30th Week in Ordinary Time
29th October 2023 (Sunday) Readings and Reflection
Psalter: Week 2
Reading of the Day
First Reading: Exodus 22:21-27
Thus says the Lord: "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbour's cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
Psalm 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 47 and 51ab (R. 2)
R/. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10
Brethren: You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Alleluia
V/. Alleluia R/. Alleluia
V/. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, says the Lord; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him.
R/. Alleluia
Gospel : Matthew 22:34-40
At that time: When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
Daily Gospel Reflection
The Reflection by Fr. Thumma Mariadas Reddy MSFS{alertWarning}
Highlight: Love with a double focus!
Guidlines: In a world which is both love-barren and love- hungry, which abuses love so much and also needs it so much, true love alone is the greatest remedy{alertSuccess}
1. Love is the greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these”
2. Love is the summary and quintessence of all discipleship. It is the supreme command of the Lord to every disciple, a Law which all must obey and follow, an indispensable norm which must guide the whole life of a disciple.
3. Jesus puts together love of God and love of neighbour as one single commandment. In fact, they are not two separate commandments which can subsist, one without the other. Rather they are two inseparable aspects of one and the same Law of love, and are mutually inclusive.
4. Love of God and love of neighbour support and complete each other. One without the other is incomplete and deficient. They are also mutually authenticating, in the sense, that one reveals and bears witness to the other. One cannot claim to love God totally but refuse or fail to love the other. In the same way, one cannot love the other wholeheartedly but has no love for God:
5. “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 Jn 4. 12); “God is love.
6. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 Jn 4. 16); “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.
7. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister” (1 Jn 4. 20-21).
8. Now, How to love God? In what measures?The love that is demanded of a disciple is Total and Entire. It is with the totality of one’s faculties, capacities, intentionality, and will. It is with the whole being, the entire person.
9. There are no portions, no fractions, no proportions, no concessions, no conditions, no percentages, no ratios. The command to love is imperative and not facultative. Jesus is never convinced or satisfied with half-measures.
10. True it is, one cannot expect perfection soon, as discipleship is a journey of progression and maturation on the road of perfection. But this does not mean that a disciple can continue with compromising steps.
11. Jesus is very clear about the uncompromising nature of discipleship. “One is either for him or against him”. There is no neutral stand. “You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and wealth”.
12. To follow Jesus is a fundamental option. In an authentic discipleship, there is no room for compromises or convenient adjustments. In true and full love for God, there is authenticity, intensity, depth and dedication.
13. Discipleship is loving God in full measures. It is to love God without measure and without reserve.
14. Then, How to love the neighbour? In what manner?
15. With regard to loving the neighbour, the manner in which one must love, is indicated. “Love your neighbour as you love yourself”. Everyone loves one’s own self.
16. Here we need not enter into discussion about self, about its quality whether positive or negative, about Jesus’ injunction to deny self, etc. What matters in the context is the fact that there is self-love in everyone.
17. The only difference between a true disciple and not-a disciple is, the disciple sublimates his self-love to God’s love which constantly controls and regulates his self-love, so that the end result is positive and productive.
18. The reference to the “Golden Rule” (Lk 6. 31) prescribed by Jesus can be of help in this context: “Do unto others what you want them do to you”.
19. Certainly everyone wants to be understood, accepted, respected, loved, comforted, appreciated, encouraged and supported. If so, to love the other as one loves one’s own self demands that we should also understand, accept and respect others.
Practice: Let love be genuine and deep. Let love be our passion and devotion. Let it be our norm and test. Because then, the society can be healed.{alertSuccess}