The Greatest is Love

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

May 15, 2022

5th Sunday of Easter

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051522.cfm

Faith, Hope, and Love are the three Theological Virtues.  We read in 1 Corinthians:

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The greatest is love - why?  God is love and love is eternal.  When we die at our own particular judgment we can go to Heaven for eternity, Purgatory until we are ready to be in the presence of the perfect love of God, or to Damnation for eternity.  Let’s pray hard it’s not the latter!  

If and when we get to Heaven faith isn’t needed anymore since we will be in the presence of God and there is nothing left to hope for because we just attained it all, there is nothing better than Heaven, all we can hope for has been fullfilled!  Love is what remains, we will bask in the perfect Love of our Heavenly father.   

If we deserve eternal Damnation when we have our particular judgment, faith is gone as it will grant us nothing, hope is gone because it is hopeless, but we will suffer the knowledge of the Love of God that we have lost for eternity.  Love is eternal, God is eternal, God is love and love always remains, it is the greatest of the three Theological Virtues.

God gains nothing by us loving him.  God is omniscient, omnipotent, and doesn’t need our love at all but what is really cool about that downer of a statement is that while it is true God doesn’t need our love - God still WANTS our love anyway!

I’m not sure if this is still a thing but I can remember my kids making a macaroni necklace for my wife to give to her on Mother’s day.  They would paint the giant, uncooked macaroni different colors and then thread yarn through it and tie it off to make the necklace. They then presented it to her on Mother’s Day with a great big smile as if the gift was really a diamond necklace. To be bluntly honest the last thing my wife needs is a poorly painted necklace made of pasta but she accepted it and loved the kids all the more!  She didn’t need it but she wanted it because it was a gift from one of her children.  Now I’m not saying we all should make macaroni necklaces for God, no, instead what I am saying is exactly what the Gospel of Mark tells us in chapter 12, verse 30:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

We are God’s children and love is the gift that God wants from us.  So what are some tangible ways we can love God this way?

Love God not because it helps God, because it doesn’t, love God instead because it helps us.  We are created by God to love God so going against that is going against the very fiber of our being!  We love God by adoring him in adoration, going to Mass, and then giving God our FULL attention at Mass, evangelizing, tell others about God’s love, especially about His son Jesus Christ.  Receive the sacraments, follow God’s commandments, and try to stay in a state of grace. We know this isn’t always easy.  We see that in the reading from Acts today:

They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

So persevere in the faith, that is how we show God we love Him.

Love yourself too!  Sounds funny to say that but we all are God’s creation, ourselves included and sometimes we forget ourselves in that.  Don’t love yourself to the point of becoming a narcissist standing in front of a mirror flexing and telling yourself how great you are.  Love yourself enough to forgive yourself.  Get to confession, tell the priest your sins, and realize you are absolved of your sins, do not beat yourself up over them thinking you are a horrible person.

Our Gospel gives us another way to show we love God:

I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

We must see God in all other humans because we are all creations of God, not just those folks we like, but those we dislike, yeah, they are also part of God’s creation too!

Cardinal Sarah talking about charity, also known as love states:

It urges us to evangelize; to put it simply, the Church reveals the Love of God.  Often the absence of God is the deepest root of human suffering. Consequently, a Christian cannot perform acts of charity only for his brethren in Christ but must do so for all men without any distinction.

Pray for the Dead

Kevin Gingras
November 15, 2020 - 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111520.cfm

An ancient Arab proverb states: "A clever woman is never without wool".  On contemplating this first reading I realized my wife Allison doesn’t obtain much wool, maybe only in her socks and a sweater or two.  I also asked her and apparently she doesn’t know how to ply the spindle and she doesn’t even know what a distaff is!  We had to Google it. 

With that said, the first reading also states: 

When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.

Now, this I can hang my hat on!  I agree with this statement wholeheartedly!  Why? Because my happiness at home depends on it!  We all know the quote “A happy wife is a happy life”!

One thing for sure, at our house we try not to waste our God-given talents even if one of those gifts isn't plying the spindle.  Now in today’s Gospel parable, Matthew is talking about talents that are a weight-based currency and its value depended on if it was made of copper, gold, or silver.  The parable has multiple lessons.  First, we are all given different gifts from God.  He gave one man five talents, another two, and another received one.  Second, when we do our work well for God then more will be expected of us, kind of like a promotion from God!  Third, if we do not use our God-given gifts properly, instead we bury them and don’t use them to multiply the kingdom - well we hear it in today’s parable in the final verse:

And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

That sounds a bit dark.  This is where the second reading comes in - we are not meant for darkness and grinding of teeth however and St. Paul makes sure the Thessalonians know this as he writes to them:

For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness.  Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.

We have heard a lot lately about staying alert and sober and preparing for the end - that thing none of us want to talk about -  DEATH.  But it’s something we all must face eventually.  The other night, I was watching the movie the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. Towards the end, there is a scene where two main characters are in a castle in a kingdom called Gondor.  The enemy is about to burst in and things aren’t looking good for two of the characters, Pippin, a hobbit creature, and Gandalf the wizard.

  Their dialogue goes something like this (click here for video):

 "I didn't think it would end this way" says Pippin

Gandalf replies: "End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it."

Pippen asks: "What? Gandalf? See what?"

Gandalf explains: "White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

"Well, that isn't so bad" replies Pippen.

"No. No, it isn't", ends Gandalf.

November is a time that the Catholic Church uses to focus on those who have gone to the “White Shores” before us.  Those who have died.  We have All Saints day to begin and then All Souls day.  This matches with how creation works does it not?  The plants and leaves are dying as well, and the earth is going to sleep for a bit until the resurrection of Spring.

This is where Allison comes back into the homily.  Years ago she began dragging me along to cemeteries as her chauffeur while she would pray for the dead.  She learned this tradition from Susan Tassone - aka The Purgatory Lady.  Susan even calls Allison the Purgatory Lady Jr now.  

I also have become more than just a driver.  I also pray.

Why? Because we should never assume our loved ones who have died are saints in heaven.  The best thing we can do is pray for them to help them attain heaven.  If they are already in heaven those prayers will be used to help another soul in purgatory get to heaven.  We have prayed in cemeteries all around, we try to find new ones each year we have never prayed in yet.

We pray at the graves of people we knew and also never met.  We pray for those who died in 2020, 1900, or even the 1800s.  One of the talents, or gifts that we all have is that of prayer.  To some that is a great gift where the Holy Spirit really moves them and they are gifted with wonderful prayers that they can make up on the spot.  For those of us who can’t do that we all know the prayers that the Catholic Church has taught us all through our life.  Offer up fasting and sacrifices for the Holy Souls, there are also novenas you can look up and do for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.  Find those novenas.  Do them.  Pray for the Holy Souls.  

Imagine the welcome you will get from the souls you helped attain heaven when you finally reach the destination God meant for you!

Venerable Fulton Sheen has said:

As we enter Heaven, we will see them, so many of them, coming towards us and thanking us.  We will ask who they are, and they will say ‘a poor soul you prayed for in purgatory'.

Our Hope is You

It's been a while since I posted anything! God give's me ideas but the problem is without something way to write them down I forget them.  God forgot to grace me with memory!


Anyway, recently we were at a funeral service for a long time elderly friend of ours when I began to contemplate our life on God's great earth.  What's it all about?  Job isn't very reassuring and this is kind of how my thoughts were moving...


Job 14:1-10 

Man born of woman is short-lived and full of trouble, Like a flower that springs up and fades, swift as a shadow that does not abide. Upon such a one will you set your eyes, bringing me into judgment before you? Can anyone make the unclean clean? No one can. Since his days are determined you know the number of his months; you have fixed the limit which he cannot pass Look away from him and let him be, while, like a hireling, he completes his day. For a tree there is hope; if it is cut down, it will sprout again, its tender shoots will not cease. Even though its root grow old in the earth and its stump die in the dust, Yet at the first whiff of water it sprouts and puts forth branches like a young plant. But when a man dies, all vigor leaves him; when a mortal expires, where then is he?

Wasn't very inspirational and this is kind of how my mind was wandering.  Then I looked up and as I was asking God what it is all about I watched a small cloud going quickly across the bright blue sky.  It was a windy day so it was moving fairly quickly.  The cloud soon started to dissipate and within a few minutes it was gone.  I began to think that it really isn't gone, it has just changed.  It's water vapor still exists but the cloud has run it's course, just like we eventually will.  The question is now, what will become of us?  Job doesn't give is much hope in that reading (you have to read the rest of Job's story) but Jesus does give us hope.  Abundant hope.


1 Peter 1:3-5

We do have hope for yes, this world is short lived for us but our hope is in Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.

Now why wouldn't that give us hope?  Our hope needs to be in Jesus Christ, without him we are just clouds passing on into something far worst than nothingness.  With him we can pass from our current form into an eternal perfection!


John 10 27-29 

 My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.

 Praise God for that!