Re: Commentary on Matthew 22:34-40 (The Greatest Commandment) by Fr. Gil Alejandria, SVD (2015). The Word in other words: Bible diary. Manila: Logos.
"You shall love the Lord, your God, with ALL your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." -- Matthew 22:37
"... To love God with ALL heart, soul, and mind implies a COMMITMENT to spend all your life for God.
It is an ideal that most of us can only do part of the time. We are distracted and tempted by many things and often fail. Perhaps even the most saintly among us cannot say that they can declare 100% compliance to this directive.
I am reminded of the ARCHER who wanted to hit a lofty goal but could not. But at least by aiming high, his arrow would land at a height of glory.
... Our declaration of love for and faith in God becomes credible and visible only when we do CONCRETE ACTIONS of good towards our brothers and sisters...."
source: dailygospel.org 07 sept 2016
re: celibacy
fr: 1 corinthians 7:28
"if you marry, however, you do not sin...; but such people will experience AFFLICTION in their earthly life, and i would like to spare you that."
re: obedience and poverty
fr: st. gregory of nyssa (C.+395), monk & Bishop. The beatitudes, 1.
"as almost all men have a natural tendency to pride, the lord begins the beatitudes by casting aside the original sin of self-sufficiency and by counseling our imitation of him who is truly blessed, the genuinely voluntary POOR man... so we might become like him in voluntary poverty that is according to our measure so as to share his blessedness, his happiness. 'have among you the same attitude that is also yours in christ jesus. who, though he was in the form of god, did not regard equality with god something to be grasped. rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave' (philippians 2:5-7)
1 corinthians 4:3-5 (NAB)
> others
[verse 3] "It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal;
> self
"I do not even pass judgment on myself;....
> God
"[4] ... the one who judges me is the Lord.
Conclusion:
[5] "Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes... and then everyone will receive PRAISE from God."
02 sep 2016
source: st bernard of clairvaux (+1153) (cistercian monk & doctor of the church). sermons on the song of songs, no. 53. Classics of Western Spirituality. dailygospel.org
A. Stimulus
> "In love alone, of all the movements of the soul and the senses and affections, can the creature respond to its Creator..."
> ... the Bridegroom, who is Love, asks only the commitment of love and faith.
B. Response
> "So, rightly renouncing all other desires, she gives herself up wholly to Love, for it is in responding to Love that she is able to return love...
> "For ever if the creature loves less because it is lesser, yet if she loves with all her heart, nothing is lacking where all is given..."
>"This love is nothing other than
-- holy and chaste love,
-- love sweet and tender,
-- love as tranquil as it is true,
-- mutual, close, deep love,
which is not in the flesh but which joins two in one spirit, making two no longer two but one.
As Paul says, "He who is united to God is one spirit with him" (1 Corinthians 6:17)."
