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Given at Saint Francis Xavier, Winooski, Vermont. Readings for Today. Listen to our other homilies.
Liturgy and Action
There are only two rules. Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. And yet, these rules are challenging and difficult sometimes. It can be hard to love our neighbor, especially when our neighbor is difficult to love. And yet the insightful answer from the young man in the gospel helps us. Going beyond just stating the rules, the young man helps us to see there must be a connection. If we do not love God and our neighbor, it will be difficult to allow God to change us.
The premise in the General Instruction to the Roman Missal suggests that we should be radically different persons when we leave Mass than we were at the beginning. Celebrating the Eucharist, the body of Christ, means allowing Christ to change his community. For we are the body of Christ.
Liturgy is not magic. When we see the person of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, it should open our hearts and eyes to see him more clearly in our neighbor. We pray and pray over and over again the our liturgy will lead forth to the loving action that recognizes the person of Christ in all people.
