OCTOBER 25, 2026 ARCHBISHOP MARCEL DAMPHOUSSE
There are times in life where we sometimes kind of get confused, we get lost, we lose the sense of why we exist, our purpose in life. And that happens in many different realities of life – in our work, in our relationships, in our family lives, and even in our faith lives, in our call to be a missionary church.
Sometimes, when people take to heart this call to share their faith with others, and people question them about their faith, they kind of say, “Well, what is my faith all about? What is most important?”
And so, today we have a clear answer from Jesus to help us see what is at the very core of our Christian belief. We are told that a lawyer comes to him today asking him this question, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
And so, Jesus will refer to what is at the core of who we are created for: we are created for love. We need to remember that. A lot of people, I think, today, are depressed, are lost, are confused, just don’t know what to do with themselves because they’ve just forgotten how to love.
And so, Jesus invites us today to love God and to love our neighbour. They go hand-in-hand. And it’s a danger for us to just love God or just to love our neighbour. It’s a kind of a balance we need to find in this invitation that Jesus calls us to because it is at the very core of our being to love God with all of our heart.
Like, what does that really mean? I think if you give time, it’s really being intentional in your time for everything that you do that is done before God. And you say, “What am I doing today? Is that really showing the love, the respect that I have for God? Am I trying to please God in all things that I do?”
I think there’s something we need to check upon, day by day, as to, how much of God do I really love in all the things I do in life?
And then, to love our neighbours. It is not sufficient for Jesus to say, like, to just love God, that’s enough. For Jesus, it is just as important for us to love our neighbour. It is in our neighbour that we find God. It’s in our neighbour that we can show the great compassion and mercy that God has planted in our hearts.
And so, the more we live that very love, this vocation, maybe you can think of Saint Therese of Lisieux, who struggled for a time, she said, “I just wanted to know, Lord, how can I best please you? What is my calling?” And God revealed to her, you know, “Your vocation is to love.”
And so, Saint Therese, in her monastery as a Carmelite, she learned how to love God and to love her sisters in the convent, you know, in such a way that it mattered to her every moment of her life.
And so, let us ask the Lord to grant us that grace to be able to live that love in a very authentic way. And I tell you, your lives will change. You will rediscover the joy within your hearts to know that you are a true disciple of Christ and that, in Christ, you can please God in so many things.
So, let’s ask the Lord, through his holy Eucharist, to grace us, to bless us as we become more and more Christ-like in our day-to-day living. Amen.
