Deuteronomy 6:2-6 / Hebrews 7:23-28 / Mark 12:28b-34

Brothers and sisters, we are celebrating the thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time in advance, although today, Saturday, November 2nd, is the commemoration of all the faithful departed.

So, let us observe a minute of silence to pray for the eternal rest of our departed loved ones, asking God for their conversion, so that God may forgive them and, thus, they may enter into eternal life, through the merits of the redeeming cross of Christ. May the Virgin Mary, the angels and saints intercede for them. Amen.

May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace and may perpetual light illuminate them.

In addition to the Ten Commandments, the Jews had hundreds of laws and religious norms to be fulfilled. It was difficult to memorize and practice all of them.

It was necessary to know what was essential, the most important, to be memorized and practiced, to please God.

In today's Gospel, according to Mark, Jesus helped the scribe in this task, and today he helps all of us.

Jesus based his teachings on the Tradition of the First Testament, specifically on the book of Deuteronomy - today's first reading. Echoing Moses, Jesus said that the greatest commandments of God's Law are actually two: you shall love God above all things and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no way to truly love God without loving our neighbor. One commandment leads to another.

Love for God must be of quality: with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. Those who love God prioritize personal prayer, reading and meditating on the Bible, and Sunday Eucharist. Those who love God speak of Him to others, without fear or shame.

Love for one's neighbor begins at home, in the family, with relatives, through respect, forgiveness, patience, and helping with emotional and material needs. Love for others is also experienced with friends, neighbors, schoolmates and workmates, but also with strangers and even with enemies and adversaries, for whom we shall pray, without repaying evil with evil. This means treating others as we would like to be treated by them.

In the letter to the Hebrews, today’s second reading, we remember that Jesus is the eternal high priest, who loved God by loving his neighbor. 

The high priests of the Jews had to offer sacrifices to God every day for their own sins and the sins of the people, and after death, they were replaced by others.

Jesus is different. By dying on the Cross, He offered the perfect and effective sacrifice to God for the sins of humanity, once and for all, without the need for it to be repeated. By rising from the dead, Jesus lives eternally and, therefore, does not need to be replaced by another.

Let us be thankful and value what Jesus did for us, dying and rising again so that we could be forgiven by God and inherit Heaven!

The Eucharistic sacrifice at each Holy Mass is the memory of this extraordinary event! Let us participate in Holy Mass with love and devotion!

Local: Springfield, MA, EUA

Comentários

Postar um comentário

Postagens mais visitadas deste blog

Sirach 35:1-12 / Mark 10:28-31

Today we take a break from Ordinary Time, which will return after the Solemnity of Pentecost in the month of June. The reason is the beginning of Lent Season tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, a day of obligatory fasting and abstinence from meat. Today the evangelist Mark tells us about the hundredfold promise that Jesus made to His disciples. Peter reminded Jesus that he and the disciples had given up everything and followed Him. And Jesus promised that whoever had done this, for His sake and for the sake of the Gospel, would receive a hundred times more in the present age—house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, lands, with persecutions—and, in the age to come, eternal life. Jesus concluded by saying that many that were first would be last. And the last would be first. In a mysterious but real way, God's providence, through the members of the Church, takes care of the material and emotional needs of those who serve Him. He is the Good Shepherd and His sheep lack nothing. Of cour...
Leia mais

Exodus 12.1-8,11-14 | 1 Corinthians 11.23-26 | John 13.1-15

In this Holy Week, today we arrive at the Easter Triduum, with Holy Thursday, celebrating the Institution of the Eucharist, at the Last Supper, and remembering the Washing of the Feet, love made humble service. A short while ago, the Institution of the Ministerial Priesthood was celebrated, with Priest's Day, and the consecration of the Holy Oils for the anointing of catechumens, for the anointing of those being confirmed and ordained ministers (deacons, priests and bishops), and for the anointing of the sick. Today the Evangelist John speaks to us about the Washing of the Feet during the Supper. Jesus - the Lord and Master - washed the feet of His disciples, giving them the example so that they would do the same thing that He did. The evangelist emphasizes that Jesus was demonstrating all His love for His people in the world. Simon Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet, but he allowed it when Jesus told him that he would have no part with Jesus if he did not allow it.  In that...
Leia mais

Ezekiel 47.1-2,8-9,12 | 1 Corinthians 3.9c-11,16-17 | John 2.13-22

We begin the thirty-second week of Ordinary Time with Mother Church. In two Sundays, the Liturgical Year will conclude with the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. In 2025, the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, on November 9th, coincided with Sunday, the Lord's Day. The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, presided over by Pope Leo XIV. It is the oldest church in the West, inaugurated in the year 324, during the pontificate of Pope St. Sylvester I. It is the most important of the four papal basilicas in Rome (the others are St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, and the Basilica of St. Mary Major). Five ecumenical councils have taken place there. She is considered the ecumenical Mother Church. Initially, the basilica was dedicated to Christ the Savior, and only centuries later was it co-dedicated to Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. Let us celebrate the catholicity...
Leia mais