Oct 22, 2024 Written by 

Deep Relationship

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday’s Gospel (Mk 12:28-34) offers us Jesus’ teaching on the greatest commandment, the commandment of love, which is two-fold: love of God and love of neighbour. The Saints, who we have recently celebrated together in a single solemn Feast are precisely those who, trusting in God’s grace, tried to live according to this fundamental law. In fact, those who live a profound relationship with God, just as a child becomes capable of loving, starting from a good relationship with his mother and father, may put the commandment of love fully into practice. St John of Avila, who I recently proclaimed a Doctor of the Church, writes at the beginning of his Treatise on the Love of God: “the cause”, he says, “that mostly pushes our hearts to love of God is considering deeply the love that He had for us.... This, beyond any benefit, pushes the heart to love; because he who gives something of benefit to another, gives him something he possesses; but he who loves, gives himself with everything he has, until he has nothing left to give” (n. 1). Before being a command — love is not a command — it is a gift, a reality that God allows us to know and experience, so that, like a seed, it can also germinate within us and develop throughout our life.

If the love of God has planted deep roots in a person, then he is able to love even those who do not deserve it, as God does us. Fathers and mothers do not love their children only when they deserve love; they always love them, though of course, they make them understand when they are wrong. We learn from God to seek only what is good and never what is evil. We learn to look at each other not only with our eyes, but with the eyes of God, which is the gaze of Jesus Christ. A gaze that begins in the heart and does not stop at the surface, that goes beyond appearances and manages to capture the deepest aspirations of the other: waiting to be heard, for caring attention, in a word: love. But the opposite is also true: that by opening myself to another, just as he or she is, by reaching out, by making myself available, I am also opening myself to know God, to feel that he is there and is good. Love of God and love of neighbour are inseparable and are mutually related. Jesus did not invent one or the other but revealed that they are essentially a single commandment and did so not only through the Word, but especially with his testimony: the person of Jesus and his whole Mystery embody the unity of love of God and neighbour, like the two arms of the Cross, vertical and horizontal. In the Eucharist he gives us this two-fold love, giving himself, because, nourished by this Bread, we love one another as he has loved us.

Dear friends, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, we pray that every Christian may know how to show his/her faith in the one true God with a clear witness to love of neighbour.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 4 November 2012]

16 Last modified on Tuesday, 22 October 2024 03:50
don Giuseppe Nespeca

Giuseppe Nespeca è architetto e sacerdote. Cultore della Sacra scrittura è autore della raccolta "Due Fuochi due Vie - Religione e Fede, Vangeli e Tao"; coautore del libro "Dialogo e Solstizio".

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Here is the entire Gospel! Here! The whole Gospel, all of Christianity, is here! But make sure that it is not sentiment, it is not being a “do-gooder”! (Pope Francis))
Qui c’è tutto il Vangelo! Qui! Qui c’è tutto il Vangelo, c’è tutto il Cristianesimo! Ma guardate che non è sentimento, non è “buonismo”! (Papa Francesco)
Christianity cannot be, cannot be exempt from the cross; the Christian life cannot even suppose itself without the strong and great weight of duty [Pope Paul VI]
Il Cristianesimo non può essere, non può essere esonerato dalla croce; la vita cristiana non può nemmeno supporsi senza il peso forte e grande del dovere [Papa Paolo VI]
The horizon of friendship to which Jesus introduces us is the whole of humanity [Pope Benedict]
L’orizzonte dell’amicizia in cui Gesù ci introduce è l’umanità intera [Papa Benedetto]
However, the equality brought by justice is limited to the realm of objective and extrinsic goods, while love and mercy bring it about that people meet one another in that value which is man himself, with the dignity that is proper to him (Dives in Misericordia n.14)
L'eguaglianza introdotta mediante la giustizia si limita però all’ambito dei beni oggettivi ed estrinseci, mentre l'amore e la misericordia fanno si che gli uomini s'incontrino tra loro in quel valore che è l'uomo stesso, con la dignità che gli è propria (Dives in Misericordia n.14)
Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us [Pope Benedict]
Siccome Dio ci ha amati per primo (cfr 1 Gv 4, 10), l'amore adesso non è più solo un « comandamento », ma è la risposta al dono dell'amore, col quale Dio ci viene incontro [Papa Benedetto]
The Church invites believers to regard the mystery of death not as the "last word" of human destiny but rather as a passage to eternal life (Pope John Paul II)
La Chiesa invita i credenti a guardare al mistero della morte non come all'ultima parola sulla sorte umana, ma come al passaggio verso la vita eterna (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
The saints: they are our precursors, they are our brothers, they are our friends, they are our examples, they are our lawyers. Let us honour them, let us invoke them and try to imitate them a little (Pope Paul VI)
I santi: sono i precursori nostri, sono i fratelli, sono gli amici, sono gli esempi, sono gli avvocati nostri. Onoriamoli, invochiamoli e cerchiamo di imitarli un po’ (Papa Paolo VI)
We find ourselves, so to speak, roped to Jesus Christ together with him on the ascent towards God's heights (Pope Benedict)
Ci troviamo, per così dire, in una cordata con Gesù Cristo – insieme con Lui nella salita verso le altezze di Dio (Papa Benedetto)
The Church is a «sign». That is, those who looks at it with a clear eye, those who observes it, those who studies it realise that it represents a fact, a singular phenomenon; they see that it has a «meaning» (Pope Paul VI)
La Chiesa è un «segno». Cioè chi la guarda con occhio limpido, chi la osserva, chi la studia si accorge ch’essa rappresenta un fatto, un fenomeno singolare; vede ch’essa ha un «significato» (Papa Paolo VI)
There are also serious, dangerous omissions and we have to recognize with healthy realism that in this way things are not all right, it is not all right when errors are made. However, we must also be certain at the same time that if, here and there, the Church is dying because of the sins of men and women, because of their non-belief, at the same time she is reborn (Pope Benedict)

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