Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praised be Jesus and Mary.
First reading this morning comes from the first letter of St. John.
And in just seven verses, he says four times to remain in God.
So it must be something very important to remain in God.
And it is very important because that's really what determines whether we are saved or whether we are lost.
Whether we remain in God and are in God and God is in us at the moment of our death
will determine whether we are saved or whether we are lost.
We remain with God and God in us for all eternity.
And so St. John, knowing this, says very often and exhorting us,
Remain in God.
God is love.
And whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
Okay, so we need to remain in God by remaining in love.
And he gets more practical.
With his advice or his counsel, his exhortation when he says,
If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is brought to perfection in us.
So if we love one another, God remains in us.
So we must love our neighbor in order for God to remain in us.
We must have a goodwill for our neighbor.
Okay.
We must observe.
We must observe the seven last of the Ten Commandments,
the last seven which pertain to our neighbor in order that God remain in us
and that we remain in God.
We should practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy
to ensure that God remains in us.
And then St. John says there are some signs.
And then St. John says there are some signs.
To know whether we remain in God and God in us.
He says,
Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God.
All right.
So there's another condition.
Acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God.
He says,
This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,
that he has given us of his.
Spirit. This is how we know. So if there are the signs of the Holy Spirit, the activation
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us, which we know by heroic virtue, right? If a soul
is practicing heroic virtue, we know that that can only be done by means of the gifts
of the Holy Spirit, and therefore the Spirit is in that person. And we know that God is
in that person, and that person is in God. And this is how we go about canonizing saints.
So we know that God remains in us, and we remain in God if we have his Spirit, if we
practice heroic virtue, if we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, and if we love
our neighbor.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Amen.