Sunday, October 29th, 2023 – Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A Readings: Isaiah 45:1, 4 -6, Psalm 96 “I love you, Lord, my strength ”, 1 Thessalonians 1:1 -5b, Matthew 22:15 -21

                                            LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS
      Today the Pharisees are back on the offensive again, putting Jesus to the test. “Which is the greatest of the commandments?” they ask. Jesus’ answer will change history for centuries: “You shall love God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself. ” Christian charity means loving the way God loves. There is no room for doubt as to how we should fulfill this new commandment; it ’s enough to be imitators of Christ and so become a model for all believers. Sisters and brothers:
     1. The human heart has been created to love. The problem starts when we have to choose one love over others: who should we love? What should my love be like? What do I do when my experience of love does not fill me? Christ offers us the prototype of true love. It ’s what Christians call “charity”: it has no trace of egotism and comes with the best guarantees. The more love a Christian gathers in his heart, the better he reflects the image of God that he carries within.
     2. Which is first, God or neighbor? We must place these two loves on the scale and see which weighs more. Our experience tells us that the love of God passes through our love for our fellow men and vice versa. When our love for others is upright and just it is a concrete expression of God ’s love. But God ’s love does not compete with other loves, for his love is on an entirely different plane than all other loves. The love of God seems more emotional, while love for neighbor is costly. It demands constant renunciation and generosity. Maybe it ’s the lonely old man who lives in the house across the street and could use a hand around the house. Maybe it ’s that coworker who is always making me look bad, but who I should still keep loving, understanding, and forgiving, despite it all. 
     3. Gospel love is a synthesis of love for God and love for my fellow man. It cannot be reduced to one or the other of these loves, for that would be like cutting Christianity right down the middle. True love for God necessarily expresses itself in real service to concrete men and women: to have a compassionate, merciful heart towards strangers, the marginalized, widows, orphans, and immigrants. Christian love goes far beyond mere philanthropy.
     We Christians are called to live in love. He who lives in love cannot love one person and hate another, for love molds all of his relationships. God ’s love for us is a kind of friendship. A love that reconciles sinners, transforms them interiorly, and renews them. Ruben Dario once wrote: “We must remember that we are brothers/ we must remember the sweet Pastor/ who, when crucified, scourged, exhausted/ implored pardon for his executioners. ” If love is authentic, it must be made concrete in the practice of the commandments. The human heart knows this divine path, for it was made in the image and likeness of God. God gives us this love as a grace; it is not a spontaneous fruit of our hearts. This is why we must insistently ask for it in prayer.                                                                         Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests