October 31st - 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Dt 6:2-6; Heb 7:23-28; Mk 12:28b–34)

The readings today summarize all the laws and statutes given to the Jewish people into two simple commands – love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Simple – but not easy!! Love the Lord your God – but how many of us don’t bother to set aside the Lord’s Day anymore as a time for rest, reflection, and thanksgiving for our blessings? It’s so easy to treat it as just another busy day once our obligation for Mass is taken care of. True, Jesus worked on the Sabbath by curing someone – but a beer run isn’t really the same thing. Love our neighbor as ourselves – but how much do we get embroiled in the climate of “us vs. them” that the current culture seems to encourage? We find it everywhere, even among Catholics who want to return to the Latin Mass and other older traditions (to the point of maligning anyone who doesn’t agree with them), vs. those who embrace Pope Francis and the Vatican II changes. It is natural to have conflicts, but when we fuel them with hostility instead of reaching out to each other with love, we cannot think we are following Jesus or representing Him well to others around us.

• We can slip into the habit of assuming that others just know that we love them. This leads to staleness in any relationship, including our relationship with God! What can you do this week to demonstrate your love to God and others in a fresh way?
• Who have you come to regard with bitterness and anger as “them”? Is there any external force which reinforces your hostility?
• We know the 10 commandments, but Jesus holds His followers to a higher standard. Read Matthew 5:21-26. Why do you think Jesus words his admonition against derisive speech so strongly?