Deacon Tom's Homily for Sunday, November 19th; 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

OPEN OUR HEARTS, LORD, HELP US to love like You. Open our hearts, Lord, help us to love.

GOD IS LOVE – TOTAL, SELF-GIVING Love!

WE CAN ACTUALLY SEE God-on-the-Cross pouring Himself out totally…for us. Jesus holds nothing back.

HIS HEART IS PIERCED; IT IS completely open. He gives every drop of blood, every inch of Himself for us.

TODAY, WE PRAY FOR A HEART LIKE Jesus’ heart - the natural heart we once had a long time ago, before we first sinned.

JESUS-ON-THE-CROSS IS THE blueprint for our daily life. He tells us: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

WE EMULATE HIM BY POURING ourselves out for others.

THE GRACES, THE BLESSINGS THAT we receive, we, in turn, pour out on those around us – beginning with our family and friends.

WE SHOWER HIS COMPASSION EVEN on the stranger in the Shop-Rite who blocks our way with his cart and on the jay-walker who deliberately crosses right in front of our approaching car.

JESUS COMMANDS US: “BE compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.” The forgiveness God is showing us, we are to show to those who hurt us.

LIKE THE WORTHY WIFE IN TODAY’S first reading, we reach out our hands to the poor; we extend our arms to the needy.

EACH DAY, THE PATIENCE AND THE love God is pouring out on us, we pour out on everyone we encounter.

ONE DAY, OUR MASTER WILL return. He will require an accounting from each of us of all the gifts He has poured out on us – the forgiveness, His compassion, the patience, and all the love,

ARE WE PAYING THEM FORWARD? Are we giving His gifts with an open heart to those around us?

OR ARE WE HOARDING THEM, keeping them to ourselves? Are we ignoring His gifts, burying them in the ground?

SO TODAY, WE PRAY: OPEN OUR hearts, Lord, help us to love like You. Open our hearts, Lord, help us to love.