Commentary: The year grows short and the questions more direct. Once again they are going at Jesus. He has just silenced the stupid arguments of the Sadducees who did not believe in resurrection or judgment. Now the Pharisees will have another go at Jesus and one approaches with the age-old Jewish question: "Which is the most important commandment in the Law?" Jesus answers with the Shema -which is both a prayer to the holiness of God and the foundational call to the covenant and basis of all the law-to love God with all your mind, heart, soul, and resources. But Jesus adds in the second (like both sides of your hand) to love your neighbor with the same passion and wholeheartedness. Everything in the law, the prophets, the history of faithfulness in the Jewish covenant is based on putting these words into practice and obeying the intent of God that all who are made in his image, live in his image as truthfully as we can. And there is no getting around it-no hedging, no rationalizing. And we-who are we like: the Sadducees playing games with theology; the Pharisees and those using the law to test, trick and make others stumble-or are we with Jesus, intent on the worship of God and the care of human beings?
From Liturgy Alive:
Opening Prayer
Deliver Us
Invitation to Communion
Penitential:
The child in the slums was you, Lord, and we did not love you:
The child in the slums was you, Lord, and we did not love you:
The shy foreigner living among us is you, Lord,
and we have not learned to love you: Christ, have mercy.
and we have not learned to love you: Christ, have mercy.
The family around the corner that has failed to repay its debts is you, Lord, and it is difficult to love them: Lord,
God, you display your almighty power in loving us without regret. In the human heart of Jesus your Son you have shown us how far love can go. Give us a love that is forgiving, generous and gentle like his, that we may recognize and welcome him in our brothers and sisters. And may our hearts reach out first to the poorest and the least lovable, with the gratuitous love you have given us in Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
General Intercessions
Let us pray to our kind and merciful God that his love for us may animate all we do and that our love may become contagious.
Let us say: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
- That the Church, the People of God, may never cease to proclaim by its teaching, life and liturgy that love of God and neighbor is the heart of the gospel and that people are God's gift to us, let us pray:
- That people may not lose their hearts in today's economic systems of profit, efficiency, production and competition, but that they may keep giving first place to human relationships of friendship and respect, let us pray:
- That we may have room in our hearts and homes for refugees and strangers, that we may learn to share our goods and ourselves with the little people loved by God - the poor and the lonely and those who suffer, let us pray:
- That those who don't know how to forgive, those who have not experienced much happiness in life or whose longings have not been fulfilled may encounter a bit of God's goodness in our attention and care, let us pray: R/
- That in our Christian communities we may uplift one another rather than tear down, accept each other with trust and affection, forgive one another from the heart and go forward together in hope and love, let us pray: R/
Our gentle God, help us to love you and one another with your measure, that is, without measure, in Christ Jesus our Lord. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father, in this Eucharist we remember
how Jesus your Son gave himself with a love without measure, going all the way through suffering and death. Make our love creative, like his, that we too may not break the crushed reed nor put out the smoldering wick but lift up the weak and sustain one another in hope. Let this be our answer to your love, by the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
how Jesus your Son gave himself with a love without measure, going all the way through suffering and death. Make our love creative, like his, that we too may not break the crushed reed nor put out the smoldering wick but lift up the weak and sustain one another in hope. Let this be our answer to your love, by the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Deliver us, Lord, from the coldness of sin which refuses to warm up to you and our neighbor. Keep us free from pride which looks down on others. Banish all envy and hatred from among us, and bind us together in your love, that we may prepare in hope and joy for the full coming among us of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom..
This is Jesus the Lord, who said: Love the Lord your God with your whole heart and soul; love one another as I have loved you. By this love people will know that you are my disciples. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Prayer after Communion
God our Father, you have satisfied our hunger for love by giving us your Son Jesus Christ. Following his example, let us send no one away empty, exclude no one, classify no one, build no walls around ourselves or others. Let our happiness not be complete as long as our brothers and sisters suffer. Help us to take all the risks of love, for it is not so much our love we want to give but yours, which became visible in Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
