Homily: November 18, Monday of the Thirty-Third week in Ordinary Time (Love)

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“Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first.”

Love is the greatest Christian virtue. Without love, Christianity is meaningless. Without love, salvation is pointless. Without love, our life is aimless.

We are created by a God who is love, saved by His Son out of love and called to imitate Him in love. He created us to accept His love, to love Him, and to love others. Therefore, a life without love is empty.

The greatest love ever is Jesus giving his own life completely to us. Our response to this is to love Him back all our mind, heart and soul.

In today’s first reading from the Book of Revelation, God’s angel rebukes the church in Ephesus for having lost the love for Jesus they had when they first embraced the faith. The Ephesians fell passionately in love with Jesus at the beginning. They surrendered totally to Him, obeying His teachings fully. They left all their old ways to follow Him.

But now God’s  is warning and reminding them, because they have become worldly and were attracted by wealth and success. They began to love the world and forgot Jesus.

This same situation could happen to us too – if we lose track of the Gospel truth and become more concerned about, more in love with worldly issues and practices. When we get caught up with politics, career, entertainment, even academical success, when we become so focused on arguing who’s right, who’s wrong such that we forget to love one another but begin to spiritually, socially, psychologically and even physically attack others who disagree with us.

God desires one thing from all from us: love. He doesn’t seek grand gestures or achievements; He seeks our hearts.

Let us take a moment to reflect and ask ourselves: How much do I love my Lord?

It is when we love God truly, then we know how to imitate Him in loving others. Let us never lose this love.

Amen.


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