Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Rather Feared than Loved

Friends, in today’s Gospel, some Pharisees challenge Jesus to answer which commandment of the Law is the greatest.
Jesus responds that every power, every capacity in us must be given over to the love of God.
But what exactly does it mean to love God?

St. Bernard of Clairvaux is helpful here.
He said that the goal of the spiritual life is to love God alone,
for the sake of God alone.
Obviously, there are many things that compete for the love of God alone—
money, sex, power, pleasure.
But what Bernard saw is that even if God alone is the center of my life,
I still might not be truly loving him for his sake alone.
I might be using him.

He makes a helpful little distinction.
He says that a slave has a kind of love for his master,
but it is not truly love, for it is much more like fear.
This can be very helpfully applied to the spiritual life.
Many people who claim they love God really fear him.
What might he do to me?
If I don’t do the right things, I will be punished.
Such attitudes are a long way from love.

+++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.”+++

“He says that a slave has a kind of love for his master,
but it is not truly love, for it is much more like fear.”

That is not true at all. God’s Love is so powerful that it casts out all fear. When I am filled with God’s pure Love, someone could put a gun to my head and tell me they are going to kill me, and I could only feel Love for them. God’s Love is that powerful, it is beyond words of description.

The Bible is accurate..

“1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

After leaving Heaven to return to my physical body, it felt like my heart had been ripped out. I just wanted to die again to be with God and experience His pure Love again. I welcome death daily to be with Him again.

But God told me to Love everyone here on earth as He Loves me. “It’s not the same” I replied, “these people are jerks.” “Love them anyway” God replied, “as I have Loved you.”

I Love God so much, I am here as His servant. I serve Him, and when it is His Will, I will die and be with Him. Each day I pray that it is my day to die again and be with Him with total awareness.

🙏🙏🙏

“Many people who claim they love God really fear him.
What might he do to me?
If I don’t do the right things, I will be punished.
Such attitudes are a long way from love.”

Very true.

When I spent time in a Benedictine Monastery, about a third of the brothers had the back door to their hearts closed. They felt that they had to “earn” God’s Love.

It doesn’t work that way. God’s Love is unconditional. In fact God tends to select the biggest screw ups for His most important work. Look at Moses, or Saul, or Peter! All major screw ups!

While God’s Love is unconditional, we become afraid of it if we hold onto sin. God’s Love becomes like a fire to the impurities of sin.

I welcome the Holy Spirit into me daily, actually several times per day, as it purifies my soul so that I might be closer to God whom I Love. Bring on the fire. It is not Hell to me, but nectar for my soul.

🙏🙏🙏

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