“The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” –Matthew 22:39

       Today is my grandmother’s birthday. My favorite bonding moment with her is when she massages my head while recounting random memories.

        I was lying on her lap one afternoon when she told me, “Do you know why I want you to be the emcee during reunions? It’s because your presence radiates and influences joy.”

       Her words melted my heart. Even before I could react, she con-tinued, “You must be really happy from within.”

       That day, I was reminded that our actions and reactions towards others reflect what’s going on inside us.

       Including love for ourselves. Sometimes we are so busy loving the whole world except the person that we see in front of the mirror. American preacher Joel Osteen once said, “God wasn’t having a bad day when He made you… If you don’t love yourself the right way, you can’t love your neighbor.”

      Loving ourselves presupposes loving others. It is only when we genuinely love who we are that we can extend sincere love to others. It’s the kind of love that glows from the inside out. Maymay R. Salvosa (cmaysalvosa@yahoo.com)

Reflection: “We forget to remain focused on the things that really matter. We forget to remain, at heart, children of God. That is sin: [to] forget at heart that we are children of God.” (Pope Francis)

Dearest Father, thank You for creating me the way I am. Open my heart to see my uniqueness.

God brings life to the bones lying in the desert. This is an image of the powerful grace of God that can bring life out of death. God can also bring life to people who have been overcome by sin. Through repentance and forgiveness, God gives us a new life and new hope.

Ezekiel 37:1-14

1 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he led me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the center of the plain, which was now filled with bones. 2 He made me walk among the bones in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were! 3 He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come to life? I answered, “Lord God, you alone know that.” 4 Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life. 6 I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the Lord. 7 I prophesied as I had been told, and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise; it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone. 8 I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them, and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them. 9 Then the Lord said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. 10 I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright, a vast army. 11 Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They have been saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” 12 Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! 14 I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the Lord. I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.

Psalm 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R: Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say, those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe 3 and gathered from the lands, from the east and the west, from the north and the south. (R) 4 They went astray in the desert wilderness; the way to an inhabited city they did not find. 5 Hungry and thirsty, their life was wasting away within them. (R) 6 They cried to the Lord in their distress; from their straits he rescued them. 7 And he led them by a direct way to reach an inhabited city. (R) 8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercy and his wondrous deeds to the children of men, 9 because he satisfied the longing soul and filled the hungry soul with good things. (R)

We celebrate today the feast of St. John Eudes, a man who dedicated his life in promoting the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We discover in this devotion the merciful nature of God’s love. The power of mercy is underestimated today and is seen as a weakness. The truth is, it takes courage and strength to be merciful.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Teach me your paths, my God, guide me in your truth.

Matthew 22:34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them a scholar of the law tested him by asking, 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two  commandments.”

think: Through repentance and forgiveness, God gives us a new life and new hope.

Thank You Lord for: __________________

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Isaiah 13-16  

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

“Which commandment in the Law is the greatest?” Wasn’t it a strange question that the scholar of the law asked Jesus? I think not. The original Ten Commandments had multiplied and eventually the Pharisees counted over 300 commandments of the law. These 300 commandments were the source of constant discussion — what is allowed and not allowed by each of them. As a result, the Jews literally came up with thousands of rules and regulations that were meant to direct the behavior of pious Jews.

       And so it was natural to ask which of the laws and rules was the most important. Was the lawyer serious or was he just trying to trick Jesus? We will never know. But it does not matter what the intention of the lawyer was. More important is the answer of Jesus. With marvelous ease, Jesus brings in downright simplicity into the mess of laws and regulations that cluttered up Jewish theology. He reduces all the laws to two commandments: “Love God” and “Love thy neighbor.”

       Jesus makes the two commandments one: two sides of a single coin. He makes it clear that we cannot separate one from the other. And this one most basic commandment that sums up all the rest is expressed in the word “love.” Love, therefore, is at the heart of Christianity. Love does not address rules and commandments. It invades life in the presence of, and as a response to, persons. The motivation of Christian behavior, therefore, is not a law that one fears to break, but a person who is personified love (God) and the person to be loved (our neighbor).

       Out of love for the Father and out of love for sinful men and women, the Son of God entered into our world to begin the work of salvation. The vertical and horizontal beams of the Cross remind us of the inseparable love for God and neighbor.

    May our love of the Father and of the neighbor motivate all our thoughts and actions and so make us more Christ-like. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

REFLECTION QUESTION: Are you aware that you cannot love God as long as you do not love your fellowmen?

Lord, forgive me for my limited love for my fellowmen. Make me remember every time I see a cross that my love for You is nothing if I do not love those around me. Amen.