31ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 3 / (Green)
Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
I love you, Lord, my strength.
1st Reading: Dt 6:2-6
Fear Yahweh, observe his commandments all the days of your life and his norms that I teach you today. So also for your children and your children’s children that they may live long.
Listen, then, Israel, observe these commandments and put them into practice. If you do this, you will be well and you will multiply in this land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, promised you.
Listen, Israel: Yahweh, our God, is One Yahweh. And you shall love Yahweh, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. Engrave in your heart the commandments that I pass on to you today.
2nd Reading: Heb 7:23-28
The former priests were many since, as mortal men, they could not remain in office. But Jesus remains forever, and the priesthood shall not be taken from him. Consequently, he is able to save, for all time, those who approach God, through him. He always lives to intercede on their behalf.
It was fitting that our high priest be holy, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens; a priest who does not, first, need to offer sacrifice for himself, before offering for the sins of the people, as high priests do. He offered himself in sacrifice, once and for all. And, whereas, the law elected weak men as high priests, now, after the law, the word of God, with an oath, appointed the Son, made perfect forever.
Gospel: Mk 12: 28b-34
A teacher of the law had been listening to this discussion and admired how Jesus answered them. So he came up and asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is: Hear, Israel! The Lord, our God, is One Lord; and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. And after this comes a second commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these two.”
The teacher of the law said to him, “Well spoken, Master; you are right when you say that he is one, and there is no other besides him. To love him with all our heart, with all our understanding and with all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves is more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.”
Jesus approved this answer and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Lectio Divina
Read: Keep the commandments of the Lord and the commandments will keep you. Jesus declares the equivalency of loving God and loving neighbor. Jesus, the unblemished sacrificial lamb, is the priestly meeting ground of the love-triad: God, neighbor, and I.
Reflect: “You are not far from the Kingdom of God,” said Jesus to the lawyer who upheld the equivalency of love of God and neighbor. But there is a catch in the sentence: being not far only implies being close enough; it is no guarantee that one is definitively within the Kingdom. What would move the lawyer – and us – from within the proximity to within the boundaries of the Kingdom? If knowing the greatest commandment with its equivalent love of God and neighbor takes us close to the Kingdom, it is doing the commandment that will move us in.
Pray: Ask God for the wisdom to know the commandments and the courage to do the same.
Act: Do an examination of conscience today. Where do you stand in relation to doing the commandments?
Daily Reflection 2018
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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
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