The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

A doctor of the law put this question to our Lord: "Master which is the great commandment in the law?" He answered and said that the precept of charity is the greatest and first commandment. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind."

We must love God because He is infinitely lovable in Himself. Man is naturally attracted by the beautiful, the good, and the perfect, and to love it even when he derives no benefit from it. It is the nature of love to draw hearts together. Love is a natural inclination of the heart towards that which we consider to be good. In order to love God we must fill our souls with a conviction of His goodness, that He is infinite in every perfection, and then it is that our heart will be drawn towards Him. He is almighty: heaven and earth were called into existence by His single word; all creation bows down before Him and does His holy will. Unfathomable is His wisdom; therefore the Apostle full of amazement exclaims: "O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!" (Rom. 11: 33) God possesses, in an infinite measure, everything that can attract the human heart; there is nothing in the whole world that, compared with God, deserves our love. St. Augustine says: "I admired the bright light of the sun, the fertility of the earth, the interminable extent of the ocean, the attraction of human beauty, the glitter and pageantry of kings, the power of princes, the eloquence of orators, the wisdom of the wise; but I soon returned into my own self, contemplated my God, and said: Nothing of all this is like to my God; He has infinitely more and greater perfections, which can enrapture my heart and fulfill my wishes forever." Let us repent from the bottom of our hearts that heretofore we have loved Him so little, and perhaps the greater part of our life not at all, and let us say with St. Augustine: "Oh beauty, ever ancient and ever new, too late have I loved thee!" Let us accustom ourselves to exclaim with him: "O Lord, may I know Thee, and may I know myself."

We must further love God because He is infinitely good to us. It was His love that called us into existence. That we should enjoy our life and be happy here and hereafter is the reason why He created us. All created things from the greatest to the smallest, are an evidence of the love of God for us; everything calls upon us to love him. The sun, the moon and the stars cry out to us: "He created us for your sake, therefore love him." The goods of our life, health, food, clothes, dwelling, cry out to us: "We are gifts of God, therefore love him." The faculties of the soul, will, memory, and understanding, cry out to us: "We are gifts of God, therefore love Him." The angels say to us: "We are appointed by God to minister unto you; therefore love Him." "Let us love God, because God first hath loved us." (I John 4: 19)

Even more importantly, God's love redeemed us. "God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son." Our first parents sinned and plunged themselves and their posterity into the greatest misery. When the angels fell from the mansions of bliss owing to their pride, they were irretrievably lost _ no redeemer was promised to them, no remedy provided for their relief, no means were granted whereby they could have recovered the grace which they had forfeited. But the case was quite different with us.

We must love God because without this love we can do nothing that is meritorious. St. Paul says: "If I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Cor. 13: 3)

These are some of the motives which should move us to love God and to daily increase our love for Him. We should ever strive to let the love of God reign in our hearts, and let it be the vital principle of all our actions. Let us frequently look up to heaven and say: "O my God, I love Thee with my whole heart; and all that I do and suffer, I do and suffer for the love of Thee. In Thy love I wish to live and to die." If we give God our entire heart the words of the Apostle will be fulfilled in us: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him." (1 Cor 2: 9)

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