30th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A

"On these two commandments the whole law is based and the prophets as well."

Lectionary Readings for 30th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/30th-sunday-a.html

A lawyer from the group of Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to test and trip Jesus in His speech. He asked Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment of the law is the greatest?" And Jesus answered, "You shall love the Lord your God
with your whole heart,
with your whole 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.'

Love is a mystery. And it is a mystery rooted in God and His love for all of us. God Himself initiated that love for us by creating us and giving us the gift of life - His Holy Spirit - which we receive when we were baptized and incorporated into His family. What He then enjoins on us is to love Him in return. Jesus summarizes this commandment of the Lord in two statements: that we love God with our whole being and that we love our neighbor as ourself.

Our love of God depends on how the intensity and degree of which we give ourselves to Him. The more we give ourself to Him, the greater is our love. And this love for Him flows over in how we treat others and ourself: in kindness, in generosity, in justice, in truth, in charity and in service.

This is not always the case. Oftentimes, it is repentance He asks of us. When we have misused our freedom to do evil and commit sin: breaking our loving relationship with Him and causing others to sin in our break of relationship with them. Therefore, all that is ask of us in times when we fail to love God as we should is to repent and seek conversion from our sinful ways. The more we move out of the darkness of sin and evil and into the light of Christ, the more we enter into a deep and loving relationship with Him as He is given to us in the Blessed Sacrament together with our brothers and sisters in the faith.

Now that we are celebrating World Mission Sunday, let us do our part as lay faithful to receive the light of Christ's love in our lives and to bring that light and love to others as well. We can do this in many ways depending on our particular situation of life, our state of life and our personal vocations. Mission and holiness is not only the responsibility of clergy and religious. Everyone who is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, are commissioned to proclaim the gospel to all peoples, regardless of color or creed.

Lord, we pray for our missionaries, that they may be guided by Your Most Holy Spirit. Infuse in them the gifts of the Spirit that they may have the fortitude and the wisdom to discern how to bring the gospel to the people they serve. Grant also to us, your servants in the world, to bring the light of the gospel in places where it is needed most: in the family, in the business world, in all cultural forms - like the Internet, and in the political life of our communities. Amen.