Study: Reflect on a moment when you felt completely and entirely loved.  How did that experience shape your life?

Pray: Is there a person in your life right now who is difficult to love?  Ask the Lord for an infusion of grace!

Serve: How can you say “I love you” with an action?  How can you show others the love in your heart?

Mass Readings – 7th Sunday of the Year

A couple of major themes surface in our readings this week:

• 1st Reading – Be holy, and love your neighbor as yourself
• Psalm – “The Lord is kind and merciful.”
• 2nd Reading – You are the temple of God, which is holy
• Gospel – Love your neighbor…and your enemy!

In the first reading and Psalm we see the Lord’s command to love one another.  This might catch some people by surprise; after all, the Old Testament is filled with examples where the people of God are anything but loving to those they encounter!  Point: love of neighbor is a clear commandment of God.

The Gospel of Matthew sets the bar higher as Jesus builds on this command and calls us to conversion.  We are not only called to love our neighbors and family, but we are also called to love our enemies and persecutors!  Like last week, Jesus takes the commandments of the Old Testament and moves far beyond them.  We are called to love with our whole heart…loving one another the way God loves us.

The second reading goes in a different direction.  We hear from St. Paul that our bodies are temples of the living God, and as such we encounter the Spirit of God in the person of everyone we meet.

A consideration for today: put the love of God into practice!  We are cherished, treasured, forgiven and esteemed by the Lord – who loves us even on our worst days.  Following this example we can act accordingly…loving those around us with the love of Jesus Christ.

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Catholic Inspiration Archives

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Note: This post was first published on February 13, 2017.