Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time First Reading Exodus 22:20-26 20"Whoever sacrifices to any god, save to the LORD only, shall be utterly destroyed. 21"You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 22You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. 23If you do afflict them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry; 24and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. 25"If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him. 26If ever you take your neighbor's garment in pledge, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down; Responsorial Psalm Psalms 18:2-4, 47, 51 1I love thee, O LORD, my strength. 2The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. 46The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation, 50Great triumphs he gives to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his descendants for ever. Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 5for our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit; 7so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedo'nia and in Acha'ia. 8For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedo'nia and Acha'ia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. Gospel Matthew 22:34-40 34But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sad'ducees, they came together. 35And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. 36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
S. FAUSTI - "You will love" God is Love, and God teachs to us to love. God sends us together toward Love, so that Its Life becomes also ours. Indeed Love makes them similar, and causes the life of one become the life of the other. The desire to be like God is not realized in having everything in hand, but in getting themselves to the hands of the Father and of the brothers, for love! In love there is neither good nor evil there is only Good! God can not be stolen with the mind neither with the hands, but "to understand, to contain" into the heart. To love is to have the neighbour in the heart. We are made to love, because God has made us in the image of Himself and likeness. To knowis necessary for to love: they love anything but what they know. And to love in turn is necessary for to understand: they do not understand if not what they love. Love and intellect feed each other: it is the dynamic tension of love, in an endless virtuous circle. Love regards not only the heart and the mind, but also the life. Love is firstly and foremost the joy of heart for the good of the neighbour (the opposite is envy): it is expressed with the mouth as praise (the opposite is criticism), and it is made with hands, placed to the service of the other as of myself. It manifests itself more in facts than in words. Let us love not with words, but with facts and in truth (1Gv 3:18). Love leads to communicate what they have and they are till the union of intellect, will, and action. Diversity and limits - even the negative ones - are not a place of hiding and aggression, perpetrated or suffered, but of welcome and mutual service. The command is twofold: to love God and neighbor, because we, only loving the Father and our brothers ,become what we are: sons. So we reach our identity, healing the original break with the Other, with ourselves and with the neighbour Jesus is the Lord who becomes my neighbor and loves me with all heart so that I can do likewise. With the same love I love Him and the brother, because He became my brother; I love God and man because God has become man! Whenever I love the last of the brothers, I love Him (Mt25) who has become the last of everyone. Mutual love is Christian's identity "It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognise you as my disciples” (Jn 13,35).
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
RispondiEliminaFirst Reading
Exodus 22:20-26
20"Whoever sacrifices to any god, save to the LORD only, shall be utterly destroyed. 21"You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 22You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. 23If you do afflict them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry; 24and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. 25"If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him. 26If ever you take your neighbor's garment in pledge, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down;
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 18:2-4, 47, 51
1I love thee, O LORD, my strength. 2The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. 46The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation, 50Great triumphs he gives to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his descendants for ever.
Second Reading
1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
5for our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit; 7so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedo'nia and in Acha'ia. 8For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedo'nia and Acha'ia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Gospel
Matthew 22:34-40
34But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sad'ducees, they came together. 35And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. 36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
S. FAUSTI - "You will love" God is Love, and God teachs to us to love.
RispondiEliminaGod sends us together toward Love, so that Its Life becomes also ours. Indeed Love makes them similar, and causes the life of one become the life of the other.
The desire to be like God is not realized in having everything in hand, but in getting themselves to the hands of the Father and of the brothers, for love! In love there is neither good nor evil there is only Good! God can not be stolen with the mind neither with the hands, but "to understand, to contain" into the heart. To love is to have the neighbour in the heart. We are made to love, because God has made us in the image of Himself and likeness. To knowis necessary for to love: they love anything but what they know. And to love in turn is necessary for to understand: they do not understand if not what they love. Love and intellect feed each other: it is the dynamic tension of love, in an endless virtuous circle.
Love regards not only the heart and the mind, but also the life. Love is firstly and foremost the joy of heart
for the good of the neighbour (the opposite is envy): it is expressed with the mouth as praise (the opposite is criticism), and it is made with hands, placed to the service of the other as of myself. It manifests itself more in facts than in words. Let us love not with words, but with facts and in truth (1Gv 3:18).
Love leads to communicate what they have and they are till the union of intellect, will, and action.
Diversity and limits - even the negative ones - are not a place of hiding and aggression, perpetrated or suffered, but of welcome and mutual service.
The command is twofold: to love God and neighbor, because we, only loving the Father and our brothers ,become what we are: sons.
So we reach our identity, healing the original break with the Other, with ourselves and with the neighbour
Jesus is the Lord who becomes my neighbor and loves me with all heart so that I can do likewise. With the same love I love Him and the brother, because He became my brother; I love God and man because God has become man!
Whenever I love the last of the brothers, I love Him (Mt25) who has become the last of everyone.
Mutual love is Christian's identity "It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognise you as my disciples” (Jn 13,35).