[Salvation]

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for: November 04, 2012
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: Almighty and merciful God, by whose gift your faithful offer you right and praiseworthy service, grant, we pray, that we may hasten without stumbling to receive the things you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

• Pumpkin Stew

ACTIVITIES

• On Preventing Pride and Vainglory in Children

PRAYERS

• Litany of Humility

Ordinary Time: November 4th

Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time

Old Calendar: Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these (Mk 12:28-31)."

Don't forget to pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory from November 1 to the 8th.

Click here for commentary on the readings in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

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Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from Deuteronomy 6:2-6. Moses, having received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai, set about teaching them to the Israelites.

The second reading is from the first Letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews 7:23-28 where he continues to show the superiority of Jesus over the high priests of the Old Testament.

The Gospel is from Mark 12:28-34. The personal lesson which comes over loud and clear for every sincere Christian from today's gospel, is that the solid foundation of our Christian religion is love of God and neighbor. As our Lord says: "there is no other commandment greater than these." All the other commandments are expansions of these two and indications of how we are to put these two commandments into daily practice. For example: why am I forbidden to murder my neighbor? Simply because he belongs to God; it was God who gave him his life, and God has commanded me to love and respect him. Taking his life is interfering with God's rights, and disobeying him as well. Likewise, the prohibition of idolatry, refraining from insulting God's name, keeping the Sabbath day holy are the principal ways of indicating how we should love God.

One may ask: how can I love God? He is infinitely perfect, he needs nothing from me, what therefore can I do for him? I can understand loving my neighbor—for a neighbor can need help, advice, encouragement and consolation. I can prove my love by giving these to my neighbor, but God has no such needs. It is quite true that true love is not theoretical but pragmatic, it means doing some good for somebody. While the infinite God has no needs that I can supply, he has claims on my service, on my respect, on my gratitude—claims so basic and so great that I must be ready to suffer persecution and even death rather than deny or dishonor him (Mt. 5: 10; Lk. 6: 23). It was God who gave me existence and every gift that I have. It was God, through the incarnation of his own divine Son, who made me his adopted child and heir to heaven. Everything that I am and have and hope to be, I owe to God's generosity; therefore, he has an unquestionable right to my gratitude, my reverence, my respect—these are the ways in which I can show my love for him.

The keeping of God's commandments, the prayers of thanksgiving, praise and petition which daily we offer, the attendance at Mass and other liturgical functions, these are the means God gives us of showing our love, our recognition of total dependence on him and our gratitude for all he has done and is doing for us. God does not need any of these signs of our submission and reverence and respect, but we need them absolutely, for they are the means he has given us of fulfilling his purpose in creating us—to share his eternal glory with him. To love God then, is not an obligation imposed on us by some demanding superior but a privilege granted us so that we can become worthy of the greater gifts he has in store for us.

Loving our neighbor—and in the Christian code this means all men no matter what may be their color, race or religion—is, according to our divine Lord, another most effective way of proving to God that we love him. Because of our common humanity we should be inclined to help our fellowmen, our neighbors, but the Christian law spiritualizes this natural inclination, by commanding us to help our neighbor because he is God's child. We are all fellow-children of God, members of the one family. Our heavenly Father loves each one of us and wants our salvation. If we love our common Father we will do all we can to help his other children also to attain salvation. It will earn for us God's favor.

If we observe these two commandments we are "fulfilling the whole law and the prophets,"; we are serving God and showing our gratitude to him for all his goodness to us. The Christian who is following Christ in love is already active in the earthly kingdom of God and traveling safely toward God's eternal kingdom of peace and happiness.

Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

[Salvation]

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Mark 12:28-34

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Which is the first of all the com­mandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this… . The second is this.” (Mark 12:28-31)

Love God and love your neigh­bor. The wisdom of these words may not strike us with the freshness that they would have conveyed to Jesus’ audience. The idea that the first and greatest command is to love God with all our hearts and souls wasn’t a new thought. It’s recorded in a much older reading in the Hebrew Scriptures (Deuteronomy 6:5). But the idea that loving one another is just as important was much more groundbreaking.

Jesus considered these two com­mands bound so closely together that he taught that if someone is offering a gift at the altar—loving God— and remembers that his brother has something against him, he must leave his gift and go love his brother first (Matthew 5:23-24). And John could write: “Whoever does not love a brother and sister, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).

There’s something about loving God with our whole hearts that nat­urally flows into loving other people. Perhaps it is because God has cre­ated us in his own image. There’s a picture of him, a treasure from him, in each of us. So when we see each other, we are seeing a reflection of the Lord. Or maybe it’s because God loves each of us with such fierce devotion that for us not to share that love with each other would be an offense to him. Or maybe it’s both!

In the end, it doesn’t matter which approach is best. What mat­ters is that you do something about it! God has called us to love each other just as fully as we love him. That’s not always an easy task, and some people seem determined to make it even harder for us. But our Father is ready to help. He is wait­ing for us to take the first step. Then he will respond with divine grace to soften our hearts.

“Lord, show me the treasures you have placed in all the people around me—especially those I find hardest to love!”

Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Psalm 18:1-4, 47, 51; Hebrews 7:23-28

Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion

1. In the First Reading, the Great Commandment to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” is first spoken to the people by Moses. He then tells them to “Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today” (Deuteronomy 6:6). How well do you “take to heart” these words?

2. The Responsorial Psalm continues the theme of the First Reading, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” The psalmist goes on to proclaim some of the reasons for his great love for the Lord. What are some of them? How would you proclaim your reasons for loving the Lord?

3. How would you describe the difference between Jesus’ priesthood and the Levitical priesthood, as presented in the Second Reading? Why is Jesus’ priesthood so much more powerful than theirs, especially in its impact on our lives through the sacrifice of the Mass?

4. In the Gospel, Jesus repeats the words of Moses from the First Reading and adds the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” He then says, “There is no other commandment greater than these.” Why is this so? What are the obstacles you encounter during the day that keeps you from obeying these commandments more faithfully in your everyday life? What steps can you take to remove some of these obstacles?

5. The meditation describes two reasons why we are called to love others: 1) “loving God with our whole hearts” so that it “naturally flows into loving other people” and 2) “because God loves each of us with such fierce devotion that for us not to share that love with each other would be an offense to him.” Which of these reasons resonates most with you? Why? Are there some steps you need to take to love God more wholeheartedly or to open yourself more to a greater experience of his love for you?

6. Take some time now to pray and ask for the grace to see the Lord’s presence in others, no matter what kind of relationship you have with them right now. Use the prayer at the end of the meditation as the starting point.