Live in and Share God's Love

Homily for Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

We hear the familiar story from the Prophet Ezekiel in which God demonstrates the power to revive the dead and make them new by imparting the Spirit. He sent his only begotten Son to show us that this is what awaits us in the future.

How we embrace that gift and participate in that salvation is explained to us in the Gospel text for today. There, Jesus states the two greatest commandments: love God with your whole heart and with every aspect of your being, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. The gift of these two commandments shows us the inextricable connection between love of God and love of neighbor. We cannot love God if we do not love our neighbor, and we cannot love our neighbor if we do not love God.

Our relationship with God is not like the desert scene that Ezekiel paints for us today. No, God has given us an animating spirit and enfleshed us with love. It is a love so unwavering and merciful that God became flesh so we would understand the power and extent of God’s love. We were made to live in and share that love with others.

We await the day when we will be welcomed back home to live with God forever. It is for this purpose that God has given us each other – to live with and to love. Only by loving well here in this life can we love well in the next. Practice makes perfect. If we have not been able to love in this life, we will not be able to love in the next life either.