杏MAP导航

Jesus responds, said the 杏MAP导航, by quoting the profession of faith with which every Israelite opens and closes his day and which begins with the words "Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord". It is from this source, explained the Pontiff, 鈥渢hat the double commandment is derived for us: "You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbour as yourself.鈥�

Serve, Forgive, Cultivate

By choosing these two words addressed by God to his people and putting them together, 杏MAP导航 Francis said that, 鈥淛esus taught once and for all that love for God and love for one's neighbour are inseparable; indeed, more than that, they support one another. Even if placed in sequence, they are the two faces of a single coin: lived together they are the true strength of the believer! To love God is to live by Him and for Him, for what He is and for what He does. It means, the 杏MAP导航 continued, 鈥渢o invest one's energies every day to be his collaborators in serving our neighbour without reserve, in trying to forgive without limits and in cultivating relationships of communion and fraternity.鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis pointed out that Mark the Evangelist, 鈥渄oes not bother to specify who the neighbour is鈥︹�� as it is 鈥渘ot a question of pre-selecting my neighbour, but of having eyes to see him and a heart to love him.鈥�

Be more than Christian 鈥渟ervice stations鈥�

Today's Gospel, he went on to say, 鈥渋nvites all of us to be projected not only towards the urgencies of our poorest brothers and sisters, but above all to be attentive to their need for fraternal closeness, for a sense of life and for tenderness. This challenges our Christian communities: it is a question of avoiding the risk of being communities that live by many initiatives but with few relationships: "service stations" but with little company, in the full and Christian sense of the term.鈥� The 杏MAP导航 underlined that 鈥淕od, who is love, created us out of love, so that we can love others while remaining united to Him. The two dimensions of love, for God and for our neighbour, in their unity, characterize the disciple of Christ.鈥