http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102311.cfm
Reflections:
Sometimes, all we need to feel alive, is a simple love.
This week’s Gospel and readings simply remind us that God loves us, no matter who we are: alien or neighbour, poor or rich. The best way to show this and to reciprocate God’s love, is through our actions – by keeping our promises, living with integrity, and being compassionate to all among many other things. In fact, as the hymn goes, “they’ll know we are Christians by our love”. And that’s the simple yet rich message that I took away this week.
Last night, a friend and I were sharing our exchange experiences since leaving Singapore and she brought up her faith journey. She’d found a community in London that met every week for bible sharing with their chaplain. It was something she’d never expected herself to participate in, since she wasn’t big on the bible. Nonetheless, she found a calling to be with this community and she ended off saying, “Now I know why God took me out of Singapore.”
It got me thinking about my own faith journey since coming to Europe. I hadn’t joined any Catholic communities since setting foot in Belgium, I wasn’t active in the church I was attending and at best, I felt like a Sunday Catholic. But as I started thinking about my whole Europe experience, I realised I’ve fallen more in love with God.
Living in a foreign land where I can’t really understand the people around me, makes me feel alien, all the time. For a very Catholic country, it also hasn’t been easy for me to find a church to attend mass in. So finding an English speaking, Franciscan community was truly a blessing! Every week, It takes me 4 hours to travel back and forth to get to mass but it’s the one thing I’m really excited about. Going through all sorts of trials here has also taught me to always give thanks for especially the small things because these are reminders and gestures of love from God when I’m feeling particularly unloved and useless.
Love doesn’t need to be grand to be powerful; God didn’t specify how to show our love in the two greatest commandments, He simply asked us to love – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”, and in the same way, “love your neighbour as yourself”. These are commandments of simple love; how we act reflects how much love we are willing to invest in God, others and ourselves. Jesus’ sacrifice was the epitome of love and these two commandments put into action – He died on the cross because He loved God and He loved us.
Love can’t be seen, physically touched or heard, yet we all know how much it means to love and to be loved. So don’t underestimate the power in a simple smile or that little ‘thank you’ – all these are gestures and reminders to someone that they matter cos that’s how God’s love reaches out to the rest of the world – through you. J
