Now Do It
Thursday in the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
This gospel passage can give us good feelings. To love God and our neighbor is a very heartwarming thought. Oh yes, how much we are in favor of it! But like many thoughts and feelings, they remain no more than that in many instances. To love in action can be a very unpleasant and painful experience. We would more often rather be left with our thoughts and feelings of love than give life to them in deeds and behavior.
Like people watching a movie. They get caught up in the lives and conflicts of the characters involved. Through the nurses and doctors, they save lives in emergency rooms and perform operations; through lawyers and their investigators, they defend the innocent from unjust imprisonment; through cowboys, they come galloping in on their beautiful white horses saving the good people from the evil ones.
How many of us cheer, even pray, for contestants on game shows to win a lot of money as if we are those people? We do many gallant things for people through the actions of other people in movies and on TV shows. What we do when we leave the movie theaters or turn off our TV’s and get off the couch to face the real world is what proves our kindness and bravery.
“Which is the first of all the commandments?” the scribes asked Jesus. “To love the Lord your God with your whole heart and soul,” Jesus answered. “And the second commandment,” he added, “is to love your neighbor as yourself.” When they approved the answer Jesus gave, he said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God”.
Now get up off your couches (your rumps) and do it!
