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Gospel Reflection for Friday, March 28, 2025
Not Far from the Kingdom
If we truly believe that God is love, then living in Him, loving Him with all our heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves, means being close to God and His reign. The important thing is to think about what it means in practice to love with all our soul and all our mind. Because while the words sound beautiful, even romantic, the reality can be much harder. Someone once said that while love is a noun, God is more like a verb. Because love cannot exist without an object to love, and that requires action.
What are the actions of love? Putting others ahead of ourselves and our own desires or comforts. This often involves sacrifice. It means giving of our time, abilities, and even money. The action of love is seeking the good of the other person, without confusing good with permissiveness, indulgence, or injustice. The good of the person is to live in truth and justice, that is, to also draw closer to the Kingdom. The action of love is real hospitality that welcomes, supports, comforts, and provides nourishment. The action of love is proclaiming the truth and not allowing, as far as possible, others to live in lies and darkness.
Saint Paul describes the characteristics of true love in 1 Corinthians: patience, endurance, service, hope, faith, tolerance, openness…
These are not just pretty words; they are sometimes difficult actions. But if we have to put others first, what about loving ourselves? Paradoxically, putting others first, practicing all these actions and cultivating these attitudes of love, is loving ourselves, because it means walking in light and truth. It means living in God and not being tangled up in ourselves and the poor, mediocre comforts of selfishness. It means being close to the Kingdom. Even better than close: it means being in the Kingdom.