From the Pastor – 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
From the Pastor – 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel Reading from St. Matthew, a lawyer among the Pharisees again tries to entrap Jesus by asking Him the question, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest.” Jesus’ response appears multiple times in Holy Scripture, as He says, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The Lord then adds another that He cites as almost equally important, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Much has been written and conjectured about both of these, and often the focus is on who our neighbor is. However, there is another element of the second Great Commandment that is worthy of note, and that is loving the neighbor “as yourself.” Too often people conclude that this means that you have to love yourself first.
Most of us grasp what it means to the love the Lord with all we are, although it is nearly unattainable to accomplish. However, that second Great Commandment does not mean that it is necessary for us to love ourselves before we can love anyone else. It means, quite simply, that most of us are concerned with our own interests and our own personal situations. Jesus is telling us that just as we often think of ourselves, we need to take care and have concern for the interests of others as well.
In the familiar Prayer of St. Francis known to many Catholics, we sum up what this kind of love to which we are called really is, when we pray, “Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved, as to love.”
Pastoral Pondering
This coming week we celebrate two significant liturgical days. The first is the Solemnity of All Saints (November 1st) and the second is the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed or All Souls (November 2nd). I wanted to highlight these celebrations because in our chaotic world, we often find it hard to slow down and remember things that are greater than we are and beyond our control.
The feast of All Saints was instituted as a way to celebrate the Church Triumphant, those souls already enjoying the vision of God and to remind each of us what we should be striving for, the fulness of heaven. The commemoration of All Souls reminds us of the serious obligation to pray for those who have died in God’s grace, but who have not yet fully attained the purification required to enter the presence of God and the joys of heaven.
Both celebrations help us to remember that we are a part of a huge spiritual family. Death for us never has the last word. The saints in heaven, both known and unknown, pray for us and encourage us to run the race and fight the good fight. The souls in purgatory pray for us as well and depend on our prayers and sacrifices, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to complete their purification from all attachments to this life and allow them the fullness of heaven.
All Saints is a Holy Day of Obligation and All Souls affords us an opportunity to obtain a plenary indulgence by visiting the cemetery and praying for all the faithful departed.