THE WORD AND THE SAINT
JANUARY 31, 2019 - FEAST OF ST. JOHN BOSCOHebrews 10: 19-25; Mark 4: 21-25
As children of God, we are children of love! It is not enough that you wish to love every one, you need to love in fact. It is not enough that you love every one, you need to inspire everyone to love! That is truly evangelisation - filling the world with good news! The good news that God wants to give the world is: God loves us and therefore we can love each other!
The first reading today has a call that summarises our Christian vocation to the full. To love is an undeniable vocation we have; to inspire each other to love and to goodness is the complete understanding of it. We would certainly fail, if we do not understand what we are called to: to love, to spread love and to fill this world with love, as an act of filling this world with God. Especially today when so much of hatred is spread around and forced on peoples and nations... we need to hold love out to this world in every way possible.
This is why the Lord speaks of the imagery of light: to be lighted to light up. It takes a lot of effort to truly love; to rouse others to love it takes much more effort, a lot of sacrifice and a great amount of dedication. Yes! but the key is right there and the Lord puts it neatly: the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you!
Let us thank God for the great person whom we celebrate today: St. John Bosco. At times as soon as we say that name people think of him as a proprietor of great big institutions and educational campuses. True, may be! But that was not who he was. He was a man who loved those whom no one wanted to love; he went after those who did not initially want to love him in return! But he gave without measure...he received it all absolutely without any measure! The best identity he liked for himself was: sign and bearer of God's love to the poor young! Let that we be...signs and bearers of God's love, inspiring each other to truly love!
This is why the Lord speaks of the imagery of light: to be lighted to light up. It takes a lot of effort to truly love; to rouse others to love it takes much more effort, a lot of sacrifice and a great amount of dedication. Yes! but the key is right there and the Lord puts it neatly: the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you!
Let us thank God for the great person whom we celebrate today: St. John Bosco. At times as soon as we say that name people think of him as a proprietor of great big institutions and educational campuses. True, may be! But that was not who he was. He was a man who loved those whom no one wanted to love; he went after those who did not initially want to love him in return! But he gave without measure...he received it all absolutely without any measure! The best identity he liked for himself was: sign and bearer of God's love to the poor young! Let that we be...signs and bearers of God's love, inspiring each other to truly love!