Please read the passage before the homily.
What is love? The gospel tells us to love God with our whole heart and our neighbors as ourselves. Love completes the law and the prophets.
IN our liturgy, the first reading is chosen to reflect the passage from the gospel. This is love: “Do not oppress the stranger because you once were strangers in Egypt. You shall not exploit widows and orphans. You
Shall not charge exorbitant fees for lending money.
Our neighbors are the poor and they have rights to our love. If the poor do not receive this love, they will cry out to God because they have not received it.
We have a duty to love the poor and the stranger; we have to give then their rights. The infant in the womb of the mother has the right to live. The mothers of babies have the right to the food, water, medicine and care needed to sustain the lives of both other and child. Refugees and migrants need to receive service from us. Not to provide the necessities for life is to abort or kill those who need these things.
The way we love the poor is the measure of our love for God. If we do not love the poor whom we can see, we do not love the God we cannot see.
It is easy to receive love when we are poor, but it is hard to give our love to those who have hurt us. We show our love for Go when we forgive those who have hurt us.
Our love for God is not something secret, private or personal. Rather it is social, from the community and for the community.
If we do not love those whom we can see, we do not love the God whom we cannot see. We shall love the God our God with our whole heart and our neighbors as ourselves.