Thirty first Sunday in Ordinary time – Year B

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. Amen.

Lectio Divina

That love is at the heart of the Christian life and the foundation of Christian morality is a fact known by all Christians and non-Christians. For the Christian it is a dogma of truth, a truth essentially stamped on the mind of each baptised person, even if they have lost their faith along the difficult roads of life. Unfortunately, however, for many this truth has become a cliché and has lost its true significance in our everyday life. Because, in all honesty, love is not easy to define or to express our experience of it, apart from the emotions it stirs up within us, that draw us to, or away from people. 

But is love only a chemical that causes attraction? Of course not. It is much more than that. This is what Jesus speaks about today. Because for him, your neighbour is not just a friend, or people you have a special liking for, or even someone you have positive emotions towards him/her (which is the meaning conveyed by the Hebrew word ‘rea’ used in the Book of Leviticus). Your neighbour is every person you meet in your life and needs your help, whether you like them or not, whether you known them or not, generous and friendly or the opposite (which is the meaning conveyed by the Greek word ‘plesios’ used in the New Testament). These are the people we encounter every day at work, socially, and even in our families.

Love is not just an emotion; it asks—or rather, it demands—a decision in favour of the afflicted, the suffering, the poor, the unpleasant person you can’t stand, and the person who does not return a favour. This is why the first bodily organ Jesus mentions is the heart (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart”), because for the Jews, it is in the heart that decisions are made and where the fundamental attitudes that guide our behaviours are formed. Therefore, it is the heart that forms a persons’ identity.

Jesus also binds together the love one must have for God with that he or she must have for the neighbour. This disrupts the contrast that we have always made between actions that lead to the love of God and actions that demonstrate our love of neighbour. Jesus demonstrates that this must not be. We pray, celebrate the sacraments, do spiritual reading, meditate on Scripture and other devotions as our obligations towards God, while the works of mercy are performed when and how we see is fit to make God happy or maybe at times to keep him quiet. Jesus wants us to love our neighbour because we see Him in them, and in each act of faith we make, we celebrate this love together as a Christian community. It is a love full of mercy towards others that justifies and enriches every liturgical celebration, it also gives value to prayer, it enlivens the Word of God in our daily life. In this way, every act of love becomes a liturgical act that praises, gives thanks and glorifies God, which in turn prompts His Heart to fill us with His blessings and grace.

Do you feel loved by God, even when you cannot see his love in the difficult moments of life? When you feel touched by God’s love, what is your reaction?

Prayer

From the depths of our hearts, Lord, we implore you to fill us with your Holy Spirit, who gives us the grace to see you in our neighbours, whoever they may be, wherever they’re from, whether they are able to give in return, or if they are good natured or not. Purify our hearts and our love so that we may give ourselves to our neighbours made in your own image and likeness, as they were created by you. Amen.