One Minute Reflection – 20 September – “Month of the Seven Sorrows of Mary” – Readings: Ps 118:137; 118:124, Ps 118:1, Eph 4:1-6, Matt 22:34-46
‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
Matt 22:34-46
REFLECTION – When our Master was asked which was the greatest of the commandments, he replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength. There is no other commandment greater than this”. I think so, too, since it concerns primary and essential Being, God our Father, through whom all things were made, all things remain in being, and to whom all who are saved will return. He it is who loved us the first, who gave birth to us. It would be sacrilege to think there exists any being more ancient or more wise. Our thanksgiving may be insignificant compared to his great gifts, yet we cannot offer him any other recognition, he who is perfection itself and has no need of anything. Let us love our Father with all our strength and ardor of soul and we shall win immortality. The more we love God, the more is our nature incorporated and mingled with his own.
The second commandment, Jesus says, yields in nothing to the first: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” When the scholar of the Law asks Jesus: “And who is my neighbor?” , he does not reply by giving the Jewish definition of neighbor – family, fellow Jews, proselytes, those who live according to the same Law – but tells the story of a traveler who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Wounded by robbers, the man was cared for by a Samaritan who “showed himself a neighbor”.
And who is even more of a neighbor to me than our Savior? Who showed more compassion to us when the powers of darkness had left us battered by blows? Jesus alone knew how to heal our wounds and root out the evils planted in our hearts. That is why we should love him just as much as we love God. And loving Christ Jesus is to carry out his will and keep his commandments.
St Clement of Alexandria
PRAYER – Lord, be the beginning and the end of all that we do, all that we say, in every moment be our Light. Prompt our actions with Your grace and complete them with Your all-powerful love. May we always seek Your Face in every circumstance, in every moment, so that Your Light may become our life. Holy and Mother, you lived your life in the Presence of the Holy Face of Christ our Lord, please intercede for us and for all the world. We make our prayer through Christ, our Lord with the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.
AnaStpaul 