20260612 FINDING THE CAPACITY TO LOVE LIKE JESUS
12 June 2026, Friday, The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
First reading |
Deuteronomy 7:6-11 |
The Lord set his heart on you and chose you
Moses said to the people: ‘You are a people consecrated to the Lord your God; it is you that the Lord our God has chosen to be his very own people out of all the peoples on the earth.
‘If the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, it was not because you outnumbered other peoples: you were the least of all peoples. It was for love of you and to keep the oath he swore to your fathers that the Lord brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know then that the Lord your God is God indeed, the faithful God who is true to his covenant and his graciousness for a thousand generations towards those who love him and keep his commandments, but who punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He is not slow to destroy the man who hates him; he makes him work out his punishment in person. You are therefore to keep and observe the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I lay down for you today.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 102(103):1-4,6-8,10 |
The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his blessings.
The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear.
It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and compassion,
The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear.
The Lord does deeds of justice,
gives judgement for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses
and his deeds to Israel’s sons.
The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear.
The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy.
He does not treat us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our faults.
The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear.
Second reading | 1 John 4:7-16 |
Let us love one another, since love comes from God
My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.
God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him;
this is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God’s love for us when he sent his Son
to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.
My dear people,
since God has loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
but as long as we love one another
God will live in us
and his love will be complete in us.
We can know that we are living in him
and he is living in us
because he lets us share his Spirit.
We ourselves saw and we testify
that the Father sent his Son
as saviour of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God lives in him, and he in God.
We ourselves have known and put our faith in
God’s love towards ourselves.
God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and God lives in him.
Gospel Acclamation | Mt11:29 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Shoulder my yoke and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 11:25-30 |
You have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children
Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’
FINDING THE CAPACITY TO LOVE LIKE JESUS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Dt 7:6-11; Ps 103:1-4, 6-8, 10; 1 Jn 4:7-16; Mt 11:25-30]
The Gospel today is consoling to all of us without exception. All of us feel the weight and burden of life and its responsibilities. Whether it is looking after the family, our children, or the elderly, it can be a great challenge trying to deal with their demands. Or, in our work, whether as bosses or employees, the stress, anxieties, and trials can weigh us down. And over and above all these stresses and concerns, some of us have to bear our responsibilities whilst suffering from ill health or even terminal illness. Many times, we feel like giving up because we cannot seem to find the strength to continue to give of ourselves.
It is in such a predicament that the words of our Lord are such a blessing and consolation to us: “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.” Hearing His words immediately makes us feel that Jesus identifies with us and understands our burden. Surely, He understands what it is like to labour and be overburdened because of obstacles and difficulties. We can be sure that Jesus, as a man, faced multiple challenges even when He sought to enlighten and help the Jews in His ministry. In spite of His unconditional love for them, He was misunderstood, used, taken for granted, abused, falsely accused, insulted, beaten, and ultimately, betrayed.
This is why today, after celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Church sums up the entire Paschal Mystery of Christ in the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. In Jesus, we see the heart of God; in Jesus, we come to know the inner life of God – how He feels and how He loves us. Jesus loves us with a human and divine heart. The divine love of God is present in the person of Jesus, who is not an abstract love, but one demonstrated in His humanity. For us to understand the heart of God’s love, it is necessary to contemplate the human heart of Jesus. Only He can reveal to us the heart of His Father. For this is what the Lord said: “Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
What is the Father’s love like? Moses tells us He has chosen us in love and for love. His love for us is unconditional and without any merit of our own. Moses told the people of Israel. “You are a people consecrated to the Lord your God; it is you that the Lord our God has chosen to be his very own people out of all the peoples on the earth. If the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, it was not because you outnumbered other peoples: you were the least of all peoples.” Indeed, God chose Israel not because they were great but because they were small – not because they were important but because they were the least among all peoples. That is how God sees us. Out of His graciousness, He chose us to be His own.
And God did all these simply because He loves them as His own. He saw their cries and miseries. Moses reminded the people, “It was for love of you and to keep the oath he swore to your fathers that the Lord brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” God said to Moses, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Ex 3:7f)
In the Gospel, Jesus repeats these words in a similar manner. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” (Jn 15:13-17)
Even when His love is rejected again and again by His people, God never forsakes them. One of the most moving passages in the Scriptures is God’s words of compassion spoken through Hosea. He said, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” (Hos 11:8f) And in Isaiah, when Israel accused God saying, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” His reply was, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” (Isa 49:14-16)
This fidelity and love are fully shown in the death of His only Son. St John wrote, “My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love. God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.” Our capacity to love comes from this awareness and consciousness of God’s prior love for us, especially on the cross, with Jesus sacrificing His life for us to show us the mercy and love of our heavenly Father. And as St Paul reflected, “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?” (Rom 8:31f)
The consequence of realising God’s utter love for us in Christ is the call to love others as St Paul wrote, “For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” (2 Cor 5:14-15) As we love others, we come to experience God’s love in them. In feeling with those who suffer, we enter into the heart of God’s love and mercy as well.
So, if we feel that God does not care about us in our sorrows and difficulties, the Scriptures clearly show that this is not what the people of God throughout the ages experienced. The testimonies of God’s faithful and compassionate love are found all over the Scriptures. The psalmist proclaims, “The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear.” To come to Jesus, who shows us the Heart of God, humility is what is required. Humility leads to receptivity. Only the humble can come to appreciate God’s love, not the intellectuals. We do not need to be Scripture scholars or theologians to receive God’s love. The Lord assured us, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.”
To encounter His love, we must open our hearts to the Lord in prayer and friendship. We must allow Him to dwell in us and fill us with His love, especially when we pray before the Blessed Sacrament or receive Him in the Eucharist – and particularly when we contemplate the Heart of Jesus. His is a heart that feels with us, that cries with us, that shares our sorrows, and a heart that is always forgiving and non-judgmental. Let us come before Him and find strength from His love for us, so that we can truly also say, “Make our hearts like unto thine, O Lord.” This is the secret to overcome all trials in love. With John, we can say, “We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves.”
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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