Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Sunday, 26 October 2014Meditation: Exodus 22:20 “Anyone who sacrifices to a god other than God alone must be put to death.
21 “Don’t abuse or take advantage of strangers; you, remember, were once strangers in Egypt.
22-24 “Don’t mistreat widows or orphans. If you do and they cry out to me, you can be sure I’ll take them most seriously; I’ll show my anger and come raging among you with the sword, and your wives will end up widows and your children orphans.
25 “If you lend money to my people, to any of the down-and-out among you, don’t come down hard on them and gouge them with interest.
26-27 “If you take your neighbor’s coat as security, give it back before nightfall; it may be your neighbor’s only covering—what else does the person have to sleep in? And if I hear the neighbor crying out from the cold, I’ll step in—I’m compassionate.
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate. (Exodus 22:26)
Do you have children? If so, you’ve probably thought about what you would do if one of them fell on hard times. Maybe you’ve found yourself in this position already! You’d do everything you could to help, wouldn’t you? Even if the hardship is your child’s own doing, you would still want to bend over backwards to help out.
That’s the message behind today’s first reading and Gospel reading. They both tell us that every human being is a member of God’s family. We are all beloved of our Father, and we are all brothers and sisters to each other. It doesn’t matter whether we are well behaved or “black sheep” of his family. He loves us deeply and longs to care for us, simply because we are his. This is why he has a special love for the poor. It breaks his heart to see these children of his go without the basic necessities of food, clothing, and shelter.
Jesus tells us that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our hearts and to love one another as ourselves. These are very challenging commands, precisely because they are so encompassing. He didn’t say, “Love God when it’s convenient” or “Love only the people who agree with you.” No, we are all one family: rich or poor, old or young, educated or illiterate, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or atheist. Whoever we are, whatever we did or didn’t do, even whether or not we believe in God, everyone deserves to be treated with equal dignity. Everyone deserves to be cared for and lifted up out of any poverty that holds them bound.
Jesus didn’t discriminate in his offer of healing and restoration. Like the farmer who sowed his seeds on all types of soil, he wants us to do the same.
“Jesus, I praise you for your generosity. Give me the same concern for the poor and needy around me. Lord, help me to open my heart and my hands to them!” Amen!
Psalms 18: A David Song, Which He Sang to God After Being Saved from All His Enemies and from Saul
1-2 I love you, God—
you make me strong.
God is bedrock under my feet,
the castle in which I live,
my rescuing knight.
My God—the high crag
where I run for dear life,
hiding behind the boulders,
safe in the granite hideout.
3 I sing to God, the Praise-Lofty,
and find myself safe and saved.
4-5 The hangman’s noose was tight at my throat;
devil waters rushed over me.
Hell’s ropes cinched me tight;
death traps barred every exit.
46-48 Live, God! Blessings from my Rock,
my free and freeing God, towering!
This God set things right for me
and shut up the people who talked back.
He rescued me from enemy anger,
he pulled me from the grip of upstarts,
He saved me from the bullies.
51 You have given great victories to your king,
and shown mercy to his anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.
1 the Thessalonians 1: Convictions of Steel
2-5 Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.
5-6 You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.
7-10 Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message! People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.
Matthew 22: The Most Important Command
34-36 When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”
37-40 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion:
(Exodus 22:20 “Anyone who sacrifices to a god other than God alone must be put to death.
21 “Don’t abuse or take advantage of strangers; you, remember, were once strangers in Egypt.
22-24 “Don’t mistreat widows or orphans. If you do and they cry out to me, you can be sure I’ll take them most seriously; I’ll show my anger and come raging among you with the sword, and your wives will end up widows and your children orphans.
25 “If you lend money to my people, to any of the down-and-out among you, don’t come down hard on them and gouge them with interest.
26-27 “If you take your neighbor’s coat as security, give it back before nightfall; it may be your neighbor’s only covering—what else does the person have to sleep in? And if I hear the neighbor crying out from the cold, I’ll step in—I’m compassionate.
Psalms 18: A David Song, Which He Sang to God After Being Saved from All His Enemies and from Saul
1-2 I love you, God—
you make me strong.
God is bedrock under my feet,
the castle in which I live,
my rescuing knight.
My God—the high crag
where I run for dear life,
hiding behind the boulders,
safe in the granite hideout.
3 I sing to God, the Praise-Lofty,
and find myself safe and saved.
4-5 The hangman’s noose was tight at my throat;
devil waters rushed over me.
Hell’s ropes cinched me tight;
death traps barred every exit.
46-48 Live, God! Blessings from my Rock,
my free and freeing God, towering!
This God set things right for me
and shut up the people who talked back.
He rescued me from enemy anger,
he pulled me from the grip of upstarts,
He saved me from the bullies.
51 You have given great victories to your king,
and shown mercy to his anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.
1 the Thessalonians 1: Convictions of Steel
2-5 Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.
5-6 You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.
7-10 Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message! People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.
Matthew 22: The Most Important Command
34-36 When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”
37-40 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”)
1. In the first reading, the Lord clearly identifies with the plight of the “alien,” “widow,” “orphan,” and “poor neighbors.” He goes on to say, “If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.” Why do you think the Lord’s wrath is so strong towards anyone who wrongs or extorts these needy groups of people? How does your attitude and actions towards the needy compare to the Lord’s compassion? What more can you do so that they would be more like the Lord’s?
2. In the responsorial psalm, the Lord is called “my strength,” plus “my rock, my fortress, my deliverer,” and “my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” What do these mean to you? What examples in your own life can you give of any of these descriptions of the Lord?
3. In the second reading, St. Paul tells the Thessalonians that they are a “model for all the believers.” What are some of the reasons for this that Paul gives? How would you rate yourself as a Christian “model” to others? What needs to happen in your life to make you an even better “model”?
4. In the Gospel reading, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything. St. Paul says that our ability to love God is a response to his having loved us first. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). What can you do in your times of prayer to focus more on knowing God’s love for you?
5. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. What needs to change in the way you relate to your family or others, so that you can love them the way God wants you to love them?
6. The meditation ends with these words: “Whoever we are, whatever we did or didn’t do, even whether or not we believe in God, everyone deserves to be treated with equal dignity. Everyone deserves to be cared for and lifted up out of any poverty that holds them bound. Jesus didn’t discriminate in his offer of healing and restoration. Like the farmer who sowed his seeds on all types of soil, he wants us to do the same.” It is easy to treat well those who agree with us spiritually and politically. However, it is often difficult to treat with “equal dignity” those who disagree with us in these areas. What are some steps you can take to offer the Lord’s “healing and restoration” to those who are in “poverty” and are “bound”?
7. Take some time now to pray and ask for the grace to answer Jesus’ call to serve the poor and needy (both physically and spiritually). Use the prayer at the end of the meditation as the starting point.
“Jesus, I praise you for your generosity. Give me the same concern for the poor and needy around me. Lord, help me to open my heart and my hands to them!” Amen!
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