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October 29, 2023Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102923.cfm

Matthew 22:34-40: You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,

they gathered together, and 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."

Christ here reminds us that we are called to love God and neighbor as ourselves. We must love our neighbor as ourselves not only because the commandments require it, but also because loving our neighbor is the best way to love ourselves.

Where Christians often falter is in their true love of neighbor. Christ tells us this is like the first commandment – one of the most important obligations we have to God. If we fail to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we are refusing to heed this sacred duty, and our love for God is actually diminished. St. John says, "Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his neighbor is a liar" (1 John 3: 20).

It is our moral obligation to minister to our fellow man in need, no matter what our abilities may be.

Even the poorest of us can spare a kind word, an encouraging word, for a neighbor weighed down with cares and troubles. All of us can pray for a neighbor who needs spiritual and temporal help. Most of us can deny ourselves some unnecessary luxuries in order to give a needed loaf of bread to a hungry fellowman, while those who have an abundance of this world's goods need not look far afield to find cases and causes worthy of their Christian charity.

It is important to remember that whatever spiritual or material help is given out of true charity to a neighbor in need, is given to God, and whatever is given to God is soundly invested in heaven, and heaven pays handsome dividends. Sometimes we might be tempted to think that our help is more important than God's, but in reality, our actions are only sound if they are done out of love for God and for our neighbor.