Today's Catholic Mass Readings & Gospel Reflection - Sunday ,October 29, 2023 #dailymassreadings

Today's Catholic Mass Readings & Gospel Reflection - 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time. October 29, 2023. FIRST READING : Exodus 22: 20-26 Thus says the LORD: "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. "You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, i will surely hear their cry, "My wrath will flare up, and i will kill you with the sword,; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans. If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, i will hear him; for i am compassionate. RESPONSORIAL PSALM : "I love you, Lord, my strength." SECOND READING : 1 Thessalonians 1: 5-10 Brothers and sisters: You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, 'so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves openly declare about us what sort of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God "and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.. gospel : Matthew 22: 34-40 "THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT". 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. Reflection : "LOVE AND YOU FULFILL THE LAW". The versions of Mark and Matthew of the same incident make for an interesting comparison. The earlier Marcan version has one of the scribes ask Jesus which is the first of all the commandments, and when Jesus points to the love of God and neighbor, he agrees with Jesus, saying, "Well said, teacher." And Jesus returns the compliment, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God". On the other hand, Matthew, who notes of the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees, sets the scene in a controversy. A lawyer, on behalf of the Pharisees, tries to trick Jesus with the question that people have long debated: "Which commandment in the law is the greatest?". Of the 613 big and small prescriptions of Jewish law, as counted by the learned rabbis, what is absolutely essential? What is the most important standard to live by? Jesus' answer is simple and direct: You shall love the Lord, with everything in you; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The first part of Jesus' response comes as no surprise to the Pharisees. Taken from Deuteronomy 6: 4-5, the Shema ("Hear, O Israel") is a prayer that every devout Jew recites twice daily as a proclamation of his faith in God. As Deuteronomy 6: 6-9 enjoins, it is drilled into children, spoken whether at home or abroad and while busy or at rest, bound to the arm as a sign, hung as a pendant on the forehead, and written at doorposts and gates of homes. What startles the Pharisees is the second part. One has to sift through all the rules in Leviticus 19:18 to find it. Still, Jesus has his precedent in the Old Testament, handed down by the more liberal teachers of Judaism. It is said that a Gentile came to Rabbi Shammai (leader of a strict school of Judaism) and said that he would like to become a Jew, but could not stay long in Jerusalem. He asked, "Can you teach me the whole Torah while i am standing on one foot?" Shammai sent him away angrily. So the Gentile went to Rabbi Hillel (a renowned scribe in Jerusalem about the time of Jesus' birth) with the same question. Hillel admitted him as a convert, and said, "Whatever is hateful to thee, do not do to thy fellow-man. This is the whole Torah: all the rest is commentary. Now go and study." What is more disconcerting is Jesus' proclamation that the second commandment is "like the first": loving your neighbor is like loving God. For the Pharisees, the neighbor is only a fellow israelite or a resident alien. For the God of israel (First Reading), the neighbor who has a special claim on believers is one lacking in resources: the poor man, the stranger, the widow, and the orphan with no means of support. #dailymasstoday