Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be a lot of love in the world.\u00a0 Sad considering that Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love our neighbor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I believe we have an infinite capacity to love but in our humanness other emotions or misdirected love keep us from truly loving as Christ calls us to love.\u00a0 For instance, our society places a great emphasis on material goods.\u00a0 God has created the world so all of creation is good.\u00a0 But when “things” become the focus of our lives, when having “things”\u00a0becomes what is most important to us, then our love has become misdirected.\u00a0 Then, our love of “things” takes away from our ability to love God and our neighbor.\u00a0 This misdirected love can take shape as greed.<\/p>\n
Anger is a powerful emotion that keeps us from love.\u00a0 How can we love if our heart is full of anger?\u00a0 When anger first arises in our hearts it may seem justified because someone has done something to hurt us or to take something that belongs to us.\u00a0 In such cases anger may seem like a natural reaction.\u00a0 What would Jesus do in such a situation?\u00a0 He would forgive.\u00a0 He would let go of the anger.\u00a0 Then he would love.\u00a0 It isn’t easy but it is what Jesus would do.\u00a0 Isn’t it what Jesus does for each of us when we sin?<\/p>\n
We are meant to love but there is something that we can think is love but isn’t.\u00a0 It’s called lust<\/em>.\u00a0 We are meant to love one another and there is a special love meant to be from the beginning between a man and a woman as husband and wife.\u00a0 This love may begin with physical attraction but it grows beyond that.\u00a0 If the attraction is only physical and leads to impure thoughts it becomes lust and lust gets in the way of our ability to love.<\/p>\n Do you choose to love?\u00a0 It isn’t easy.\u00a0 Forgiveness is difficult.\u00a0 How do we know when we have become too focused on material things?\u00a0 Do we hold anger in our hearts? Do we love the person we see or is it lust?\u00a0 Always choose the way of love.<\/p>\n Peace,<\/p>\n Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be a lot of love in the world.\u00a0 Sad considering that Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love our neighbor.\u00a0 I believe we have an infinite capacity to love but in our humanness other emotions or misdirected love keep us …<\/p>\n