Love God

Homily for Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Quite a while back, I remember reading a magazine article about a survey that was given to people who said that they loved God. The survey was asked, what does it mean to love God with one's whole heart, whole soul, whole strength, etc. How does one do that? In every instance, the response came that one could show love for God by serving the needs of the poor, by being charitable to others, and many other similar responses. The author of the article pointed out that while these responses were good answers for the second great commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself," there must be another answer that speaks of loving God as a person, as someone who was important in your life.

While we cannot gainsay the answers that the people gave in response to the question, the author went on to ask how one shows that they are in love with another person. This was a much easier question for the people who took the survey. They said that they would spend time with the other person, make sacrifices for the other person, communicate with the other person, and go out of their way to express their love verbally.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote an encyclical on love. In that encyclical he mentioned all of the things that these people said when they were asked how they show their love for someone with whom they were in love. We must spend time with God. We must make sacrifices for God, we must communicate with God, and we must go out of our way to express our love verbally. Loving another human being is exactly the way we should love God.

Celebrating the Eucharist is one of the ways to express our love for God. In this sacrament, we welcome God into our hearts and express our love and gratitude for all that God has done for us.