Love for God gives value to all virtues

 The Lord Jesus Christ calls love for God the first and greatest commandment because it alone gives all virtues and good deeds true supernatural, or heavenly, value.

  The virtues and good deeds that we do as Christians if we do not bear the mark, or seal, of love for God, according to the words of the apostle Paul, have no value in God's eyes:  "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing."  (1 Cor 13:1-3).

  The words of the Apostle Paul show that we can do as much good as we want, but it is all useless for eternity if the fire of love for God does not burn in our hearts.

  The entire store of virtue is just a worthless pile of stones if it is not imbued with love for God.

  So, if we have a heart filled with love for God, then God looks favorably on all our virtuous deeds and good deeds and rewards them with an eternal reward. In that case, even the smallest or completely insignificant deed brings us an eternal reward, and according to the Lord's words, an example of such an insignificant deed is giving a cup of cold water to a thirsty person:  "Whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink because he is my disciple, truly, I say to you, he will certainly not lose his reward"  (Mt 10:42).

  As Christians, we are obliged to know that the abundant source of supernormal merits opens up love for God. When we work and perform the duties of our class regularly, perform various devotions, patiently endure all kinds of difficulties of life, exercise ourselves in virtues and good deeds, do ordinary and insignificant things, eat, drink, rest; all these are meritorious deeds before God because love for God makes them meritorious and therefore love for God is the highest virtue. We are obliged to always be in this love because then we can acquire an abundance of merit for Heaven. Amen!