St. Bede has a beautiful statement about the 2 greatest commandments of love in our gospel today. He says: “Neither of these loves is whole if it lacks the other, for you cannot truly love God if you do not love your neighbor, nor truly love your neighbor if you do not love God.” Homiliae, 2, 22 (Navarre Bible footnote)

I think the first statement is clear enough. I may have mentioned this before; but, it’s worth repeating. In her Dialogue, St. Catherine of Sienna once said to God that she wanted to love him with the same love with which He loved her. He responded that such love was impossible. His love is pure gift. He gets nothing from us. He can’t because He is perfectly full in Himself. Our love is a response in gratitude because everything we have, everything we are, we have received from Him. So it’s impossible for us to love Him as pure gift. However, He  went on to say to Catherine, you can love your neighbor, and I will take every act of love for your neighbor as a sign of your love for me.” So, the 2 go together. We cannot truly love God if we do not love our neighbor, and as St. John tells us “those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” 1 Jn 4:20.

But what about that 2^nd part – we cannot truly love our neighbor if we do not love God. That one’s not so obvious.

I think one big reason why it’s not so obvious is because that in our world when we think of love, we tend to think of the feelings of love. Now, feelings of love are a good thing. I feel love for Joni and my kids and grandkids and other family and friends. We all do, and that’s a good thing. But, there’s more to love than feelings.

I know people who are very worldly and who love in a worldly way. When a relationship gets difficult, they simply write the person off. From the worldly perspective, this makes sense. Why put up with difficult people.

But, Jesus says true love includes difficult people. He says if you only love those who love you, what good is that, even sinners do that. In the sermon on the Mount he goes through various illustrations of what true love looks like, loving our enemies, giving to everyone who asks, and so on, and then he tells us why – because then you will truly be children of your heavenly Father for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

So, again, the 2 go hand-in-hand. We cannot have true love of neighbor without love of God. God guides us in the way of true love. So our understanding of love is different from that of the world.

Probably the biggest divide with the world is in the area of sexual morality. So, I’m going to talk about one area which has been in the news this week, and that is homosexuality.

I ask you if you disagree with what I’m about to say, please talk to me. I don’t think I’m a jerk. This is important. See me after Mass or call the office, let’s talk.

The reason I bring up homosexuality is because of the jaw-dropping story this week about an interview with Pope Francis in which he seems to have said that he supports civil union laws for homosexual couples. He said this in the documentary film “Francesco” that premiered Oct 21 in Rome. The standard English translation of what he said is “What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered.” “I stood up for that.”

But, there is some debate about what he actually meant. Did he really mean “civil union” as generally understood, or, some form of legal protection that is not a homosexual civil union?  It’s not clear. Bishops began asking for clarity last Wednesday when this first came out, and so far, no response and that’s bad because at least in the English-speaking world, people think the Pope is giving tacit approval to homosexual unions, and it’s creating problems. It cuts down people who are trying to live the right way, and it affirms people who are living the wrong way and we need to do damage control. We need to support and build up those who are trying to follows God’s way, and to the extent we’re able, we need to correct and teach those who aren’t.

We don’t hate the Pope or condemn him for this confusion. He is our Holy Father. So, just like our own fathers, we don’t condemn them when they fall short in some way. We love them, we pray for them, and we should do the same with our Holy Father.

One last point, regardless of what he actually meant, this is not a teaching. It’s a statement he made during an interview. He is giving his opinion on a civil matter that may have moral implications; but, it’s not a teaching like an encyclical or apostolic exhortation where he intends to teach. The Church has always taught that homosexual behavior is gravely disordered and seriously sinful and that hasn’t changed.

Now, homosexuality itself. First, what has God revealed? Throughout Scripture, we see that homosexual behavior is strongly condemned. Notice the emphasis on behavior. It’s not the inclination, it’s the behavior that is condemned. There is not the slightest suggestion that it might be good or even neutral. It is always condemned. And, as I said before, the Church has always taught that it is seriously sinful. That’s the revelation. But, remember how I started. We cannot truly love our neighbor without the love of God. God guides us in the way of true love. So homosexual behavior is not the way to true love. And we can actually know this from experience.

There is an outstanding YouTube video titled “The 3^rd Way, Homosexuality and the Catholic Church”. It’s an interview of 3 homosexual men and 3 women who tell their story and explain why they chose to leave the homosexual lifestyle and live a life of chastity. I remember one of the guys saying that he started having conversations with a Priest about homosexuality and eventually just came to realize that that’s not what sex is for. It’s really that simple. It’s not what sex is for. Sex is for family. It’s for children and for uniting husband and wife so they can be strengthened as husband and wife and mother and father.

Richard Cohen was actively homosexual as a young man. He came to realize that his SSA was a result of childhood wounds. It took time but when the wounds were eventually healed he was healed of his SSA, or what he calls SSAD, same-sex attraction disorder. He has since helped thousands of men and women heal and transition. He’s emphatic that change is possible. In his book “Coming out Straight, Understanding & Healing Homosexuality”, he says this “today, it is politically correct to accept homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle. Yet, if we embrace someone’s homosexuality as normal and natural, their potential for wholeness will remain dormant beneath the wounds…”

The bottom line is this: God’s way is the good way, the loving way. The world’s way is not good. It is always good to follow the way of God. It is never good to follow the way of the world. That’s the first point. The second is this, we have a reliable source of God’s good way in the CCC of JP II and the Scripture. Anyone who says anything contrary to what is taught there is wrong. We don’t judge them, we love them, we pray for them, but, we don’t follow them – we stick with the truth that God has revealed. God bless you.