JUNE 04, 2020 : THURSDAY OF THE NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 356

Reading 12 TM 2:8-15

Beloved:
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David:
such is my Gospel, for which I am suffering,
even to the point of chains, like a criminal.
But the word of God is not chained.
Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen,
so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus,
together with eternal glory.
This saying is trustworthy:

If we have died with him
we shall also live with him;
if we persevere
we shall also reign with him.
But if we deny him
he will deny us.
If we are unfaithful
he remains faithful,
for he cannot deny himself.

Remind people of these things
and charge them before God to stop disputing about words.
This serves no useful purpose since it harms those who listen.
Be eager to present yourself as acceptable to God,
a workman who causes no disgrace,
imparting the word of truth without deviation.

Responsorial Psalm25:4-5AB, 8-9, 10 AND 14

R.    (4)  Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R.    Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way.
R.    Teach me your ways, O Lord.
All the paths of the LORD are kindness and constancy
toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him,
and his covenant, for their instruction.
R.    Teach me your ways, O Lord.

Alleluia2 TIMOTHY 1:10

R.    Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death    
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R.    Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelMK 12:28-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060420.cfm

Meditation: "Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength"

What is the purpose of God's law or commandments? The Pharisees prided themselves in the knowledge of the law and their ritual requirements. They made it a life-time practice to study the 613 precepts of the Old Testament along with the numerous rabbinic commentaries. They tested Jesus to see if he correctly understood the law as they did. Jesus startled them with his profound simplicity and mastery of the law of God and its purpose.

Our love for God is a response to his exceeding grace and kindness towards us
What does God require of us? Simply that we love as he loves! God is love and everything he does flows from his love for us. God loved us first and our love for him is a response to his exceeding grace and kindness towards us. The love of God comes first and the love of neighbor is firmly grounded in the love of God. The more we know of God's love and truth the more we love what he loves and reject what is hateful and contrary to his will.

Faith and hope strengthen our love for God
What makes our love for God and his commands grow in us? Faith in God and hope in his promises strengthens us in the love of God. They are essential for a good relationship with God, for being united with him. The more we know of God the more we love him and the more we love him the greater we believe and hope in his promises. The Lord, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, gives us a new freedom to love as he loves. Do you allow anything to keep you from the love of God and the joy of serving others with a generous heart?  Paul the Apostle says: hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us (Romans 5:5). Do you know the love which conquers all?

"We love you, O our God; and we desire to love you more and more. Grant to us that we may love you as much as we desire, and as much as we ought. O dearest friend, who has so loved and saved us, the thought of whom is so sweet and always growing sweeter, come with Christ and dwell in our hearts; that you keep a watch over our lips, our steps, our deeds, and we shall not need to be anxious either for our souls or our bodies. Give us love, sweetest of all gifts, which knows no enemy. Give us in our hearts pure love, born of your love to us, that we may love others as you love us. O most loving Father of Jesus Christ, from whom flows all love, let our hearts, frozen in sin, cold to you and cold to others, be warmed by this divine fire. So help and bless us in your Son." (Prayer of Anselm, 1033-1109)

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: Love God with one's whole self, by Gregory of Nyssa, 330-395 AD

"Human life consists in a threefold unity. We are taught similarly by the apostle in what he says to the Ephesians, praying for them that the complete grace of their 'body and soul and spirit' may be preserved at the coming of the Lord. We use the word 'body,' for the nutritive part, the word for the vital, 'soul,' and the word 'spirit' for the intellective dimension. In just this way the Lord instructs the writer of the Gospel that he should set before every commandment that love to God which is exercised with all the heart and soul and mind (Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27). This single phrase embraces the human whole: the corporeal heart, the mind as the higher intellectual and mental nature, and the soul as their mediator." (excerpt from ON THE MAKING OF MAN 8.5.10)

www.dailyscripture.net

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, MARK 12:28-34
Weekday

(2 Timothy 2:8-15; Psalm 25)
KEY VERSE: "There is no other commandment greater than these" (v 31).
TO KNOW: The scribes were the learned interpreters of the Law of Moses. They expanded the Law into 613 greater and lesser rules and regulations. One scribe recognized Jesus' skill as a teacher, and asked him which one of the Mosaic Laws was the greatest. Jesus recognized the scribe's sincere search for truth, and summed up the entire Law with two basic decrees that he saw as inseparable. They were the laws upon which all the other commandments were based: to love God with one's entire being (Deut 6:2), and to love one's neighbor as oneself (Lev 19:18). The scribe saw how Jesus has combined two commands given to Israel by Moses, and he declared that the love of God and love of neighbor was worth more than any religious acts that one could perform. Because the scribe understood this principle, he moved a step closer to God's reign.
TO LOVE: Is my love of God demonstrated by the way I love my neighbor? Do I have a healthy self-love?
TO SERVE: Lord God, help me to serve you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

http://www.togetherwithgodsword.com/commentaries-on-the-daily-gospel-of-the-mass.html

Thursday 4 June 2020

2 Timothy 2:8-15. Teach me your ways, O Lord – Psalm 24(25):4-5, 8-10, 14. Mark 12:28-34.

‘Love your God . . . Love your neighbour’

Central to Jesus’ teachings is his message of love. Love of God and of neighbour. While the scribes argue and debate what is the most important commandment, Jesus doesn’t hesitate in his message of love. How quickly he responds and with such disarming simplicity.

Herein lies the challenge. We are asked to love our neighbour (all people) as being part of ourselves. Not just those we get along with but also those we struggle with, those who may challenge us. Simple? Maybe not . . .

