MY daily reflection and prayer:
Friday, August 19, 2016
Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Dear my friends,
Here is the Gospel for us today according to St. 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.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
***
IN the Gospel reading today Jesus Christ says, “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.” Clearly that true love has two dimensions: love for God and love for our neighbor.
Love for God and for our neighbor is one in unity. St. John, Jesus’ beloved disciple, in his first epistle of John, expresses frequently and clearly the close relationship between them (see 1 John 3:10; 4:7; 4:11).
We have to love God for he so has loved us, so we also must love one another. St. John tells us clearly, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21).
In the Perpetual Adoration of the Eucharist while adoring Jesus Christ we love for God and love for our neighbor. Loving God requires loving others. This is not easy, especially in a world that highly esteems individualism. One of the best ways to love our neighbor is to seek charity in speech and in praying them. Do we love others as an expression of loving God?
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus Christ, give us the grace to love others with all our effort and good will. We want to learn from you how to love others to the point of giving our life for them in prayer and charity now and forever. Amen.
Kredit foto: Ilustrasi (Ist)
