The Catholic Calendar for Thursday, June 3, 2004
St. Charles Lwanga and companions, martyrs

Scripture from Wednesday’s Liturgy of the Word:
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Psalm 25:4-5,8-10,14
Mark 12:28-34

A reflection on today’s Sacred Scripture:

Shemat Yisrael

Today Jesus prays the ancient prayer of Israel, the Shemat Yisrael.

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

This prayer is still spoken at nearly every temple ceremony in the Jewish Faith. This is the central pillar of the law and the prophets.

Last week I wrote about being one in God. This week Jesus tells us how. We must be single-minded. Single-minded is not to be confused with narrow-minded. Single-minded is directed toward a single goal and does not allow the distractions of the world to persuade it to other avenues. It dismisses those things that are irrelevant and it fights those things that are obstacles. Single-mindedness with respect to God is a great virtue.

Loving God is our end and our goal. To achieve it, we must spend all that we are in loving Him. Often this means forgoing what we would rather do and doing what He would have us do. We must completely dedicate ourselves to His life and His love. To do this we love Him.

But it is important to remember that love without works is a dead love. What are the works of the love of the Lord? Jesus told us elsewhere, “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” And chief among these is the second point that Jesus makes, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, allow your love to move into the world and transform it, one person at a time. Allow your love of God to shine through and to be so attractive to your neighbor that they are drawn to the glory of God. Stop thinking about yourself and how you cannot do, and start looking at the One who loves you, because through Him, all things are possible. By His strength you can love what you would not love on your own. When we love God, a natural fall-out of that love is a demonstration of love to the people He loves so dearly. When we truly love God, we cannot help but to become His love in the world.

- JuandelaCruz
(sriddle415 at yahoo dot com)

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posted by joachim at 4:20 AM