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Catholic Church / Pacoima, CA

To Love is to Please God

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.” Luke 15:6

Only he (she) who seeks the will of God knows about love. And it is that the one who does not seek the will of God is still deified, mounted on his(her) egocentrism, because if he(she) does not have God in his place of FIRST, he(she) is the one who is in the first place, and the egoistic disorder does not know of true love, because he(she) is deaf and blind to others, since he(she) only listens to him(her)self. He(She) does everything for his(her) own convenience and seeking his(her) own interest, the opposite of the love described in 1 Corinthians 13:4ff.:

“Love is patient, it is kind; … it does not envy, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, it does not delight with injustice, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…”

This is how God loves us; he leaves everything to find us and give us life.

“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”Lk 15,4ss

I tell you that, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance. That is why 1 John 5:2 says:

“By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments.”

And his commandments are not heavy. Because everything that is born of God overcomes the world; and what gives us victory over the world is our faith.

Few currently know of this true love, since it is common to think that love is loving the other, when this has to do with selfish desire, or in the best of cases we come to think that loving is pleasing the loved one, but this can also have a lot of mutual satisfaction, which far from being edifying could be harmful, if it is not in tune with the will of God, which is the true good, and therefore the best way to love one’s neighbor.

In short, we can say that loving is not wanting, not even pleasing the other, but that true love is seeking God’s will for the other, because that is the true good of him and the greatest thing we can do for him.

Obviously loving someone at the level of feelings, or feeling sympathy for him(her), makes everything much easier, because it makes the relationship pleasant and one is keen to seek their good. But the truth is that you don’t need to feel that pleasure towards someone to be able to truly love him(her), that is, to be able to help and build him(her), to do him(her) good according to God’s will; We can do this even to someone who does not like us or to some enemy, or to someone who has done us some harm, because to love, feeling is not required but will and lucidity of faith.

Readings for the Week

Monday: 1 Cor 11:17-26, 33; Ps 40:7-10, 17; Lk 7:1-10
Tuesday: 1 Cor 12:12-14, 27-31a; Ps 100:1-5; Lk 7:11-17
Wednesday: Nm 21:4b-9; Ps 78:1bc-2, 34-38; Phil 2:6-11; Jn 3:13-17
Thursday: 1 Cor 15:1-11; Ps 118:1b-2, 16ab-17, 28; Jn 19:25-27 or Lk 2:33-35
Friday: 1 Cor 15:12-20; Ps 17:1bcd, 6-8b, 15; Lk 8:1-3
Saturday: 1 Cor 15:35-37, 42-49; Ps 56:10c-14; Lk 8:4-15
Sunday: Am 8:4-7; Ps 113:1-2, 4-8; 1 Tm 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13 [10-13]

Saints & Special Observances

Sunday: Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time; Patriot Day; Grandparents’ Day
Monday: The Most Holy Name of Mary
Tuesday: St. John Chrysostom
Wednesday: The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Thursday: Our Lady of Sorrows
Friday: Ss. Cornelius and Cyprian
Saturday: St. Robert Bellarmine; St. Hildegard of Bingen; Blessed Virgin Mary

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