This week’s Gospel message for Sunday, October 25th is from Matthew 22:34-40.
“When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, . . . one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘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 the 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.’”
“Jesus’ response to the lawyer echoes Jewish thought in the rabbinical circles of the time, so in that sense he has passed the test. Significantly, he says that ‘the second (commandment) is like it.’ The two commandments, love of God and love of neighbor, are interrelated. Since we are all made in the image of God, and since we are called to love God with our whole being, loving our neighbor—and ourselves—is loving God.” Source: Pastoral Patterns, Autumn 2020
DAILY READINGS FOR THE WEEK
Monday Eph 4:32—5:8; Luke 13:10-17
Tuesday Eph 5:21-33; Luke 13:18-21
Wednesday Eph 2:19-22; Luke 6:12-16
Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles (Feast) – “Since there are two apostles named Simon and two named Judas, to distinguish them from Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot these two are identified as Simon the Zealot and Judas the son (or the brother) of James. Simon is surnamed the Canaanite or the Zealot, a name that probably alludes to a real association, or at least sympathy, with the Zealot movement that desired a revolutionary overthrow of the occupying Roman authority. Jude (Judas) is also called Thaddeus. According to tradition, both suffered martyrdom, and Jude became a patron saint of hopeless cases.”
Thursday Eph 6:10-20; Luke 13:31-35
Friday Phil 1:1-11; Luke 14:1-6
Saturday Phil 1:18b-26; Luke 14:1, 7-11
Source: Living With Christ, October 2020