do you love?
"Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the man who fell in with the robbers?" —Luke 10:36
Life is not just a matter of loving God but of loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our strength, and all our minds (Lk 10:27).
How do we know whether we are loving God with all our being? A good indication is whether or not we are loving our neighbors as ourselves (Lk 10:27). "One who has no love for the brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen" (1 Jn 4:20).
How do we know whether we love our neighbors? We love them if we are willing to spend an inordinate amount of time, energy, and money on them. We love our neighbors if we are willing to give hands-on, sacrificial service to them, as did the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:33-35). We love our neighbors if we are willing to lay down our lives for them (1 Jn 3:16), even if they are our enemies (see Rm 5:8). We love our neighbors if we love as the crucified Jesus loves. Consequently, we love our neighbors by grace, not by any power of our own.
If you love as Jesus loves, you love your neighbor and you love God with all your heart. Live a life of love in Jesus.
Prayer: Father, may love mean more to me than myself.
Promise: Christ "is the Image of the invisible God, the First-Born of all creatures. In Him everything in heaven and on earth was created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations, principalities or powers; all were created through Him, and for Him." —Col 1:15-16
Praise: "This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it" (Ps 118:24).
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, November 29, 1997
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, December 2, 1997