30TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 1 / (Green)
Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
I love you, Lord, my strength.
1st Reading: Ex 22:20-26
You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
You shall not harm the widow or the orphan. If you do harm them and they cry out to me, I will hear them and my anger will blaze and I will kill you with the sword, and your own wives will be widows and your own children orphans.
If you lend money to any of my people who are poor, do not act like a moneylender and do not charge him interest.
If ever you take a person‘s cloak as a pledge, you must give it back to him by sunset, for it is all the covering he has for his body. In what else will he sleep? And when he cries to me I will hear him, for I am full of pity.
2nd Reading: 1 Thes 1:5c-10
The gospel we brought you was such, not only in words. Miracles, the Holy Spirit, and plenty of everything, were given to you. You, also, know how we dealt with you, for your sake.
In return, you became followers of us, and of the Lord, when, on receiving the word, you experienced the joy of the Holy Spirit, in the midst of great opposition. And you became a model for the faithful of Macedonia and Achaia, since, from you, the word of the Lord spread to Macedonia and Achaia, and still farther. The faith you have in God has become news in so many places, that we need say no more about it. Others tell, of how you welcomed us, and turned from idols, to the Lord. For you serve the living and true God, and you wait for his Son, from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who frees us from impending trial.
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.”
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.
Daily Reflection
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
Readings and Reflections
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