Weekly Message
Gospel Reflection
31st Sunday OT
“Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength—and your neighbor as yourself”- This is the ultimate goal in the Christian life.
I’ve had the blessing to coach youth and high school football for many years, and when a team develops love for another towards a common goal, indeed there is power in that. When young athletes were playing at their full capacity, they don’t normally think of themselves as a living metaphor of what it means to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.
St. Benedict, wrote in the prologue to his rule: “As we progress in this way of life and faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.” This imagery fits well, what can we learn from observing young people in athletic competition? And what does it point to in our learning to run on the path of God’s commandments? They played as a team. They played with dedication through pain, they were willing to pay the price. We might then ask whether we, as the Body of Christ, play as a team to fulfill these two great commandments.
Whether we are competing on a field, or walking, or crawling on our way to God, we need the support of others as we make our way along the path of God’s commandments. One of the biggest obstacles to truly loving God and our neighbor is to think that we can do it alone. We cannot. We need a team. A team such as our brotherhood and our parish provide.
As we run on the path of God’s commandments, remember that the cloud of witnesses are with us, always offering encouragement. St. Thérèse of Lisieux would say, “God will grant the elect as much glory as they can take.” As your Director, I’m in a privileged position to witness to so much ‘Deacon love’ for one another, and between deacons and the presbyterate. We do have more growth to achieve however, growth in love, humility, and paying the price to truly herald the Gospel! See you in the Eucharist – Receive, Believe, Teach, Practice!
Deacon Ernie
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