YES GOD LOVES ME, AS YOU REPEATEDLY SAY, BUT DO I LOVE GOD?

Two sisters aged 16 went to a Party.  Their Father asked them to be home at 10pm and they both said they would.   When it was coming up to 10pm one of the girls said We must get home now"   The other said "No I am enjoying myself too much"  "But what will Father say?" came the reply.   "O we need not bother with Father he loves us too much to care what time we go home"  Well I am going because I love my Dad"   So one sister left and the other remained, drank too much and was raped.

In being obedient to her father the first sister was safe.   In disobeying her father the second got hurt.   And look at the flippant way she took her fathers love for granted.    'As long as my Father loves me I can do what I like' was her attitude.   The obvious question is just how much she loved her father when she could behave in such a way.

When asked what the greatest Commandment was Jesus replied "Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your should, with all your mind and with all your strength"  Now do you know anyone who really loves God in this way.   Well you may ask how can I judge.   It is quite easy if you love God you will listen to what He asks of you.  "If you love me keep my Commandment" Jesus said.    "But He commands us not to sin and that is too difficult"  "Father says that as long as we love one another and give to the poor we can forget about sin because God loves us.  And so what there is no Hell, he says, Jesus was just exaggerating".

So we become just like the girl at the party.  Her father knew the dangers she could run into if she stayed out too long.   And Our Father in Heaven knows the dangers we face when we break any Commandment    When we steal we hurt someone.  When we use another body for pleasure rather than love we hurt the person and turn our backs on Him to gratify our lust.  It hurts us too for we are unprepared for the Sacrament of Marriage and it demand on us.   When sin was belittled by the Reformers in the Sixties and Seventies it almost wiped out Catholic Marrage, indeed recent statistics from Scotland show that more Gays married than Catholics.    We are certainly called to care for the poor but in the definition of the poor we must include the children who grow up in in problem families where the children feel lost, hurt, and when they go to Church and hear Father talk about the Love of God they shake their heads and on leaving wipe the dust of that community from their feet.

So do you love God with all your heart and all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.   Perhaps it is safer to talk about the loving Community.  

 

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