31ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him.’ JN 14:23

DEUTERONOMY 6:2-6

My Soul's Beloved,

Love is everything - love of God as He ought to be loved and then from this knowledge of who You are, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this love which You have poured into our hearts must overflow and touch and fill the lives of those around us. How do I love those around me, Beloved? I love them just as they are for that is how you love me. You take me as I am, love me where I am, wash away my iniquities, and cleanse me from all my sins. You take me by the hand and lead me to the path of life You do not hold my faults and my sins against me. You forget all my sins when I come to you with true repentance. A contrite humble heart you will not spurn. 

You love me with a love that I can never understand and with a love that is exceedingly great. Beloved, because you love me I too must love those around me. Love begets love. Teach me your ways Lord, help me to become the person God created me to be, and then I will give You the glory and honor that You deserve. Here I am Lord, help me! I can do nothing without You but with You, Lord, all things are possible. Hear me today, Lord, and answer me so I and those I love dearly may live. Thank You

‘Listen, Israel: the Lord our God is the one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Let these words I urge on you today be written on your heart.’

PSALM 17(18):2-4,47,51

I love you, Lord, my strength.

I love you, Lord, my strength,
my rock, my fortress, my saviour.
My God is the rock where I take refuge;
my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold.
The Lord is worthy of all praise,
when I call I am saved from my foes.

Long life to the Lord, my rock!
Praised be the God who saves me,
He has given great victories to his king
and shown his love for his anointed.

I love you, Lord, my strength.

HEBREWS 7:23-28

My Soul's Beloved,

Everything comes from the Father, Your Abba, and our Abba for this is how You address Him and You invite us to do so as well. Our Father in Heaven created us to be holy and perfect and to remain in everlasting joy in His Presence. We were created by the God of love to love as He loves. The legacy of our first parents is sin, concupiscence, and separation from the God who loves us with a love beyond all telling. This is why, Beloved, He sent You into the world. You, His only begotten Son, knew that only one who became like us but sinless, perfect as He is perfect, spotless and holy as He is holy could make reparation for their wilful disobedience that caused a rupture between the Creator and His creatures. And so, Beloved, You came into the world, incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became one like us in all things save sin.

You O Lord were stripped of all glory, all majesty, all power, and You lived in poverty subjecting Yourself to the worst that humankind is capable of and taking upon Yourself the punishment that was ours, You offered Yourself as the Lamb of Sacrifice, without stain or blemish. Placing Yourself willingly, humbly, obediently, You gave Yourself up into the hands of sinners and became the innocent and holy Victim of Sacrifice as well as the Altar and the High Priest and offered to Your Father perfect reparation for the sins of all men beginning with Adam. You made an everlasting covenant between God and His creatures and are now the gate and the door by which we can enter into the life that God intended for us when He created us. Thank You, Lord.

To suit us, the ideal high priest would have to be holy, innocent and uncontaminated, beyond the influence of sinners, and raised up above the heavens; one who would not need to offer sacrifices every day, as the other high priests do for their own sins and then for those of the people, because he has done this once and for all by offering himself. The Law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son who is made perfect for ever.

MARK 12:28-34

My Soul's Beloved,

Created by Love for love because God is Love, God's essence and being is love, we, His creatures were created to love God above and before all else with all that is in us, all the fervor and strength of our soul, heart, mind, body, and spirit - but this love becomes nothing but a big, fat, lie if this love does not create well-springs of love within us that flows out to every person we encounter in our lives, beginning with those nearest, dearest, and closest to us. The beloved disciple of love, St. John, Apostle, and Evangelist rightly says, "If you say you love God and hate your neighbor, you are a liar". 

Not all the Pharisees and scribes were self-serving hypocrites, there were some like the scribe in today's Gospel whom You recognized as not being far from the kingdom of God. He approached You after listening to You, perhaps he witnessed the divine power that made is possible for You to work signs and wonders. You healed the sick, You forgave sinners, You taught and preached as one who was filled with the Spirit of God and the wisdom of God. This is why he put that particular question to You, he knew the answer and wanted You to confirm what he already knew.

We too know the answer Beloved, the trouble with us is that we do not live the answer and we must if we are to live holy, meaningful, and fulfilled lives. Love is everything and if we refuse to love God as we ought then our world will continue to be filled with hatred, division, strife, violence, and evil. We cannot offer lip service to God and expect to be happy. When we love God as we ought then we will love our neighbor as we ought and we will be filled with Your love - a love that surpasses knowledge, and by the grace of God and the Spirit of God, we will be filled with the fullness of God. Help us, Beloved, to Love as You love and we will live in love now and always.

The scribe said to him, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’ Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And after that no one dared to question him any more.