresses frequently and clearly the close relationship between them. One cannot exist without the other: “No one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10); “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God” (1 John 4:7); “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another” (1 John 4:11); “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21).

Loving Others: Loving God requires loving others. This is not easy, especially in a world that highly esteems individualism and permits stepping on others to get ahead. If loving others according to the Old Testament requirement, “as you love yourself” is difficult, we can imagine how difficult it is to love others according to Christ’s requirement, “as I have loved you” (cf. John 13:34), which is a true Christian’s hallmark: “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). How many times do we judge only from appearances, or judge people only by their physical traits or defects? It’s so easy to comment on peoples’ defects, imperfections, and ways of acting; yet, it is so difficult to praise constantly what is positive in them. One of the best ways to love our neighbor is to seek charity in speech.

Conversation with Christ: Dear Jesus, give me the grace to love others with all my effort and good will. I want to contemplate you, Lord, so that I may learn from you how to love them to the point of giving my life for them.

Resolution: I will practice charity towards others in a very concrete way.

Homily of the Day

August 21, 2015

The Ten Commandments give us prescriptions in our relationships with God and our neighbor: honoring God, his name and his day and respecting ourselves and our neighbor, honoring our parents, respecting life, property, truth and rights of others.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus summarizes the Commandments in love of God and love of neighbor.

We have various “formulations” of the same Commandments and the moral law: “Do good and avoid evil” would probably be the most general. One who loves God and neighbor is one who does good and avoids evil. The primary dictate of our consciences is to do good and avoid evil.

St. Augustine wrote, “Love God and do whatever you please, for a soul trained in love of God will do nothing to offend the One who is the Beloved.”

In his letters St. John the beloved Apostle stressed love of God: “If you say, ‘I love God,’ while you hate your brother or sister, you are a liar. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do no love your brother whom you see? We received from him this commandment: let those who love God also love their brothers.” (1 Jn 4: 20)

Jesus gave a most graphic description of love of God in his account of the Last Judgment in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 25: 31 – 46): “The King will say to those on his right: ‘Come, blessed of my Father! Take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me . . . I was naked and you clothed . . .’ the good people will ask him: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food . . . or naked and clothe you?’ . . . The King will answer, ‘Truly, I say to you: whenever you did this to these little ones who are my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.'”

Do I love God such that I could do as I please?