I am giving you a sermon just as I would like to hear it from a priest who is truly a “sower”:
My dear brothers,
Today, I am going to speak to you about God. Who is He, what does He do, and why should we love Him more than anything else!
God is first and foremost a Love so extraordinary that He chose to create humanity so that it might know and love Him; this Love is an exchange between God and humankind—He draws all things to Himself. But what is this Love?
This Love is abundant; this means that it fills the person who is its object. Doesn’t humanity—and every person in particular—wish to be rich? Yes, of course, they do. Let them turn to Me, then; this Love is so loving! Doesn’t a person wish to be loved? Yes, of course—being loved is comforting, it is sweet, it is enriching; being loved makes one happy and lighthearted, and it also encourages reciprocity.
Loving makes one lovable, and when one truly loves, one wants to give—to give of oneself, to be of service, to give oneself fully. One no longer thinks of oneself; we think of the one or those we love; we serve them so that they lack nothing, so that they move forward in life, so that they have good circumstances and good relationships, and so that, in turn, they pass on what they have received, so that they too may be channels through which the benefit of goodness flows to others, enriching them in turn, and so on.
Love is not selfish; love is not vengeful—quite the contrary. It gives without expecting anything in return; it gives generously and as much as it can, finding its reward in the spread of the good it has given.
Such is divine Love: it enriches, it spreads, it never runs dry. When it seems to run dry, it is because it is not received and therefore is not passed on.
My brothers, you often think you do not know God, yet to love, one must know. I made Myself known to you by being born on earth and by teaching you, and all those who listened to Me loved Me. Those who did not hear Me—because they were obsessed with their pride and their jealousy at seeing Me capture their hearts—those people closed off the circuit of Love, and I could not linger among them. The crowds followed Me; the Love and the teachings I gave them captivated them, and they, in turn, passed on the Love they had received.
This is how Christianity was born, derived from the Greek name “Christus,” which means “Anointed One.” Christianity—and more specifically Catholic Christianity, which means “universal”—is therefore the movement that unites the disciples of the Anointed One of God, the One in whom God has found His delight, commanding you to listen to Him (Mt 17:5).
Yes, obedience flows directly from love. When we love, we obey the one we love because we admire them; we desire to please them, and their wishes are commands to the one who loves. Obedience flows from love and is found in its entirety in all the virtues. God desires, and you obey Him. Such is the fruit of the love you should have for God, from whom you derive all that you are, all that you have, and all that you love. He has given you a Law—the Ten Commandments—each consisting of two lines. These commandments thus fit into 20 lines, and everything is stated therein. They are not difficult to remember, and by referring to them conscientiously, you will attain Christian perfection.
God wants you to be like Him so that He may have you with Him eternally in Heaven. Like Father, like son. He wants to make you partakers of His divinity, and through baptism, He makes you a “child of God.” He pours out upon you the gifts of His Holy Spirit to lift you up to Him, to make you like Him, and, out of love for Him, you accept everything from Him. By accepting His will for you, you prove your love for Him, and He, out of love for you, wants you forever in His image and likeness, close to Him.
Love gives and gives of itself, and you, His creatures, if you love Him, will give yourselves to Him—obeying Him out of love, and in turn giving yourselves to His creatures out of love for Him, because He created them and desires their good just as He desires your good—yours personally. And this is charity, that theological virtue which comes from God and returns to God, and which is exercised both on earth and in the eternity of Heaven.
Charity is the greatest of all the virtues because it has God as its object and because it is practiced both on earth and in Heaven, whereas faith and hope no longer exist in Heaven: in Heaven, one no longer believes, but knows; in Heaven, one no longer hopes, but possesses. Practice charity, My brothers, because it is great in the eyes of God; it lifts you up to Him; it makes you like Him, for God never tires of doing you good.
Here, then, in a few words, is the vital essence of your religion, which is certainly a religion of Love, but above all a religion of self-giving.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit †. Amen.
Your Lord and your God
Source: ➥ SrBeghe.blog