XXX Sunday in OT:[A]: Ex 22:20-26; I Thes 1:5c-10; Mt: 22:34-40

XXX Sunday in OT:[A]: Ex 22:20-26; I Thes 1:5c-10; Mt: 22:34-40

Introduction: Love is the greatest commandment in the Bible, namely to love God and express that love in action by loving Him living in our neighbor.  The first reading from the book of Exodus says that the chosen people of Israel should remember that once they were aliens in the land of Egypt.  Just as God protected them and treated them kindly, so they are to protect others and treat them with kindness.  In the second reading, St. Paul congratulates the Thessalonians on the positive effects of their example of loving one another as Jesus had commanded them to do.

Exegesis: In the Gospel Reading from St. Matthew, Jesus is asked for the greatest of the commandments. He does not say that it is 'love of God' alone, but adds 'love of neighbor' to it. Jesus gives them both. He is asked for one commandment and answers with two. Perhaps it is an indication that he saw them as one and the same thing. To love God is to love one's neighbor. One cannot claim to love God and not care for others. By radically connecting the love of God with the love of neighbor, Jesus brings in a new teaching.

Anecdote: Once an English journalist visited Kolkata, India to see the works of the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa. He went to their old-age house at Kali-ghat Temple and watched an attractive young Nun dressing the wounds on a man with gangrene in his leg. The journalist was appalled by the very sight of the wound, but at the same time he was full of admiration for the young nun who seemed to show no disgust as she was cleaning the suppurating wound. “I wouldn’t do that for £1,000,” said the journalist. “Neither would I,” said the Nun, “I do it for love.”

Gospel of Luke Chapter 6: Verse 34 says, "If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. 35"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. 36"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Joke: A pastor was speaking to a Sunday school class about the things money can’t buy.  “It can’t buy laughter and it can’t buy love” he told them.  Driving his point home he said, “What would you do if I offered you $1000 not to love your mother and father?”  Stunned silence ensued.  Finally a small voice queried, “How much would you give me not to love my big sister?”   

Practical : 1) It is God who first loves us and that makes us able to love ourselves and therefore to be grateful for the gift of ourselves. This awareness of life as gift is what we mean by loving God. We cannot love ourselves without being grateful to God, and it is this gratitude to God that sets us free really to love other people. Too often the value that we place upon others is tied up with what they can do for us - 'What is their value to me?' Truly loving one's neighbor entails valuing them as gifts of God. Not only are we gifts of God, and our neighbors gifts of God, but the love with which we love ourselves and others is the expression of our love for God.

2) To love God with our whole being means to make God the center of our life. Once God is at the center of our life, the second commandment is easier to follow, to love our neighbor. We do not always love our neighbors as we ought to and our failure to love neighbors is an indication that we ought to pray even more to discover and to fall in love with God.

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Introduction

Message: We are to love the Lord with our whole heart, and our neighbor as ourselves.  By thus fulfilling these two great commandments, we hope to become models of faith and imitators of the lord who gave himself totally for our sakes.

Saints and Events in this Week : 28 – Twenty Eighth – Tuesday - Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles; November First – Saturday – All Saints – Not a holiday of obligation this year in United Sates; November Second – Sunday – The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed – All Souls Day;