Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: October 29, 2023

Date in the Ordine: 30th Sunday 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 reading for today recounts Jesus’ teaching of the two greatest commandments. Both flow from love. The first and most foundational is the love of the LORD with our whole being. The second is the love of humanity, beginning with ourselves as children of the LORD extended to all other children of the LORD. All the laws try and prevent us from breaking these; all the prophets called us to live these.

Meditating on the text with personal questions:

Is love my guiding principle and motive in life? Do I recognize that without love for the LORD all other loves will be hollow?

Praying:

LORD, Almighty Father, only-begotten Son, Most Holy Spirt, source of love and model of love, lead us to understanding the necessity of love to our lives and the proper ways of love. Open our minds and hearts to your life giving and transformative love. Make us wells of love in this world – deep springs of love for You and love for one another. 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.