Treating People with Sincere Respect, Kind Attention and the Love of God

Fr. Paul Pecchie • November 3, 2023

Jesus, God incarnate, is giving us the meaning of life, the road to fulfillment, the secret to happiness.

But we have heard it so often that we have to make a special effort to squeeze the juice out of it. The key word is, obviously, love.



Usually, we associate this word with some pleasant feelings, intense and delightful emotions. But the word Jesus used means something much deeper. It is the word "agape", and it refers to the love that means desiring union with something that is good in itself. If we love ice cream, it means we love eating ice cream because it tastes good, we love becoming one with ice cream, entering into communion with ice cream. If we love a person, it means we love spending time with them, getting to know them, sharing the experiences of life with them. But using the word “agape” isn't quite enough.


Jesus wants to make completely sure we don't misunderstand. So, he explains how love applies to our two key relationships: with God and with other people. We must love God with all our heart, mind, and soul.


We must desire what God desires— this is the heart. We must value and understand all things the way God does—this is the mind. We must actively live in accordance with those desires and that understanding, choosing what God would choose in our place—this is the soul. Then, we must love our neighbors as we love ourselves; treating them as we would want them to treat us, regardless of how we feel. This is Christian love, not some passing, self-indulgent emotion, but a courageous lifestyle that puts God first, others second, and self, third. We see this truth vividly at work in the lives of the Saints, who gradually learned that Christian love is much more about what we decide to do than about what we happen to feel.


A remarkable Saint in this regard is Pope Gregory the Great, who died in the year 604 after 13 years in the papacy. He organized an army of volunteers to go through the streets of Rome daily to tend the sick, feed the poor, and place homeless families on farms around the city, which were leased to them for three generations. Every day, Pope Gregory fed at his own table twelve poor pilgrims, whom he insisted on serving himself.

One day when he entered the dining room to feed his guest pilgrims, he counted thirteen pilgrims instead of twelve. When he asked about the extra guest, his astonished steward insisted that they only had the usual number. "I am sure I see thirteen!" the Pope insisted. As the meal progressed, Gregory noticed that the face of this extra guest kept changing: first it looked young, then the same face would suddenly look middle aged, then old, and back and forth.


When he could stand the mystery no longer, Pope Gregory drew the strange man aside and asked him who he was. The stranger answered, "I am the angel whom God sent to you to prove your charity. Now, do not fear...God has sent me to be your guardian...Whatever you ask will be granted you through me." This is Christian love: a tireless, self-forgetful effort to put one's talents at the service of God by serving our neighbors, wherever God's providence places us. And this is the secret to true joy and fruitfulness. (St. Pope Gregory the Great By ©Tracy L. Christianson at www.portraitsofsaints.com)


As Saint Theresa of Lisieux wrote: "Jesus flooded the darkness of my soul with torrents of light... Love filled my heart, I forgot myself, and henceforth I was happy." This is what will fill our hearts and give our lives the meaning we so passionately long for: true, Christ-like love. There is no shortcut to learning Christ-like love.


It's like learning to swim, you really have to jump into the water and get wet. The Holy Spirit is a great instructor, but he can't make any progress unless we are willing to take the risk of diving in. So, the first thing we need to do is to tell God that we sincerely want to follow his commandments and love like he does; this is how we love God, by wanting what He wants. Holy Communion is the perfect time to make or renew this commitment.


After deciding to take the risk, we have to make sure there is nothing blocking God's grace inside of us, because without that grace, we can't make any progress. So, the second step to loving like Christ is making frequent use of the sacrament of confession—God's power-washing system. Once we have decided to do our best and made sure that no sins are sapping our supernatural strength, we are ready to get to work. This kind of work is very simple, but not easy.


It starts by treating those people closest to us with sincere respect and kind attention. We have to start with those close to us; with our family members, coworkers, team mates and classmates. It is easy to put on the appearance of Christ-like, over with people we don't have to deal with regularly. But we aren't interested in appearances, we are interested in the courageous lifestyle of Christian love, the only path to an everlastingly meaningful life. And that path means, with God's help, putting God first, others second, and self, third!

Inspired Reflections

Forty Days of Lent in the Desert

By Rev. Paul Pecchie • February 12, 2024
Pondering Responses to Temptations

Advent 2023

By Jerrie Castro • December 11, 2023
The Bethlehem Candle - A Symbol of Peace

The Three R's For Casting Out Demons

By Msgr. Stephen Rossetti • October 25, 2023
Exorcist Diary #200

What Is A Public Eucharistic Procession?

September 25, 2023
Just like Eucharistic Adoration, a Eucharistic Procession is an extension of the worship of Jesus Christ, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.
The Talking Teacup

The Story of the Talking Teacup

By Anonymous • August 24, 2023
There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful."

Prayers That Work

By Anna Marie Maagdenberg • August 21, 2023
We all want our prayers to work. Are there any guarantees?

The Importance of Parental Blessings

By Mary Ann Armstrong • August 4, 2023
Blessings were part of God’s original plan for mankind and are mentioned at least 640 times in the Old Testament.

In The Darkness We See Farther

By Monsignor Charles Pope • August 4, 2023
Pondering the Paradox of the "Dark Knowing" of Faith

The Fall Season And Biblical Harvest

By Kyra Riley Daniels • September 27, 2022
Daily Grace Blog

Dying To Sin

By Fred Ganssle • September 13, 2022
I pondered this morning, how Paul spoke about us being both “dead to sin” (Rom 6:11) and “dying” (2 Cor 6:9). In one sense, in thinking that the deed is already accomplished, he speaks about us as being “dead” , and reinforces that thought in Col. 2:20 and Rom 6:8 by saying that we have “died with Christ” , while in other places he speaks about this not having been accomplished, but in process . He must have thought about this analogy often, because in 2 Corinthians 4:10, he clearly speaks about this being a process by saying “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.” So then, I concluded from this meditation that through Baptism we have died with Christ. In Col 2:12 Paul says, “You were buried with him in baptism…” and in Rom 6:4 he says, “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death.” But after we are Baptized, as the Church teaches (CCC 418), our human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin. This leaning toward sin is called concupiscence, and because of concupiscence we are weakened. This struggle with sin is identified by Paul in Rom 6 and 7, where he states that our struggle—although the victory is accomplished in Baptism—is continually accomplished in the Sacrament of Penance where we are reconciled with Jesus and his Church (the Body and Bride of Christ) every time that we repent and celebrate this Sacrament initiated by him. The Gospel of John also reveals where Jesus confers the power of this Sacrament on the Apostles by saying, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them: Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Jn 20: 21-23 Therefore, we are dying to sin but we are to consider ourselves dead to sin. “…For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” (Rom 6:6) This is a great mystery of transformation that we can hopefully see unfold within us as we struggle, through our cooperation with God’s grace, to always stay united to Christ! by Fred Ganssle
More Posts
Share by: