FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK
My Dear Parishioners
One of the great blessings of my priesthood was spending my first three years at St. Joseph in Mendham, which had the oldest church building in our diocese that dates to 1853. I loved encountering the diversity of Mendham and soaking in the beauty of that magnificent chapel. But my favorite part was interacting with the abundant young children who made up the parish school and teaching them about the Church and our beautiful chapel. One of my favorite memories involved me giving a tour of the chapel in all its beauty, and one of the kids asking me, “Is this yours? Do you own it?” It was an understandable question, and I simply replied, “No, it belongs to all of us!”… to which the little boy gasped in amazement, and responded, “Wow… I’m rich!”
What a great response! He was confident that the treasures of the Church were his treasures as well! He was not annoyed or upset that money had been used to build a beautiful Church. Even in his youth, he was confident that a beautiful Church showed people’s love for the Lord, and a desire to give their very best back to their Creator.
However, my favorite part of the chapel was not the beautiful altar or stencil work on the ceiling, but when the school children came to worship together as a class and bring a can of soup or vegetables for the Market Street Mission in Morristown.
This is exactly the rhythm intended by the Lord in our Gospel this weekend. At first glance, it seems strange that Jesus expresses that the first and greatest law is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. He is God, after all, so He’s demanding that love for Him needs to come first? And loving everyone else comes after that? The modern world tells us something very different… be nice to your neighbor, and then, if you have extra time and resources, you can give them to God. But He would be upset if you wasted it on Him in the first place.
Jesus doesn’t put love of the Lord as the first and greatest law because He is needy and annoyed when we love other things. He knows that if we don’t return our best to our Creator, then nothing else makes sense. If I try to love other things without loving God, I quickly burn out and become bitter. Maybe I can love my neighbor in certain situations, but it quickly runs out and becomes stale. Because I am made in the image and likeness of God, my life will never make sense until I return my best to Him. Once I give God my whole heart, soul, and mind, everything else is unlocked. When I give God my very best, it isn’t that I have less to give to others… I actually have more to give, because I am more connected to my Creator!
This is why beautiful Churches and Holy Hours are not wastes of resources and time, as the modern world tells us. They are the prerequisite to true service and self-gift. At the same time, a supposed love of the Lord that doesn’t overflow into love of my neighbor is tragically lacking. One who truly gives their best to the Lord cannot help but overflow into service of neighbor. The two go hand in hand.
In the life of the Christian, there is no dichotomy between love of the Lord and love of neighbor. The two feed each other, and the quaint chapel and school children bringing food to the less fortunate are a powerful image of this. Am I giving the Lord my best? Or am I holding things back from my Creator? And does my love of the Lord send me out the back door into service and love of those in need? When we give the Lord our best, we are indeed rich, and we enrich the lives of all those around us.
Peace,
Fr. Monteleone
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