God's Word for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.  

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, October 23, 2011

Reading 1 Ex 22:20-26

Thus says the LORD:
"You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.

"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbours among my people,
you shall not act like an extortioner toward him
by demanding interest from him.
If you take your neighbour's cloak as a pledge,
you shall return it to him before sunset;
for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body.
What else has he to sleep in?
If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51

R. (2) I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives and blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my saviour.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.

Gospel Mt 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two

Can I give a flower to God?

       Can a dictator command his people to love him?  We earn love. We can’t demand it. Love is a free gift or it is not love. Then what of the commandment to love God? If we saw God as he is and knew him, we would be attracted to him. Like insects are compelled towards the light so would we be compelled to want God. God does not want a devotion of ‘slaves’. He wants our love freely given. He gives us every reason to desire him – he has revealed himself as Creator, the God who loves and saves and offers us life as his children to whom he gives his very Self. He reveals himself in the form of his Word, his Son Jesus.  ‘But God is neither a man who should lie nor a son of man that he should repent’ (Numbers 22:19). His Word is true. Since he has given us everything we have, then we should love him in return. In this sense love is a commandment. His love has given us everything, so we should love with everything we have.

            But immediately we have a difficulty. We must show the love we have. We must manifest it in word and deed. We can proclaim it in words – we sing his praises and profess our love. But how can we show it in deed? By sacrifice? God does not come and take out gifts. “You take no pleasure in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, you would not delight in it’ (Ps. 51:18).

            God loves human beings and indeed all his creation. Each human being is precious in his eyes. ‘God so loved the world’ – he so loves each and every person whom he has brought into being. His love is such that he emptied himself of his divine glory and became a slave born in our likeness. His love has no limit. At any cost to himself, even to the extent of his Passion and death on the Cross, he wants to save us and bring us to a life of bliss in God. He always respects out freedom. He wants us to choose him as he has chosen us. From the Cross he appeals to us to allow him to save us. His love makes him want to be everything to everyone. We can show our love for him who is invisible by loving his beloved ones who are visible. Our neighbour is precious to him. What we do to our neighbour he considers as done to himself. This is the mystery of his love. Now if your love wants to do something for God, go out and do it to your neighbour. Love given to his beloved, he takes as given to him. The saints like Blessed Mother Teresa understood this. Have you?    

Grant that I may love my neighbour you do and do to them what I would do to you.