LOVE IS EVERYTHING
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Mk 12:28-34)
As we end Mission Month, let us turn our gaze on St. Francis Xavier, one of the patron of the Mission. He was born on April 7, 1506 from a wealthy and noble family in Navarre, Spain. As a young man, he studied at the University of Parish in 1525. Sharing lodgings with Peter Faber and Ignatius of Loyola, they became best friends.
Francis was proud, ambitious and had a great desire to be rich. But Ignatius convinced him to become a priest; encouraging him to look at life differently not in terms of gains or glory: “What profit if you gain the whole world but lose your soul.”
He became one of the seven founding members of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Filled with the love of God, he accepted the challenge of being a missionary in the East. Mission is both passion for God and passion for the people. Some say he had baptized 30,000 people; some say 100,000. Driven by God’s love, he became the greatest missionary of the modern times.
In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches us the greatest command – to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. It is a beautiful lesson on centering and focusing. We are to ask ourselves: what is the center of our life? Is it our pride? Or riches, revenge, anger, addictions? The aim of our life is not to possess much, to be powerful or prestigious. But it is to love. Love will be our greatest achievement. As the song goes: kun di ako nagmamahal, sino ako?
All will be in vain; all will be empty if at the end of our life we have not loved. You might gain the whole world or accumulated much but failed in love – you have achieved nothing. All is worthless. All is useless. Life would have been a failure, without love.
I have an acronym that will elucidate what to love God means: L. O. V. E.
L: Loyal – to love means to be faithful. To have an unswerving devotion to Him. That our whole being is thoroughly committed to God like Joshua, who declared: “for me and my household, we shall serve the Lord.”
O: Obey – love means obedience; total, unconditional obedience. It means doing God’s bidding without reservation. To submit to His authority and surrender your will to Him. The beautiful result of obedience is peace.
V: Voice – voice out your love. Express it. Show it. Prove it through your relationship. In other words, take time to pray. Spend quality time with God. To pray means to adore; to worship because He is the Lord of your life. To pray means to acknowledge; to thank Him; grateful to Him. To pray means to ask and depend on Him.
E: Excited – love gives you excitement. Be excited to do everything for the Lord. Be excited to serve Him whole heartedly.
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