From the Pastor – 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
St. Paul echoes Christ in many ways. In the 13 th Chapter from his letter to the Romans, he continues with his thoughts on how we should live to please God, and he uses a sentence which Christ often repeated. After listing several of the Ten Commandments, Paul states, “…whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’.”
There is always much that gets debated in that admonition, such as loving yourself, and who exactly is your neighbor? Paul’s point, like that of Jesus, is simply that we are called to treat others as we may like to be treated. We need to show them the respect and caring that we may hope for and wish for. God loves us, and if we realize that, we may ultimately come to the conclusion that we are loveable.
Most of us know someone whose love is evident by how they treat others and how they live. Loving your neighbor is a visible expression of everything that Jesus taught. It is a way of expressing the depth of our faith and our belief that we are Disciples of Christ.
St. Francis de Sales captured all about what this love is and who is your neighbor when he wrote, “Examine your heart often to see if it is such toward your neighbor as you would like his or hers to be toward you in his or her place. This is the touchstone of true reason.” It is relatively basic and simple — our neighbor is everyone with whom we have contact, and love is what makes it all work.
Pastoral Pondering
Vision Statement: Serve others through compassionate personal and parochial outreach and Seek to proclaim the Gospel in both word and deed, especially in our concern for the poor and marginalized.
- Faith in Christ must be lived and put into action. This action should take the form of compassionate outreach to those in need physically, materially, or spiritually.
- St. Mark strives to do this through our charitable outreach as well as through concrete projects that benefit our brothers and sisters.
- Pope Francis points out that: “A prayer that does not lead you to practical action for your brother — the poor, the sick, those in need of help, a brother in difficulty — is a sterile and incomplete prayer. But, in the same way . . . When time is not set aside for dialogue with him in prayer, we risk serving ourselves and not God present in our needy brother and sister. St Benedict sums up the kind of life that indicated for his monks in two words: ora et labora , pray and work. It is from contemplation, from a strong friendship with the Lord that the capacity is born in us to live and to bring the love of God, his mercy, his tenderness, to others. And also our work with brothers in need, our charitable works of mercy, lead us to the Lord, because it is in the needy brother and sister that we see the Lord himself.” (7/21/13)
- We give of ourselves in many ways at the parish, but there will always be more to do. Pray and let the fruit of your prayer burst forth in service to little ones that Christ sends our way.