The essence of our Christian faith is the love of God and the love of neighbour. This is how Jesus responded to the question from the religious leaders about which commandment was the greatest. The two commandments were linked together like two hinges on a door. To love God is to be open and receptive to the One who’s love is unconditional and personal towards us. Yet, the invitation is not only to acknowledge this, it is to grow and be embraced in the reality of this love. The more we make room for the love of God in our lives, the more we take the focus of self and our many preoccupations in life. It is ultimately to surrender ourselves to this transforming gift that can help shape and guide our daily lives.
In coming to know God’s love for ourselves, especially revealed through Jesus, we are being drawn to go beyond ourselves to others. There is no true love of God without it being shown to make a difference for good in the world around us. Having listened to the God who loves us and to the Christ of the Gospels, the more attuned we become to the pain and the hopes of the world around us . It is of deep significance that when Pope Francis came toward the end of his recent Encyclical letter on Universal Fraternity, he called to mind Blessed Charles de Foucauld, who bore witness to the Love of God by becoming a brother to all.
Pope Francis writes “Blessed Charles directed his ideal of total surrender to God towards an identification with the poor, abandoned in the depths of the African desert. In that setting, he expressed his desire to feel himself a brother to every human being, and asked a friend to “pray to God that I truly be the brother of all”. He wanted to be, in the end, “the universal brother”. Yet only by identifying with the least did he come as last to be the brother of all. May God inspire that dream in each one of us.” In the challenging times we are living through at present, is not the genuineness of our love for God most powerfully shown in the manner by which we reach out to whoever might need our attention and care at this time. It is to recognise every human being as my brother and sister, loved deeply by God. We are to become ambassadors of this fraternal love of God for all.
Fr Martin Ashe, Parish Priest