Meditation October 25, 2026

This Sunday we receive a double commandment, that of loving God, and one's neighbor as oneself. Love in three directions:
- Start with God, this God of goodness from whom all good comes, without whom there is no good and from whom all good proceeds, as Saint Francis of Assisi said. Legend has it that he was so amazed by this divine love that he cried because “love was not loved.”When violence is rampant in our fractured societies, in countries torn apart by fratricidal wars and oppression of all kinds, love is not loved. It is not "the fault of love". Could it be due to the resistance that we have, to those of our deviant freedoms? “I place before you life or death, blessing or curse. So choose life …” Deut 30,19To go to the source of love and radiate it, it is a beautiful program of life but we are not told that it is always easy.However, opening one's heart, soul and mind to the love that is God, in the silence of prayer can give just the strength to take each morning a step towards the other, a step for the other, a step with the other.
- Going to each other as a brother, as a sister because we have only one Father who is in heavenThis culture of encounter comes to us, according to Francis, the saint as well as the pope, from this conviction of belonging to a great human family that God looks upon with the goodness of a Father who begets us while waiting to be recognized by the sons and daughters that we are. Beyond the natural sympathy towards certain relatives, it is to fraternity with all that we are called, those close to us as well as those far away. Would this love be born of an active compassion resulting from the intimate recognition of a shared humanity?
- Such a shared humanity then requires loving yourself as another. A Franciscan fioretti illustrates in my opinion this commandment to love in 3 directions: the unbearable leper. A fraternity cared for lepers but among them, one could not stand himself to the point of being unbearable towards the brothers and blaspheming against God. Saint Francis arrives and the brothers ask him what to do: continue to treat this leper or not sincehe was blaspheming against God. Francis decides to go and meet this leper brother who is so difficult! He starts by praying and then goes to ask him what he can do for him.
The patient explains that he smells so bad that he can't stand himself. Immediately, Francis heated water where he threw fragrant herbs and washing the leper, he healed and reconciled himself with God, himself and all the brothers!
Taking this path of love echoes this simple word of Micah the prophet: "It has been made known to you, man, what is good, what the Lord requires of you: nothing but to practice justice, to love with tenderness and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 8: 6)