love is a mandate 1st week lent saturday 2015

Have you sometimes asked yourself, why do I need to belong to a parish, why do I have to be in my community?  Partly the answer lies in our gospel today:  love is not a feeling, it is a command.  In Hiligaynon we say ang paghigugma indi lang balatyagon kundi tulumanon.  It is easy to say I love when I stay the whole day inside my room.  It is easy to say I love when I just stay the whole day inside the house.  It is easy to say I love when the whole day I am with the people I like.  Precisely we are a parish, we are a community because love is not a feeling but a command we need to fulfill.  

In the same way we grow in patience when we are bothered, when we are made to wait, when people disturb our routine.  We grow in forgiveness when people hurt us, when people trample my rights.  We grow in humility when we are ignored, when people do not give us the attention that we need.  We grow in diligence when we fight our laziness, when we go against our desire to take things easy.  We grow in temperance in front of good food, when we are presented with the richness of things pleasing to us and our senses.

The name Satan has a bad connotation nowadays.  He is evil.  But he was not always like that.  In fact he was an ally of God.  Specifically an advocate, a prosecutor who will expose the virtue or the guile of the defendant.

How can you prove temperance when the food is bad?  How can you prove forgiveness and humility when you surround yourselves with people who sing your praises?  How can you love when you lock yourself the whole day inside your room?

Love is not a feeling, it is a mandate we have to fulfill.  That is why we have a parish, we have a community.