Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sr. Eileen Burns, SNDdeN
Matthew 22: 34-40
Well, this gospel struck me in a way that it never has before! It starts out with the Pharisees’ gathering together around Jesus and “testing” him. I would have felt intimidated if I were him which was, I am sure, their intention. Jesus’ answer about loving God is so beautiful and simple. Do we each love God with our whole heart and soul and mind? But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Am I able to thank God for who I was created to be and to truly love myself? Do I love the others in my life whom God created to be themselves? What about those not so easy to love? The Pharisees are standing there together trying to test Jesus and hoping he will fail their test. Jesus’ response has always seemed to me to teach them the importance of loving others. What if he also stood there in their midst and simply loved them as he loved himself?
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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Meet Sister Eileen Burns, SNDdeN
