On the XXXth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Pope Francis recalled that the love of God and the neighbor “cannot be separated from each other” and that one cannot seriously love another without having this root, which is “love of God”.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (and) your neighbor as yourself.” Pope Francis reflected on Sunday on the greatest commandments that remind us of two things. The first is that “the love for the Lord is above all,” and it means that “God is always before us, waiting for us with his infinite tenderness, with his closeness and with his mercy, because he is always close; he is gentle and compassionate.” Pope Francis made it clear that “you cannot seriously love others if you do not have this root, which is the love of God.”
“The child learns to love in the womb of his mother and father, and we do it in the arms of God, says the Psalm, “like a calm child in the womb of his mother,” so we must feel in the arms of God. God. And there, in the love of the Lord, we see the love that drives us to give ourselves generously to our brothers and sisters.”
The second aspect that emerges from the commandment of love is that it links the love of God to the love of neighbor: “This means that, by loving our brothers, we reflect, like mirrors, the love of the Father,” said the Holy Pope. This is the center of the issue, as he pointed out: “Reflecting the love of God, loving Him, that we cannot see, through the brother, that we can see.”
Love is a drop that can change many things
At the end of his speech, Francis recalled when a journalist asked Saint Teresa of Calcutta if she thought she was changing the world with what she was doing, and she replied: “I never thought about changing the world! “I’m just trying to be a drop of clean water where God’s love shines.”
“This is how he, so small, did so much good: showing, like a drop, the love of God. And if, sometimes, looking at him and other saints, we think that they are inimitable heroes, we think about that little drop. Love is a drop that can change many things.
After this example of the Saint of the Poor, the Holy Pope gives the key to being a drop of clean water for us too: “How is it done? Make the first move, always. Sometimes it is not easy to take the first step or to forget things, but to take the first step, let’s do it. This is the last straw. Take the first step.”
