Livonia, Michigan

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

By the Faithful Disciple

GROW AS A DISCIPLE
It is not surprising that we hear both Moses and Jesus speak the same words in today’s Scripture. After all, Truth and Good News bear repeating! 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.” In these words, Moses is instructing the people to fear the Lord and keep all his commandments and in turn God would give them “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Canaan). He is telling them the way to live. When Jesus repeats these words around 1,400 years later, the reason and message are the same, but he also adds to them: “love your neighbor as yourself.” The two commandments are inseparable. He tells us the way to live, and how to live. It’s not enough to know what God asks of us, we must do what God asks of us: love him and one another. When God is the source and reason for all our thoughts and actions, we too will not be “far from the kingdom of God.”
GO EVANGELIZE
How do we put God first in our lives, ensuring he is that source and reason? When he is everything? Not a short order, right? He is everything when our heart, soul, mind, and strength are united with his – when Jesus is the lens through which we see the world. The psalm today reveals that it is the Lord, himself, who is our strength. When we surrender to Jesus, he gives us the strength to love him with everything within us. And when we truly love him, we cannot help acting on that love in how we care for and love our neighbor. How will we know he is first in our lives? Jesus’ words in today’s Scripture tell us how: by accepting God’s love for us, by loving him back, his love will overflow to those around us. Think of those whom your life touches daily: your colleagues at work, the barista at the café, those who hit the gym the same time as you and yes, those who live right next door – your neighbors. In your prayers, ask Jesus, “how can I love and serve them better?”
SERVE
This week, find a particular and concrete way to love someone who needs it, or who lacks what you have: be a listening ear for someone who has no one to talk to; help a neighbor with physical house or yard work; buy groceries for that person who just lost their job. The opportunities are endless, if we just look for them.