Ordinary Time, 30th Sunday. Priesthood isn't complicated: All you have to do is love God, and love His people. It's not complicated, it's just humanly impossible.

Jesus is asked which commandment is the greatest and he tells them: the one you recite every day. It sounds simple but its humanly impossible. No matter how hard we try, we can't seem to love others as we should. What's wrong? We have to put the first commandment first. We can't really love our neighbor until we have loved God. More specifically, we have to start receiving God's love for us. Only when we know we are loved can we respond with love.

The way that God loves us, we should love others. God's love should influence our families, our community, and even the structures of our society. The church has attempted to put into writing the concrete demands of love of neighbor into seven basic principles of social teaching:

1. Right to Life
2. Family
3. Dignity of Life
4. Option for the Poor
5. Dignified Work
6. Solidarity
7. Stewardship of the Environment.

These teachings all put people at the center. Catholic faith allows us to see ourselves and the world more clearly, so we can see what really matters. We need to start with putting God first in our own lives. With God, all things are possible.

(26 Oct 2014)

Point to Ponder: Read A Letter to Catholics in Wisconsin on Faithful Citizenship

Point for Discussion: Where did you see the love of God in the previous week?