This sometimes takes all our understanding, and strength but it is in this way that we can truly show our love for God. We ask God for help in showing this love for others, to bring a loving heart to our interactions with all people.

http://www.pray.com.au/gospel_reflection/thursday-4-june-2020/

Blessed Angeline of Marsciano

Saint of the Day for June 4

(1377 – July 14, 1435)

Blessed Angeline of Marsciano’s Story

Blessed Angeline founded the first community of Franciscan women other than Poor Clares to receive papal approval.

Angeline was born to the Duke of Marsciano near Orvieto. She was 12 when her mother died. Three years later, the young woman made a vow of perpetual chastity. That same year, however, she yielded to her father’s decision that she marry the Duke of Civitella. Her husband agreed to respect her previous vow.

When he died two years later, Angeline joined the Secular Franciscans and with several other women dedicated herself to caring for the sick, the poor, widows and orphans. When many other young women were attracted to Angeline’s community, some people accused her of condemning the married vocation. Legend has it that when she came before the King of Naples to answer these charges, she had burning coals hidden in the folds of her cloak. When she proclaimed her innocence and showed the king that these coals had not harmed her, he dropped the case.

Angeline and her companions later went to Foligno, where her community of Third Order sisters received papal approval in 1397. She soon established 15 similar communities of women in other Italian cities.

Angeline died on July 14, 1435, and was beatified in 1825. Her Liturgical Feast Day is July 13.

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Reflection

Priests, sisters and brothers cannot be signs of God’s love for the human family if they belittle the vocation of marriage. Angeline respected marriage, but felt called to another way of living out the gospel. Her choice was life-giving in its own way.

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/blessed-angeline-of-marsciano/

Lectio Divina: Mark 12:28-34

Lectio Divina

Thursday, June 4, 2020

1) Opening prayer

God, we do not want to die;
we want to live.
We want to be happy
but without paying the price.
We belong to our times,
when sacrifice and suffering are out of fashion.
God, make life worth the pain of living it.
Give us back the age-old realization
that life means to be born
again and again in pain,
that it may become again
a journey of hope to You,
together with Christ Jesus our Lord.

2) Gospel Reading - Mark 12:28-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

3) Reflection

• In today’s Gospel (Mk 12:28b-34), the scribes and the doctors of the Law want to know from Jesus which is the greatest commandment of all. Even today, many people want to know what is more important in religion. Some say that it is to be baptized. Others say that it is to go to church and to participate in the Sunday Mass. Others still say to love our neighbor and to struggle for a more just world! Others are concerned only with appearances and with tasks in the Church.

• Mark 12:28: The question of the doctor of the Law. Some time before the question of the scribe, the discussion was with the Sadducees concerning faith in the resurrection (Mk 12:23-27). The doctor who had participated in the debate was pleased with Jesus’ answer. He perceived in it His great intelligence and wished to take advantage of the occasion to ask a question to clarify something: “Which is the greatest commandment of all?” At that time, the Jews had many norms to regulate the observance of the Ten Commandments of the Law. Some said, “All these norms have the same value, because they all come from God. It is not up to us to introduce any distinction in the things of God.” Others said, “Some laws are more important than others, and for this reason, they oblige more!” The doctor wants to know what Jesus thinks.

• Mark 12:29-31: Jesus’ response. Jesus responds quoting a passage from the Bible which says that the greatest among the commandments is “to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength!” (Dt 6:4-5). At the time of Jesus, pious Jews recited this phrase three times a day: in the morning, at noon and in the evening. It was so well known among them just as the Our Father is among us. The Pharisees would even wear Tefillin (phylacteries) which were tiny scrolls with these words written on them. And Jesus adds, quoting the Bible again, “The second one is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). There is no other greater commandment than these two.” A brief but very profound response! It is the summary of everything that Jesus teaches on God and His life (Mt 7:12).

• Mark 12:32-33: The response of the doctor of the Law. The doctor agrees with Jesus and concludes, “Well said, to love your neighbor as yourself, this is far more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.” That is, the commandment to love is more important than the commandments which concern the worship and sacrifices of the Temple. The Prophets of the Old Testament already had affirmed this (Hos 6:6;  Ps 40:6-8; Ps 51:16-17). Today we would say that the practice of love is more important than novenas, promises, sermons and processions.

• Mark 12:34: The summary of the Kingdom. Jesus confirms the doctor’s conclusion  and says, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God!” In fact, the Kingdom of God consists in the union of two loves: love toward God and love toward neighbor. Because if God is Father/Mother, we are all brothers and sisters, and we should show this in practice, living in community. “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets!” (Mt 22:40). We, disciples, should keep this law in our mind, in our intelligence, in our heart, in our hands and feet, because one cannot reach God without giving oneself totally to one’s neighbor!

• Jesus had said to the doctor of the law, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God!”(Mk 12:34). The doctor was already close, but in order to be able to enter the Kingdom he still had to go a step forward. In the Old Testament the criterion of  love toward neighbor was: “Love your neighbor as yourself”. In the New Testament Jesus extends the sense of love: “This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you! (Jn 15:12-23). Then the criterion will be “Love your neighbor as Jesus has loved us.” This is the sure path to being able to live together in a more just and fraternal way. 

4) Personal questions

• What is the most important priority for you in exercising your religion?
• Are we (personally, our close community, our society) closer to the Kingdom of God nowadays or farther away from it than the doctor of the Law who was praised by Jesus?

5) Concluding Prayer

Among the gods there is none to compare with You,
for You are great and do marvellous deeds;
You, God, and none other. (Ps 86:8,10)

https://ocarm.org/en/content/lectio/lectio-divina-mark-1228b-34