Invitation
May I hereby call your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with you the joy of the Gospel.
Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening his heart
to the healing effect of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
Who is my neighbour? That’s how we asked the question last Monday. We referred to the Good Samaritan in Luke. My neighbour is any person I meet on my way. We also referred to the gospel of the day. Unlike the first reading, my neighbour is not just the people’s companion, but the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the naked, the stranger in whom Christ meets me.
Today, the gospel goes even further. Can Christ go even further than this? The neighbour is also the enemy whom I must love. Only Christianity proclaims this message which for most people is absurd.
FIRST READING Deut. 26, 16-19
You shall be a people dedicated to the Lord.
From the Book of Deuteronomy
Moses spoke to the people :
“Today the Lord your God commands you
fulfill these precepts and regulations.
“You must carry them out punctually,
with all your heart and all your soul.
“Thou hast received this day from the Lord the assurance,
that He is to be your God,
if thou wilt walk in his ways,
keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances
and listen to Him.
“And the Lord hath this day received of you the assurance,
that you, as He has promised,
shall be his own people and shall keep all his commandments.
“Therefore He will bestow upon you greater honor, fame, and splendor
than to the other nations which He has created,
and ye shall be a people devoted to the Lord your God,
as He has promised.”
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 119(118), 1-2, 4-5, 7-8
Happy who go forth according to the law of the Lord.
Happy those whose path of life is pure,
who go forward according to the law of the Lord.
Happy who heed what He ordains,
seeking Him with all their heart.
You have given your orders
that they may be faithfully fulfilled.
May my ways be straight,
directed to what Thou hast ordained.
I will praise Thee in all sincerity,
accepting what Thou hast ordained.
To thy decrees will I keep ;
then let Thou not leave me alone.
VERSE FOR THE GOSPEL Ps. 51(50), 12a and 14a
Create in me a pure heart, my God,
Give me again the opulence of thy blessing.
GOSPEL Mt 5, 43-48
Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
At that time Jesus said to his disciples :
“Ye have heard that it was said :
Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy.
“But I say to you :
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you ,
that ye may become the sons of your Father in heaven,
who makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good
and makes it rain on the just and unjust.
“For if ye love those who love you,
what right have ye to wages?
“Do not the tax collectors do the same?
“And if thou greetest only thy brother,
what strange thing dost thou do?
“Do not the heathen do the same?
“Be ye therefore perfect,
as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
__________________________________________________________
Laudato Si
Encyclic by
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
99. According to the Christian conception of reality, the destiny of all creation runs through the mystery of Christ, who is present from the beginning: “The universe was created by Him and for Him” (Col 1:16) . The prologue of John’s Gospel (Jn 1:1-18) shows the creative activity of Christ as the divine Word (Logos). But this prologue surprises with its claim that this Word “became flesh” (Jn 1:14). A Person of the Trinity has joined the created cosmos and shared its fate up to the cross. From the beginning of the world, but in a special way beginning with the Incarnation, the mystery of Christ has been working in a hidden way in the whole of natural reality without thereby affecting its autonomy.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for the weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
_______________________________________________________________________