One of my biggest irritations is when people are late. I’ve learned from books and mentors that being late shows a lack of respect for others’ time. It damages your reputation, reflects poor management skills, and makes you appear unreliable and untrustworthy.

A friend of mine struggles with this. She’s often 30 minutes to an hour late to her meetings. I’ve tried to explain how this affects her leadership, sharing my own experience since I, too, struggled with punctuality early in my career. While she still has occasional late moments, I’ve seen significant improvement.

Instead of getting irritated, I’ve learned to choose kindness, patience, and understanding. After all, I’ve been there myself, and my mentor showed me the same patience to help me improve.

It’s easy to love those who treat us well, but Jesus challenges us to love even those we struggle with. 

Maine Ybiernas (charmaine_clamor@yahoo.com)

reflect

“The people whom you find most difficult to deal with can also be your most valuable teachers. For your problems with them are not really due to how they are, but rather how you respond to how they are.” (Ralph Marston)

Lord, thank You for loving an imperfect person like me. Teach me that loving people is the best way to love You. Amen.

Saint Pius X, pope, pray for us.

God can bring life out of any situation. Do you believe this? Ezekiel reminds the people that a hundred years ago, they have come from a place of death or slavery in Egypt. Then God gave them a new life in the Promised Land. They know the power of God at work in their lives as a nation. 

¹ The hand of the Lord came upon me, and 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 them 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.

Responsorial Psalm | 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)

Gospel | Matthew 22:34-40

All the moral laws of Christianity stem from the double commandment of love—love God and love your neighbor. Our first and highest duty is to love. This love informs and directs all our actions; whatever we do must be rooted in love, above all else. Without these foundational commandments, Christianity loses its essence.

Gospel Acclamation

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

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.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read JOB 26 - 29 today.

The Gospel presents an ironic twist: an expert in the Law questions Jesus about the Law. But the Gospel of Matthew reveals the motive: the lawyer wants to test Jesus. This is another trap meant to discredit Him. Still, the question itself is sincere enough: “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Many today feel overwhelmed by religious rules; this question could easily be ours.

Jesus responds with what every devout Jew recites daily—the Shema: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Deuteronomy 6:5). But He does not stop there. Jesus continues, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). What is unique and revolutionary is that Jesus binds these two together. Love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated. Together, they form the foundation of the entire Law and the Prophets.

During a parish mission, a young man approached the priest in tears. He had returned to Church out of guilt after years of straying. But what truly moved him was not fear—it was love. He had been helping a sick neighbor and, in doing so, rediscovered God. “I didn’t plan to go back to Church,” he said, “but I felt God there—in her eyes, in her pain.”

Why do we follow the law? Out of fear of punishment? Desire for reward? Or because love compels us? Jesus’ answer today invites us to go beyond external observance. What should motivate our words and actions is love—total love for God, lived out in real love for others. This is not just the greatest commandment; it is the very heart of our faith. 

Fr. Joel Camaya, SDB

reflection questions

What motivates you to do what is good and right? Is it love of God and neighbor? What are the concrete ways of loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind? How do you love your neighbor as yourself?

Lord, thank You for the capacity to love. Purify my intentions so that what I do may always be out of love. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ______________________________________