Much has changed in the past few days, in Austria and\nin many other countries. We\u2019ve had to hold back in many areas, while in others\n(hospitals, food supplies, personnel management, emergency services, etc.) work\nhas become much more intense? To\nwhat purpose? In many areas we cut back out of love of neighbor, in order\nto protect others, as ourselves, from infection. In other areas more work is\ndone, also in the service of love of neighbor, who have basic needs even in crisis\nsituations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\nhas true value?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If the current situation is unaccustomed and, in some\nrespects, uncomfortable and unsettling, we can still use it to reflect on what\nis truly important, what makes us truly happy, what is truly meaningful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I moved from Zillingdorf to Vienna last year, I used\nthe occasion to clean out various things I don\u2019t really need, that had and have\nsome value but that taken as a whole were just to much. The coming weeks and\nmonths can be for all of us a time of reflection and rethinking, in our own\nhousehold or family, country and in the whole world. Many things are good, but does\nit really make sense, to build the economy on the basis of unending growth? Do\nwe have to get in the car and drive to the mountains or lake, in order to get\nsome exercise and enjoy nature?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Love\nof God and Neighbor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus takes up and confirms the Mosaic Law: \u201eYou shall\nlove the Lord, your God, with your whole heart and soul, with all your thoughts\nand with all your strength\u2026 and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. No other\ncommandment is greater than these two.\u201d (Mk 12,30-31) Might the events and changes,\neven the concerns of these days, be an occasion to focus more on this\nfundamental aim and outlook?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not simply moralizing or preaching, it\u2019s a\nmatter of our happiness, just as that is the goal of the commandments\nthemselves. What makes us truly happy? Travelling for vacation, the ability to\nconsume fresh fruit from all over the world at any season of the year, the\nconcerts, etc.? Or is it rather attentiveness for one another and concern for another,\nsolidarity and cooperation, everything that we summarize in the short word \u201clove\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will make it through this time, and we may, I hope\nwe come out with a greater love for life itself, for the simple things in life,\na greater love for god and our neighbor, and a greater awareness, that that is what\ncounts most in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Much has changed in the past few days, in Austria and in many other countries. We\u2019ve had to hold back in many areas, while in others (hospitals, food supplies, personnel management, emergency services, etc.) work has become much more intense? To what purpose? In many areas we cut back out of love of neighbor, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pathsoflove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}