Love of God in our hearts

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in the first reading, Saint Paul teaches us what our relationship with one another should look like using the example of a rightly ordered relationship between husband and wife. Christ said: ". . .each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband." Here is the hinge, everything we do for one another, we do "out of reverence for Christ" just "as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her." This is the model for healthy relationships -  one that calls us to love one another as God loves each one of us. It is a sacrificial love that wills the good of another out of our love for God.

This can be challenging for many of us but great love grows from humble beginnings that is rooted in our love for God. Imagine that our love for God is the tiny mustard seed, in today's Gospel, that God placed in our hearts out of His love for us. We have love in our hearts because God loves us first. Now, every day of our lives, we nurture that seed of love in our hearts through prayer, the Mass, and receiving our Lord in the Eucharist. We do this faithfully and that love for God grows inside of us and helps us to love others as God loves us.

I tell our couples, who come to us for CALLED TO BE ONE Marriage Class, that love is the act of the will. We wake up every morning and commit ourselves to loving our husband/wife no matter the challenges of yesterday, today, or tomorrow. However, we cannot do it on our own but with the grace that is poured forth from God's love that is in our hearts. That love matures from humble beginnings and helps us become the refuge of faith, hope, and love for those around us because we have that love of God in our hearts.

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Gospel of the Day

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like?

To what can I compare it?

It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.

When it was fully grown, it became a large bush

and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”

Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?

It is like yeast that a woman took

and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour

until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”