Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: August 23, 2024

Date: Friday of the 20th Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture Text:  Matthew 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 neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Breaking the text open – background and summary:

The gospel text for today recounts Jesus’ response to the question of which is the greatest commandment. Jesus gives us two commandments bound together and calls us to be people of love. Jesus goes on to explain that all others commandments as well as the messages of the prophets calls us back to love as the motivation for our words and actions.

Meditating on the text with personal questions:

Is love of the LORD and others my sole motive? My primary motive?

Praying:

LORD, You created us in love for love. You call us to be your children, your disciples, your sanctuary on earth. Your love for us flows into our being, and it informs our minds, it conforms our will, and it transforms our very being. You call us to love You with all our being and to love one another. You remind us through the law and the prophets that love is the motivation for all and the solution to all. May we be open to your love this day and all the goodness that flows from it. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.