GOSPEL POWER | AUGUST 20, 2021 - Friday - 20th Week in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Ru 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 146 – Praise the Lord, my soul! 

Gospel: Mt 22:34-40 

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,  they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a  question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law  is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your  God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your  mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second  is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two  commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Reflection:

Jesus does not ignore the scholar’s question, though he  is aware of the hostile agenda behind the interrogation.  This seemingly simple gesture, on the part of Jesus, says a  lot. For it powerfully demonstrates the essence of his answer, which is  the love-commandment. Thus, Jesus walks the talk. The second part  of the twofold love-commandment — you shall love your neighbor as  yourself — calls for respecting the other, regardless of the person’s  character and disposition. Responding to another person’s question is  a basic form of respect. In showing respect toward the hostile scholar  of the law by entertaining his question, Jesus, in fact, goes beyond  the love-commandment laid down in the Old Testament and offers  his new and radical love-commandment, which is loving one’s enemy.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, grant that we, too, may meet antagonism with respectful  love, that we may become agents of peace in this troubled world. Amen.