In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Lord gives a teaching on the greatest commandment. The Greatest Commandment, the highest priority of the life of the Christian is to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor.
All of us fall short of the greatest commandment, choosing to love the things of earth and the pleasures they bring more than their creator, choosing to indulge in vice rather than cultivate virtue, choosing to hoard rather than to generously give.
All of us fall short, but the saints come the closest. And that’s certainly true for the saint honored by the Church today, St. John Eudes, one of the great saints of the 17th century.
During the plague, he worked indefatigably to bring the sacraments to the dying. And while he was truly tireless in this work, he came to discern that the Church was infected as well and was in bad need of reform. There was rampant superstition among the uneducated, rampant immorality and ignorance among the lower clergy, pomposity and special privilege among the prelates of the Church.
And so as the plague subsided, he devoted himself to tirelessly preaching parish missions, earning the reputation of one of France’s greatest preachers.
His concern for the need for spiritual growth among the clergy prompted him to seek permission to found a new community, the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. The group was devoted to the proper formation of clergy in seminaries.
St. John also founded a religious community for women called the Sisters of Charity of the Refuge; they served former prostitutes who wished to change their lives and do penance. This group later became the Institute of the Good Shepherd, who served in the Diocese of Cleveland for a time, at the location which is now the diocesan seminaries.
“Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation,” he says “must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desire, and his disposition live and reign there.”
Now, father, you might be thinking, you told us that the beginning of the homily that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbor. But St. John Eudes is telling us that our chief preoccupation is to form Jesus in ourselves.
Of course, the two things are identical. For love has a name, love has a face, and it is Jesus Christ. Greater Love has no one, than the one who has laid down his life for us. We are able to love because he first loved us. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. The imitation of Christ is the practice of the love of God and neighbor. It is the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us that enables us to fulfill these commands. His Sacred Heart is to beat in our breasts.
May the great Saint John Eudes assist us by his heavenly intercession to be formed by God, to love God and neighbor, and to preach and teach that love by our lives for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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For the return of all who have wandered from the Sacraments, for those who do not believe in God and for those whose love for God has grown tepid, and for all those who sadly suffer from scrupulosity, for a trust in the Mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
That the young students of our school beginning classes next week may know the love of Christ in their families, that each school family may seek to practice right religion to the honor of God.
That the mercy of the Sacred Heart may bring peace to all those who suffer: for the sick and diseased, for those undergoing surgery this week, for the destitute and despairing, for all victims of war, violence, and abuse, and for those who will die today and the consolation of their families.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, and for N., for whom this mass is offered.
O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.
