Readings of the day: RB 22
Mass: Exodus 22:20-26; Resp. Psalm 18; 1 Thess. 1:5c-10; Matthew 22:34-40
The Pharisees throw one of their scholars into the ring to test Jesus: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Without hesitation, Jesus answers:
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.
What next? Saint Matthew doesn’t tell us. Saint Mark, with a different version of the exchange (12:28-34), relates, “No one dared to ask Jesus any more questions.”
My question: Jesus, how can I live this love? Some answers came during the reading at vigils. What follows is from Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, In the School of Love:
The person whose soul has been enlarged through love may be described as someone who takes pity and lends, who is disposed to be compassionate, quick to render assistance, who believes that there is more to happiness in giving than in receiving, who easily forgives but is not easily angered, who will never seek to be avenged and will in all things take thought of his neighbor’s needs as if they were his own.
Those who love one another are pleasant and temperate, without grudging; they neither deceive nor attack nor offend another; they never exalt themselves nor promote themselves at another’s expense, but offer their services generously as they accept those of others.
Living and true God, grant us the grace.
Amen.
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