Sunday, November 29, 2009

love vs fear

I went to St Mary for sunset mass yesterday. and I felt very blessed to be able to hear the homily given by Fr John Wong. here is the excerpt:

the opposite of love is not hatred
hatred makes us unhappy, but most of the time the person that we hate can't even be bothered about our hatred. and so in the end, the hatred hurt ourselves

the opposite of love is fear
fear or rejection, fear of letting ourselves being too close to others, fear of being manipulated
fear prevent us from from doing act of love
fear prevent us to show that we care for others
fear is the opposite of love

the oppsotite of justice (integrity) is not law-less-ness
law-less-ness often root in person that was hurt, that was betrayed

the opposite of justice is apathy
justice no longer exist, if we can't even be bothered about what's happening around us
justice no longer exist, if we don't care of what's happening to our brothers and sisters

I might not get the exact words from the homily. but this is what i understand from the homily: fear prevents us from loving and apathy eradicates justice from people who needs it

Lord, thank you for the understanding you've given me today
teach me to love without fear
teach me to care about others around me, to never let justice be taken from those who deserve it

2 comments:

Julie said...

Thank you for those wonderful, inspiring words, which remind me of Dorothy Day*. Quoting the New Testament, she said, "Perfect love casts out fear." Also, her tombstone reads "Deo Gratias."

*http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/

ontheway said...

I love reading your blog. We have much in common, considering the mood-swings. I hope you're doing better? Please come blog again.