What the world needs now is love, TRUE love! Being Catholic is all about love -- love of God and love of neighbor. And all it takes is an act of the will. Now, obedience, which St. Augustine says is our first step towards love, is an act of the will. The question then is – obedience to whom and what?

Today’s gospel text gives us the answer. Jesus says,

"If you keep my commandments(if you obey my will), you will ABIDE in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and ABIDE in his love."

Our obedience, therefore, is to God and His commandments. Yet one might ask, what are these commandments? We know about the Ten! The gospels tell us that Jesus summed them up into two great commandments. We read in the gospel of Mark that a scribe asked Jesus, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." [Mark 12:28-31]

My brothers and sisters, Jesus tells us that the whole law rests on these two. It is Jesus' WILL and COMMAND that we conform OUR will to these two great commandments. Therefore, as baptized Christians it is our duty to strive to LOVE God and one another. And this is not without reward. This command to LOVE comes with a promise. The act is not in vain. The act is not frivolous. Jesus says, "These things I have spoken to you, that MY joy may be in YOU, and that YOUR joy may be COMPLETE."

To have God’s love in us -- and to love both God and neighbor -- will certainly bring joy into our lives and the lives of those we touch. But we live in a time when love has a counterfeit. Where the words and the actions only add a sugar coating to a fraudulent imitation. TRUE love, on the other hand, finds its origin in God. As our second reading tells us, "Beloved, let us love one another, because love IS OF GOD". But this counterfeit love finds its origin elsewhere. And that elsewhere is called selfishness. It's this self-centered love that we need to avoid. At its root we find all the vices or what we call the capital sins or Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Envy, Anger, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth or (physical and spiritual laziness).

Dante Alighieri was a Catholic layman of the middle ages who wrote "The Divine Comedy" -- which is really three epic poems in Italian: "Inferno", "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso". These poems are about Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, respectively. In his writing, Dante considers the capital sins as OFFENSES AGAINST LOVE. He sees pride, envy and anger underlying what he calls Perverted Love. Greed, gluttony and lust underlie Excessive Love of Earthly Goods. And sloth, especially spiritual laziness, is at the heart of Insufficient Love.

These counterfeit types of love can be seen everywhere in our culture. They manifest themselves in acts such as abortion, euthanasia, pornography, and prostitution. We see them in government, big business and Hollywood. And yes, we find them in our own lives if we don't work towards eliminating them -- and if we fail to recognize that the "Seven Deadlies" are at the root of the problem. Through physical and spiritual laziness our love can become an insufficient love of God and neighbor. Through lust and gluttony our love can become adulterous and/or extremely self-centered. And through anger, pride and envy it can become perverted and even deadly.

What's frightening is that so many do not see the connection between the seven deadly sins and counterfeit love. In August of 1993, for instance, MTV did a special on the Seven Deadly Sins which involved interviewing various well-known entertainers from the music and television industry. They pretty much all agreed that these VICES were NOT VICES at all and that the list of seven was "DUMB" and INTOLERANT. Is it any wonder that there are so few long lasting marriages amongst these elite?

Yet there is room for great hope. There is a path for us to follow that will avoid these counterfeit types of love. A path that can teach us to love with TRUE Love.

But first, let's answer a couple of questions. "What is true love? And how do we live it and embrace it? Jesus tells us in today's gospel, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." Now the ultimate expression of this is no less than giving up one's life for the good of another. This is accomplished through unconditional and sacrificial love. But to "lay down one's life" for another isn't restricted only to physical death. When we offer our lives -- our time and possessions and desires and talents -- for the benefit of others -- we "lay down our lives".

The best example I can give of this type of charity is in the life of someone most of you know. You've prayed for him over the past several years as he prepared for ordination to the priesthood. His name is Father Juniper Mary Sistare. He is a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal down in New York City. We will be honored later today as he celebrates his first Mass back here at his home parish. Forgive me for I am understandably biased -- Father Juniper is my cousin. Regardless of my loving bias, this man, as well as all the Friars, has devoted himself to working with the poor, the outcasts, the homeless, the addicts, all the undesirables! These men have my utmost respect and admiration. Why? Because they are living examples of the gospel of love. They are witnesses to the True Love Jesus Christ has called us to. They are examples of how to walk the virtuous path that Jesus himself walked. May God bless them in their works of charity.

The path to true love, my brothers and sisters, is by way of living a virtuous life. The path is through Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

If we want to avoid the vices that will derail our efforts to lead holy lives we need only practice the virtues and follow the example of Jesus' life and those who imitate him so well, like the Franciscan Friars. You want to overcome pride -- practice humility. You want to overcome greed -- practice generosity. You want to overcome envy -- practice love as St' Paul taught us --

"love is patient, it is kind, it rejoices with the truth. It's not jealous, it's not pompous, it's not inflated nor rude nor self-centered."

It's certainly not the kind we see on TV or in Hollywood or in Cosmopolitan Magazine.

You want to overcome anger -- practice kindness. You want to overcome lust -- practice self-control through mortification or self-denial. You want to overcome gluttony -- practice temperance through fasting. You want to overcome sloth -- practice Zeal for the commands of God through obedience.

Jesus tells us in today's gospel that, "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain".