REFLECTION:
Read: Strangers, widows, and orphans – people on the margins – are precious for God and God wants us to care for them. Paul commends the Thessalonians for their life of faith. Jesus declares the greatest commandment.
Reflect: Why is that love of God and neighbor needed to be ”commanded?” Something is commanded only when it does not happen spontaneously. Hence, love of God and neighbor does not arise in us naturally. Left to ourselves, our focus of love is ourselves, and the other is hell, often the object of our envy and rivalry. Cain-Abel story proves it for us. But this goes against the purpose for which God created us. Hence the commandment to love God and neighbor and thereby grow into the fullness of being that God has envisioned for us.
Pray: Pray for the grace to honor the Commandments on a daily basis.
Act: Do an act of love for a stranger/widow/orphan – your neighbor who is on the margins.
October 29, 2017
Gospel: Mt 22:34-40 -
When the Pharisees heard how Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they assembled together. One of them, a lawyer, questioned him to test him, ”Teacher, which commandment of the law is the greatest?”
Jesus answered, ”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the most important of the commandments. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets are founded on these two commandments.”
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