THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT
INTRODUCTORY RITES
Gather as a family/ community; create an environment appropriate for prayer (dress appropriately - switch off your phones...).
We are conscious that Christ is present not only in the Blessed Sacrament but also in the Scriptures and in our hearts. Even when we are on our own, we remain part of the Body of Christ.
Place lighted candles, a crucifix, and the Bible on a covered table. These remind us of the sacredness of our time of prayer and could help us feel connected with our local worshipping communities.
You may sing or play an appropriate hymn. For instance:
The Sign of the Cross
Greeting and Introductory Words
L: The Lord invites us to the table of his Word: let us bless him for his goodness.
A: Blessed be God forever.
L: Christian love has two dimensions: the vertical, which is love of God and the horizontal, which is love of neighbour. Without either of these, Christian love is incomplete. Such love calls for sacrifice.
Jesus shows us how to love God and people through his life and death. He is the perfect model of total love of God and love of neighbour. Let us pray that we may imitate him and for the strength and grace to love as he loved God and neighbour.
Penitential Rite
L: For the times we have failed to love God and neighbour, let us ask the Lord and those we have not loved to forgive us.
Pause
L: Lord Jesus, your love was attentive to all:
Lord, have mercy.
A: Lord, have mercy.
L: Lord Jesus, your love embraced even sinners and outcasts:
Christ, have mercy.
A: Christ, have mercy.
L: Lord Jesus, your love went all the way to the cross
to save the unjust, the ungrateful, the hard-hearted:
Lord, have mercy.
A: Lord, have mercy.
L: May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins,
and bring us to everlasting life.
A: Amen.
Gloria
Opening Prayer
L: Lord our God,
you are the one God and there is no other.
Give us grace to hear and heed
the great commandment of your kingdom,
that we may love you with all our heart
and love our neighbour as ourselves.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
A: Amen.
THE LITURGY OF THE WORD
Readings
The readings are those assigned for the day in the Lectionary.
Preferably use a Bible/ Lectionary for reading.
Reading 1 Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Psalm Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
Response I love you, Lord, my strength.
Reading 2 Hebrews 7:23-28
Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord;
and my father will love him and we will come to him.
Gospel Mark 12:28b-34
Reflection on the Readings
Use one of the following ways to reflect on the readings.
Lectio Divina
Imagine you are with Jesus when the scribe asks him the question about the greatest commandment. What are your thoughts and feelings when you hear Jesus’ reply and the scribe’s response to it?
Sunday Snippets
In a cartoon strip, Frank and Ernest are standing in front of rows of shelves of books. The sign on top of one of the shelves reads: “Law Library.” Franks tells Ernest: “It’s frightening when you think that we started out with just Ten Commandments.”
It is frightening! The Jews started out with Ten Commandments and ended up with 613; there are 1752 codes in our Canon Law!
There were two tendencies in Judaism: one expanded the law into many regulations; the other gathered the law into one summary sentence. There were two schools of thought: one believed there were lighter and weightier matters of the law, and one could prioritize; the other held that all principles were equally important and binding. Hence, the question the scribe asked in the gospel passage was a living issue in Jewish circles.
Jesus’ response gathers up the scripture of Israel in one statement.
He quotes the creed of Judaism, the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:2-6, first reading): “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Alongside this creed, Jesus places another passage (Leviticus 19:18): “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” For Jesus, it is a combination of these texts that makes the summary and the essence of the law; religion is loving God and loving people.
The scribe, pleased with Jesus’ reply, makes a pertinent point: such love is better than all ritual sacrifices. But it is always easier to let ritual take the place of love; it is easier to let worship become a matter of the church building instead of a matter of one’s whole life.
Jesus loved God and people totally.
How am I going to imitate Jesus in the week ahead? How shall I love my God with my whole being? How shall I love my neighbour as myself?
PS: G.K. Chesterton said that the great lesson of Beauty and the Beast is that a person must be loved before he/she is loveable. Unless we feel loved, we cannot love. Just as abused children grow up to become abusers, loved children grow up to become loving adults. God loves and accepts us “just as we are”. Therefore, we can love and accept ourselves and in so doing, love and accept others.
Questions to Ponder
Reflect on some (or all) of the following questions:
Reading 1: What are issues I need to think about when I consider the commandment “love your neighbour”? What are some global issues that we need to consider?
Reading 2: How do I feel about someone who “lives forever to make intercession for” me/us/the world?
Gospel: Why do you think Jesus added the words “and love your neighbour as yourself” to the commandment to love God with our whole heart?
The Creed
Prayer of the Faithful
L: Jesus makes it clear that without love of neighbour there is no love of God. We pray for the commitment to live more fully this greatest commandment and be an example of Christ’s love in our daily lives: Lord, hear our prayer.
R: For the Church: that we may not be people of legalisms and outward observances but sincerely seek to love God and neighbour and thus make God’s unconditional love visible to all, we pray…
R: For the world: that God may inspire dialogue that will reduce conflicts, protect the innocent from harm, and promote human dignity, we pray…
R: For all who seek to follow the commandment of Christ: that they may be living signs of the nearness of God’s kingdom, we pray…
R: For all who are suffering: that God may give safety to those living in areas of war, open channels of food for those in areas of famine, and send healing to those who are ill, we pray…
R: For all who have died, particularly our family and friends: that they may live in the light and peace of God's presence forever, we pray…
R: For our common home: that we may gain a greater appreciation of the beauty and diversity of God’s creation, we pray…
R: For ourselves: that we may see and love each person as a neighbour, including the unborn, the outcast, the burdensome, the stranger, and the criminal, we pray…
L: God our Father, you are our strength and our protection. Guide us to love you with heart and soul, mind and strength, and our neighbours as ourselves. Through Christ our Lord.
A: Amen.
SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
The Lord’s Prayer
Spiritual Communion
A: Jesus, I know and believe in your real presence in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is you I desire to love and receive above all things. As I am unable to receive your sacramental presence now, come and be with me in heart and soul. Let my entire self be united with you as I welcome you again and know your loving embrace. Amen.
Post Spiritual Communion Reflection
Lord,
what does it mean:
to love you with all my heart,
all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength?
And then you add:
love my neighbour as myself!
Not in some history book in eons past,
but in my life, in our times, today and all days,
you show me how to love God and neighbour:
you offer yourself completely for me.
Teach me how to love all people
with a love that sacrifices everything.
CONCLUDING RITE
Concluding Prayer
L: God, our loving Father,
you have committed yourself to us
in a covenant of lasting love in Jesus.
Help us to respond to your love
with the whole of our being
and to live your commandments
not as laws forced on us from outside
but as opportunities
to love you for yourself
and in our brothers and sisters.
Through Christ our Lord.
A: Amen.
Blessing
L: The Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and lead us to everlasting life.
A: Amen.
L: Go in the peace of Christ.
A: Thanks be to God.
Conclude with a hymn. For instance:
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