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The Good Samaritan

07/06/2010

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This parable of the Good Samaritan belongs to the Gospel of suffering.
And it was through this parable that Christ wished to give an answer to the question: “Who is my neighbor?” For of the three travelers along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, on which there lay half-dead a man who had been stripped and beaten by robbers, it was precisely the Samaritan who showed himself to be the real “neighbor” of the victim: the person who carried out the commandment of love of neighbor. Two other men were passing along the same road; one was a priest and the other a Levite, but each of them “saw him and passed by on the other side”. The Samaritan, on the other hand, “saw him and had compassion on him. He went to him... and bound up his wounds “, then “brought him to an inn, and took care of him”. And when he left, he entrusted the suffering man to the care of the innkeeper, promising to meet any expenses.
The parable of the Good Samaritan belongs to the Gospel of suffering, for it indicates what the relationship of each of us must be towards our suffering neighbor.

Fr. Pablo Muñoz Iturrieta, IVE
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The Effects of Love upon our Soul

05/05/2010

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Jesus tells the apostles not to be afraid, and that He will pray to the Father so that the Father will send them another Counselor, the Holy Spirit, to be with us forever. What for? To love Jesus, for as He says: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Now, as we saw last week, genuine love must express itself in deeds. “This indeed is love: obeying and believing in the loved one” (St John Chrysostom). There­fore, Jesus wants us to understand that love of God, if it is to be authentic, must he reflected in a life of generous and faithful self-giving, obedient to the will of God: he who accepts God’s command­ments and obeys them, he it is who loves him. This divine love, according to St Thomas, operates four things in our souls, which we must desire with our whole heart:

1) The love of God produces in us our spiritual life. “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (1 John 4:16).        

2) Love of God also produces the observance of the divine commandments. “ Those who love me will keep my word”(John 14:23).

3) The third effect is that the love of God is a great help against any adversity. As St. Paul says: “all things work together for good for those who love God” (Rom. 8, 28).

4) The fourth effect of charity is that it brings joy to the soul, because it leads us to everlasting life.  

  
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Love One Another

04/29/2010

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This Sunday’s Gospel is an invitation to “dare to love”. we should not desire anything less for our life than a love that is strong and beautiful and that is capable of making the whole of our existence a joyful undertaking of giving ourselves as a gift to God and your brothers and sisters, in imitation of the One who vanquished hatred and death forever through love. Love is the only force capable of changing the heart of the human person and of all humanity, by making fruitful the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilizations.

This is shown to us in the lives of the saints. They are true friends of God who channel and reflect this very first love. Let’s try to know them better, entrust ourselves to their intercession, and strive to live as they did.  

A great example is Blessed Mother Teresa. In order to respond instantly to the cry of Jesus, “I thirst,” a cry that had touched her deeply, she began to take in the people who were dying on the streets of Calcutta in India. From that time onward, the only desire of her life was to quench the thirst of love felt by Jesus, not with words, but with concrete action by recognizing his disfigured countenance thirsting for love in the faces of the poorest of the poor. Blessed Teresa put the teachings of the Lord into practice: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). Let us accomplish in our lives the message of this humble witness of divine love.
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