Parsimonious

Dear friends

This week’s Gospel is central to our Christian faith. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbour as you love yourself.

I notice that Jesus says that you are to love with all your heart, soul, mind and with all your strength. Loving our neighbour in totality. We cannot say we love God if we do not love our brother or sister. The emphasis is on all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

It is at times very human to be parsimonious. That is, to be frugal to the point of stinginess. Jesus teaches us that to be parsimonious has no place in the life of a Christian. For Christ, it is all or nothing. He was quite strong in telling His disciples that He wants our love to be full on. He spoke about being lukewarm in love and reprimanded His disciples that He would prefer us to be full of love or nothing at all. He reminds us to mean it when we say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. There is no space for “in- between”.

Like a marriage, our love for Jesus and others must be full of fruits. “Yes” or nothing. We must mean what we say by our actions. That is why love of God cannot exist without love of neighbour. Real love is action. It is empty without my hands and feet taking me to love God in my brother and sister.

In this holy month of November, the month of the Holy Souls, our attention is drawn to the real communion we possess with those who have died, in what we call the “Communion of Saints.”
​
The sacred memory of our loved ones who have gone before us, impels us to pray for them, to pray to them and to remember with gratitude all they have done for us. The pain of grief is sacred. Remember that “Jesus wept” after hearing the news of the death of his friend Lazarus. Our prayers and love go out to all our parishioners who grieve and we hold the sacredness of that love in every Mass, where we acknowledge the death and resurrection of all our loved ones, in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

God love you
Fr. Frank

Top of the page

Button Text