God wants to be a part of our lives

Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

I would like to address my words this morning to the children at Mass today – for two reasons: this is a special family Mass; and today a number of children are receiving Holy Communion for the first time.

Children, on one occasion Jesus was asked – “which is the greatest of the commandments?” He responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind” (Mt 22:37).

Why is this the most important thing to do?

God, as an extraordinary act of love, created the universe, and each of us are a special work of his creation.

Because God exists we exist. God sustains our life moment by moment.

And God has a loving plan for each of us. He not only gave us this human life but more importantly he wants us to have eternal life with him. It is out of love for us that he wants to be fully a part of our lives. He wants to help us and guide our lives along the right path.

When we live each day in union with God, then God can help and support us. God really wants to be a real part of our lives.

When God is in our lives then all that we are and do is influenced by his love and grace. We truly become the sons and daughters of God that we became when we were baptised.

God helps us grow into the people we should be. Right now God helps us to be good sons and daughters of our parents. He helps us love them. Each family is very special in the eyes of God, because the family is where we learn how to love.

When we know that God loves us and that we want to love God in return then we want to show it in our family. We want to do little or big acts of love – to our parents, to our brothers and sisters.

This is how we can help our family to be a loving family.

This is why Jesus said in the Gospel today: ‘You cannot be my disciple unless you love me more than you love your father and mother”. Jesus wants us to grow closer to him and to God the Father first so that we can love our father and mother (and brothers and sisters) more. This is the way to do it. This is the correct order – God first and then our family.

When we allow the love of God to flow into our hearts, then we find that we are able to love our family.

St John never tired of saying that God is love. He constantly reminds us that we can love because God loves us. The source of all love is God Himself.

It is like the weather here in Tasmania as we are moving into spring. When the sun shines – as it does today – we feel its warmth and we become warm. When we are in the shadows the cold creeps into us.

God wants us to stand in his love, like standing in the sun. Let the love of God warm your heart. When our hearts of full of the love of God then we find it so easy to love others, especially our family.

On this Father’s Day I am sure that you want to show your father that you love him. I hope that you have done this already today. Today at this Mass we can show our love for our father in a special way by praying for him, asking God to bless him.

Today some of you will receive Holy Communion for the first time. This is a special moment in your life.

This is another expression of the wonderful love of God for us. Jesus wanted to be with us in the most intimate of ways – he wanted to dwell in our hearts.

You will come up to the altar. I will hold the host before you and say, “Body of Christ”. You will answer, “Amen”. Yes! This is Jesus the risen Lord who wants to come into my heart because he loves me so much.

So at Mass today let us all celebrate the great and constant love of God – for each of us, for our fathers, for our families.

Archbishop Julian Porteous

Sunday, 4 September 2022