What would our day look like if we started it by making an intentional effort to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind and then our neighbour as ourselves. I mean, I am sure if you looked at my life, and the lives of many of us here, we would not think those were commandments but perhaps suggestions. It is interesting to me anyways that these are commandments, not suggestions, so what am I doing to follow the commandments? I try to follow other rules with pretty good success but with the commands of God, how am I doing? Am I following the commandments?. I think most of us would say we are not making a daily intention to follow the two great commandments. Yet, if God has commanded, and He never commands frivolously, then I better start asking why and how I should do this. The commands of God are always life and death.
So what can I do? Well, it seems that I should start praying for the grace to love Him above all else. That would be a start.
Why does God make commands like this? If anyone else made it we would think what an egotistical selfish person to command us to love you. Can you command someone to love you? Apparently, since God has a perfect intellect He can and it must not be wrong. I feel it would be wrong for me to command you to love me, so how is it not wrong for God to command us to love Him? And what is the difference between me commanding and God?
The difference is God commands us for our sake. He doesn’t want us to love false and cruel gods. For us to worship and love God elevates us and perfects us and allows us to be what we are suppose to be. If I were to command you to love me, I perhaps would not have your best interests at heart but would be rather looking after my interests. Pursue the highest good and love is the highest good, and we are commanded to seek it first. With the strength that we get from doing the first, we can do the second. A reporter once spent some time with Mother Teresa. He noticed that she spent lots of time in prayer and lots of time helping people. The reporter remarked that she could do more if she didn’t waste time praying. She said, “I could not help anyone if I did not pray first.”
The second command is to love our neighbour. One of our neighbours who is often neglected is the souls in purgatory. During the month of November, the Church focuses on the souls of the deceased. In the Church there is a unity between the living and the dead. In fact, our Church is broken into three different groups: the Church Militant, that is us the living; the Church Triumphant, those are the saints; and the Church Suffering, which are the Holy Souls being purified. They are suffering because of the temporal consequence of their sins. Sin has a two-fold effect. There is an eternal effect. If it is mortal that means eternal punishment which is hell. And there is a temporal consequence which is two-fold, the damage and attachment they cause. When one goes to confession they have the eternal consequences wiped out and the temporal remain unless we do penance or seek indulgences. The souls in purgatory are part of our neighbours and they need prayers. Traditionally Catholics have offered Masses for souls and that is a good idea. During the month of November, a plenary indulgence can be applicable to the souls in purgatory or our own souls, and is granted each and every day from November 1st to November 8th to those who devoutly visit a cemetery and complete the usual conditions. The usual conditions are go to confession within seven days of receiving the indulgence, going to Holy Communion for each indulgence and saying an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be for the Holy Father’s intentions. It seems like a great blessing that we do not deserve, a simple act that can do so much good. It does seem too good to be true and, in truth, it is, that is why it is an indulgence. God, through the Church, is blessing us and we should accept this blessing for ourselves and our beloved dead. It is important that we pray for the dead; they cannot pray or suffer for themselves but we can and they can offer their prayers and suffering for us. They are good people to build relationships with, their prayers and suffering are powerful. As a Catholic, we are foolish to pray alone. We should always be inviting our guardian angel to join us, as well as asking holy souls and the saints to join us in our prayers. We can have a whole congregation praying with us.
God has commanded us to love Him and we should daily pray for that grace. He has also commanded us to love our neighbour as ourselves and during November we should make a special effort for the holy souls in purgatory.