What can we say about love? I mean, everything has been said so often! Love here, love there. He loves me, he loves me not. Love, love, love. You get kind of tired of the word love. And perhaps we get a little tired of the word love because we use it so carelessly #superficially And the things that really aren’t love, but a disguise for love or a pretence for love, are easy on the lips. In today’s gospel they bring a question, “What is the most important Commandment?”. Today the same question is addressed to you and me. All that writing, all that talking, all those sermons on Sunday, have only one subject and that is: love God with your whole heart and love your neighbour as yourself. What does it mean to love your neighbour as yourself? He’s saying, “Love your neighbour because your neighbour is yourself, and if you hate your neighbour you’re hating yourself, and if you misuse your neighbour you’re misusing yourself, and if you’re going to war you’re warring against your neighbour, you see.” Because there’s only one kind of love and that love is the love of God. And there is no limitations, choices, in the use of the word love for one who says, “God loves me and I love.” And we forget that there’s no such thing as me just loving. Loving is a verb. It has an object: “I love this. I love that. I love you. I love him. I love God.”And to love means to give your whole self, holding nothing back. If you’re holding things back, you really don’t know what love is yet. Love is a totality of surrender. How do we know this? “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” And what did His Son do? He died on a cross, a failure. And why did he do that? So that we might understand the great mystery is not that God loves us, but the kind of love that he loves us with. He would die and suffer and give his whole being as a human being, as a life. He would do that just for one of us. And what does that say about us? Well, we shouldn’t walk around saying we’re nothing and try to be humble. Yes, we should be humble in the way God is humble. The whole Gospel is teaching us how to love. And the only way we learn is letting Jesus come into our hearts and carrying him with us in the ordinariness of our lives. Heaven is here because God is here. And God is here because His people are here. And every one of us is made in the image and the likeness of God. And then we say quickly, “And God is love.” And that’s why today we come together each day, and come together whenever we come together, no matter where we are. This is the great secret, the great secret that comes with a baby born in a hopeless little country with a hopeless little village, in a hopeless little barnyard, to teach us one thing: the magnificence and greatness of life. To become man, to bring God to each and every person in this whole world, that they might experience, not only in their hearts but in their families and their friends, the lovely greatness of God Himself. And we are all doing that all the time. Do we fail? Yes. The Bible says the good man falls seven times a day. So God isn’t expecting miracles in that kind of way. What is He expecting? He’s expecting that every time we fall and refuse to love, we get up again and keep moving forward. And every step forward brings all of civilisation one step closer to realising our destiny, our importance, but most of all, how much we are loved by a Creator who will not let go of us for all eternity • AE
Fr. Agustin’s Schedule for Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Sunday, October 25, 2020.
9.00 a.m. English Mass @ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church
11.00 a.m. English Mas @ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church
5.30 p.m. English Mas @ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church
XXX Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (Ciclo A)
Se ha ido extendiendo cada vez más entre nosotros la convicción de que una persona es verdaderamente sana y adulta cuando sabe liberarse de las represiones que impiden la expansión de sus impulsos. La corriente de pensamiento que sigue las ideas de Freud propuso que nada mejor para alcanzar la libertad que rompiendo con cualquier normativa ética que pudiera «bloquear» el libre dinamismo de sus instintos, así es la satisfacción del placer la que conducirá a los hombres a la libertad y la revolución sexual la que nos traerá la verdadera liberación (la idea es de W. Reich[1]). ¿Cuál ha sido el resultado? Lejos de encontrarnos hombres y mujeres más sanos y maduros somos testigos de nuevas neurosis, de hombres y mujeres obsesionados por el placer, encerrados en una soledad cada vez mayor, incapaces de amar y abrirse al otro. ¿Qué libertad es ésta que consiste en liberarnos de las represiones para quedar sometidos a la esclavitud de los instintos? ¿No es ésta una liberación sin libertad? ¿Una liberación engañosa de la que no surge un hombre realmente dueño de su destino? En el corazón del mensaje del Señor hay una llamada a abrirnos radicalmente al amor, y el camino es muriendo a nosotros mismos y siguiéndolo a Él. La de Jesus es una llamada que nos recuerda que si prescindimos del amor, del sacrificio y del esfuerzo, siempre volveremos a la esclavitud. Un hombre incapacitado para amar no es libre, por mucho que proclame su libertad. Los cristianos estamos llamados, hoy más que nunca, a mostrar que el amor, la entrega generosa y la solidaridad, lejos de hacernos vivir de manera reprimida y enfermiza, son el camino acertado para saborear con gozo la existencia, y para crecer como hombres sanos, libres y felices y, al final, al atardecer de la vida, el pasaporte para vovler a Él, el Amor eterno • AE
[1] Wilhelm Reich (1897- 1957) fue un médico, psiquiatra y psicoanalista austriaco, de origen judío, nacionalizado estadounidense. Es célebre por sus contribuciones a la sexología, a la terapia psicoanalítica, su compromiso en favor de la liberación sexual y sus investigaciones sobre la «energía de orgón»
LA MEDITACION DE LA ESPOSA 