Extract for the Day: Do you love God?

[Shin]

'If any one of you should be asked if he loved God, he would answer with entire confidence and complete conviction, "I do."

But you heard at the beginning of the reading what Truth said: "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word." The proof of love is its manifestation in deeds (1 Jn 4:16). This is why John says in his Letter: "He who says, 'I love God,' and does not observe his commandments is a liar" (1 Jn 2:4).

Our love is true if we keep our self-will in check according to his commandments. One who is still wandering here and there through his unlawful desires does not really love God, because he is opposing him in his self-will.

"And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

Consider, dearly beloved, how great this solemnity is that commemorates the coming of God as a guest in our hearts. If some rich and powerful friend were to enter your home, you would quickly clean the entire house for fear something there might offend your friend's eyes when he entered. Let any one then who is preparing his inner house for God cleanse away the dirt of his evil deeds.

You see what Truth tells us: "We will come and make our home with him."

He does indeed enter the hearts of some but does not make his home there, because through repentance they acquire respect for God, but during a time of temptation they forget that they have repented and so return to committing sins as if they had never wept over them at all.

The Lord comes into the heart and makes his home in one who truly loves God and observes his commandments, since the love of his divine nature so penetrates him that he does not turn away from it during times of temptation.

That person loves truly whose heart does not consent to be overcome by wicked pleasures. The more pleasure a person finds in lower things the greater is his separation from heavenly love.

"One who does not love me does not keep my words."

Dearly beloved, enter into yourselves and inquire if you truly love God. But let not one believe the answer his heart gives in his own case apart from the testimony of his works. Let him examine his words, his thoughts and his life concerning the love of his Creator. God's love is never idle. Where it exists, it does great things; if it refuses to work, it is not love.'

Pope St. Gregory the Great