Posted on 03/12/2021 8:41:53 AM PST by MurphsLaw
THIRD WEEK OF LENT
MARK 12:28–34
Friends, in today’s Gospel, the Lord says that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.
Love is not primarily a feeling or an instinct; rather, it is the act of willing the good of the other as other. It is radical self-gift, living for the sake of the other. To be kind to someone so that he might be kind to you, or to treat a fellow human being justly so that he, in turn, might treat you with justice, is not to love, for such moves are tantamount to indirect self-interest.
Truly to love is to move outside of the black hole of one’s egotism, to resist the centripetal force that compels one to assume the attitude of self-protection. But this means that love is rightly described as a "theological virtue," for it represents a participation in the love that God is.
Since God has no needs, only God can utterly exist for the sake of the other. All of the great masters of the Christian spiritual tradition saw that we are able to love only inasmuch as we have received, as a grace, a share in the very life, energy, and nature of God.
Reflect: Examine how you love others, searching out any move to indirect self-interest that may exist. How can you make sure your love "wills the good of the other"?
There are five auxiliary bishops of Los Angeles. Why won't you identify the heretic?
Satan knows scripture also.
The Cancel culture mob lurks everywhere....
So is the Great Reset mob, and Barron and Bergoglio are part of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.