Meditation

LOVE: THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

When someone asked Jesus what the greatest commandment in the Jewish Law was, he quoted from the Torah: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and strength and mind, and your neighbour as yourself. In another place in the Gospel Jesus says, "I give you a new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you." CSJ spirituality is modeled on the loving relationships found in the Holy Trinity of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and in the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Jean-Pierre Médaille, Jesuit co-founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph, wrote that the very purpose of our Community is "the Total double union" of ourselves with God and with all that God has created.

THE TRINITY: SOURCE OF ALL LOVE

THE FATHER

In the Trinity we find three ways of relating. God the Father or Creator is the Source of all that exists. Jesus called God, "Abba", which means "Daddy" in English. The Fatherhood of God has nothing to do with gender or sex. Rather, it is a close and intimate relationship that is ALL-LOVE, a love that has no limits. It includes everyone without exception, all the time, regardless of what one does or does not do. What a challenge for us, for me. I am to love in the way God loves!

THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

In the first book of the Bible we learn that all creation came into existence through the power of the Word of God. Christians believe that this Word became "flesh", a human being. We read in the Gospels that at Jesus' baptism God called him "the Beloved" and that the Holy Spirit of Love came upon him.

Humanity was filled with divinity! What a great and wondrous mystery! God, the Word, the Beloved Son, became like us so that we all might become like God in our relationships. The Spirit of God worked through Jesus to heal, forgive and reconcile people, with God and with one another. This was the mission of Jesus, and it is we who continue this mission on earth.

THE HOLY FAMILY: MODEL OF HUMAN LOVING

JESUS

Father Médaille calls Jesus' activity on earth ZEAL. A zeal that never tires of doing God's work on earth. Sometimes Jesus forgot to eat or sleep because of people's hunger or need for healing or forgiveness. His one desire was to help others discover God's presence and love within and around them. The "kingdom" or reign of God has not yet come fully to this earth. There are still so many in need of love, of compassion, of healing, and of peace.

MARY

Here was a woman whose whole life was bound up in God's will! When presented with God's plan for the human race, her "How?" was answered by the promise that the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon her. This Spirit guided her every thought, word and action. She listened to God in prayer and reflected on what was going on around and within her. She was always alert to ways of responding to God no matter the personal cost. So it is for me and for all who are called by baptism to be sisters and brothers of Jesus. Mary, who taught Jesus how to live and act responsibly, teaches me to become more and more like him.

JOSEPH

Joseph, as abba (daddy) to Jesus, must have been the model for the kind of relationship Jesus later spoke of between himself and God. In Joseph, justice was balanced by compassionate love for the pregnant Mary and her child. Like any good father he passed on to Jesus his Jewish faith and religious traditions. He taught him the trade by which he supported his family and served his neighbours. Joseph's rich inner life brought him into a close relationship with God, who guided him through dreams in all the important moments of his life. What a marvellous patron for the Sisters of St. Joseph -- a model of loving communion among ourselves and compassionate love and hospitality toward others.

MY PRAYER

O God, how wonderful the life you have called us to live—centered on the Holy Trinity of Love and lived daily in the way each member of the Holy Family lived. How often I remind myself of Father Medaille's words to our first Sisters: Live in such a manner that you may be called the Congregation of great love of God, and in everything and everywhere your lives may proclaim this love. To this I answer: AMEN.

By Sister Grace Sauvé CSJ