30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
This year the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time brings us a simple but strong message. Love God. Love your neighbour. Jesus teaches that these two commands hold all of God’s law and all the words of the prophets together. They guide how we live, how we treat others, and how we show our faith in action. In the First Reading we are told do not oppress aliens, widows, or orphans; the prophet says I will hear their cries. Here the Israelites are told that there must be no discrimination on the foreigner, the widow the orphan or the poor. Don’t charge interest to your poor neighbours and return pledged cloaks before sunset be compassionate as I am compassionate remember that the love of God and Neighbour are both intimately connected.
In the Second Reading St. Paul continues his prayer of thanksgiving reminding the Thessalonians of the joy they have in their faith. They have followed Paul and the Lord’s example, receiving the word even in hardship. Paul also tells them Your faith has become a model for believers far and wide, as they have turned away from idols to serve God. The Pharisees in the Gospel Reading for this Sunday are all out to get Jesus because he had silenced the Sadducees. In an attempt to do this, they asked him this question Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and your neighbour as yourself. It is hard to love someone that we have never met in person, but we love God because many others have passed on their love of God to us. There is a sense in which we could say that it takes a lifetime of practice to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. To direct us all our lives God has given us guidelines, in the Ten Commandments and the beatitudes as well many people who have shown the love of god to us in many different situations. As members of the Church, we have to face up to the fact that the love that god has for each of us means little or nothing for many people. In spite of the cynic’s out there love does motivate people. Because some people love and value worldly things there is a lot of despair, but the world is also a place of great love, that is the love of God made real to us through Jesus his Son, and we see that love in and through the people around us. Love of neighbour is easy to talk about and difficult to live out.
In spite of this love in action will change us, the people and places around us . All we need to do is take one step at a time toward our creator and our fellow human beings, and this will provide us with great reward. And we should not worry where we are going, for God’s Spirit will lead the way. like so many other Faith based questions we are simply asked to try to love God, and he will do the rest. There is a hymn called the king of love my shepherd is and its first line is The King of love my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never. That is true the love of god never fails for those who trust in him may we be people who trust in him as we go forward in faith hope and love.
