31st. Sunday 2012 Fr. Raymond Homily, St. Bernard G

Homily by Fr. Raymond: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart"

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----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Raymond . . .
To: . . . . .
Sent: Sunday, 4 November 2012, 16:01
Subject: 

 SUN B 31

Jesus tells us today that the first and greatest commandment is that we must love the lord our God with all our mind and heart and soul and strength.  That seems at first to be a bit of a tall order for us.  Who could ever claim that he loves his God with all his mind and heart and strength?  The saints and the angels in heaven certainly can do that, but on this earth even the saints are the first to proclaim their shortcomings.  No doubt Our Blessed Lady managed, even here on earth, to love with all her mind and heart and strength.  But what about us?  What about the rest of our poor fallen race? Who could possible hope to claim that he loves his God with all his mind and heart and soul and strength.  This command surely seems a bit discouraging for us.  We certainly owe it to our Creator that we love him with all our mind and heart and strength.  But can we realistically hope to be able to pay that debt?

However we can be sure that God doesn’t demand of us anything that we can’t do.  God knows our weakness and he knows our frailty and so he has, through the gift of his grace, devised a plan to solve the dilemma. This plan wonderfully enables us, not just to fulfil this commandment, but altogether to surpass it.  God gives us the gift of his Spirit.  And through the gift of this Spirit within us He has enabled us now to love him with a love that is far above and beyond our own little love: it is as far above and beyond our own little love as his Godhead is above our humanity.  

This we can do because it is no longer now merely by our own little minds and hearts that we love God.  We love him now by the power of his very own Spirit.  By the gift of this indwelling Spirit, his very own Spirit who prays within us with unutterable groaning, we stand on a level ground with God himself.  We are caught up, as it were, in a love which is as big as himself and is altogether worthy of him.  Someone once said:  “Christian, know thyself!”  The more firmly and deeply we grasp this reality of who we are by grace and what fountains of grace well up within us; what infinite powers are at our disposal, then the more confident we will be in our ability to fulfil and to more than fulfil this greatest of God’s commandments:  “To love the lord our God with all our mind and heart and soul and strength”.

COMMENT: I found Fr. Raymond's Homily surpassed the Commentary; Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church  Sermons on the Song of Songs, no.83 (trans. ©Classics of Western Spirituality)   "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart" I have read that God is love (1Jn 4,16), but not that he is honor.. . . DGO.     Raymond's words ring peals of joy, "merely by our own little minds and hearts that we love God.  We love him now by the power of his very own Spirit.  By the gift of this indwelling Spirit, his very own Spirit who prays within us with unutterable groaning, we stand on a level ground with God himself."