“Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake and bring it to me. Afterwards you can prepare something for yourself and your son. For the LORD, the God of Israel, says: The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth” (1 Kings 17:13-14).

 

The major theme for this 32^nd Sunday in the Ordinary Time invites us to live out a total commitment to God’s service with a humble and generous heart, free from pride and prejudice, exercising and maintaining total faith in the divine providence, trusting in God’s merciful love and fulfilling God’s will in order to obtain our salvation.

 

The readings concretely demonstrate how we can fulfill the greatest commandment of God and Christ: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength… You shall love your neighbor as yourself” which preceded just a few verses before this Sunday’s Gospel reading.

 

As we mentioned last Sunday, Love is the most powerful force in the universe and it is the essence of God that elevates humanity to divinity. When we love we participate in the divine essence of God and in our own divinization. However, we need to love correctly and properly, which means that we need to love God above all and to love others as ourselves as Christ Jesus commanded us to do.

 

Without God nothing can exist. Therefore, our love for God in fact is our necessity and response to God who has loved us first. As St. John proclaims: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21). Therefore, loving our neighbors is the measurement and concretization of our love for God.          

 

God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topics invites us to love and trust God above all else by loving and caring or our neighbors.

 

How can we concretize and fulfill Christ’s commandments, love God, acknowledging our total dependence on Him and love our neighbor as ourselves?

 

Wishing everyone a blessed week in the Lord.