31st Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B - Love God and Love Your Neighbor & “Ubi Caritas”

Love is the only law we are to live by, and love is the fulfillment of the Law that God reveals through Moses in today’s First Reading (Deut. 6:2-6). The unity of God—the truth that He is one God, Father, Son, and Spirit—means that we must love Him with one love, a love that serves Him with all our hearts and minds, souls and strength.

We love Him because He has loved us first. We love our neighbor because we can’t love the God we haven’t seen unless we love those made in His image and likeness, whom we have seen. We are called to imitate the love that Christ showed us in laying his life down on the Cross. As we hear in today’s Epistle (Heb. 7:23-28), by his perfect sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus once and for all makes it possible for us to approach God.

There is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend. This is perhaps why Jesus tells the scribe in today’s Gospel (Mk. 12:28-34) that he is not far from the kingdom of God. The scribe recognizes that the burnt offerings and sacrifices of the old Law were meant to teach Israel that it is love that God desires. The animals offered in sacrifice were symbols of the self-sacrifice, the total gift of our selves, that God truly desires.

We are called today to examine our hearts. Do we have other loves that get in the way of our love for God? Do we love others as Jesus has loved us? Do we love our enemies and pray for those who oppose and persecute us? Let us tell the Lord that we love Him, as we do in today’s Psalm (Ps. 17). Let us take His Word to heart, that we might prosper and have life eternal in His kingdom, the heavenly homeland flowing with milk and honey.

In honor of these readings, we present “Ubi Caritas”, our latest video whose refrain translates to "Where true charity is, God is there" and whose first verse is: 

The love of Christ joins us together,
let us rejoice in him,
and in our love and care for all,
now love God in return.

Video can be watched by clicking here or on the picture below: