Love Must Come First

        This morning someone at home required my attention, so I decided that I should skip morning Mass.  I really miss not receiving the Lord, but that's OK, because...  I remember the story of Juan Diego who had an appointment with Our Lady of Guadalupe that morning.  Then his uncle got sick and needed his attention, so Juan Diego just skipped his appointment with Mary and went to his uncle's house instead.  Obviously, that would be a difficult choice for some, but not to Juan Diego.  It turned out that Mary didn't mind at all when they met the next time.  Perhaps Juan Diego was being tested.  The lesson to me was that love must come first, even if it means missing a meeting with the Lord.

        My last thought is that we should be more like Juan Diego, a simple, honest, and humble person.  The trouble is that we live in a sophisticated, well-educated, and basically secular society; and we learned to advance and take care of ourselves first and make our decisions by weighing reward against cost to us.  We need to re-form ourselves.  I feel sorry for the children born into our world ~ it's going to be an uphill battle all the way for them.  The need to have God in our lives is more urgent than ever.