October 23, 2011 — Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ex. 22:20-26; Ps. 18:2-3, 3-4,47 51; 1Thes. 1:5c-10; Mt. 22:34-40
The theme of today’s readings is love, and Jesus reminds us that the most important duty of a Christian disciple is to love the Lord with his whole self, and to also love his neighbor as himself.
But love of neighbor is not always an easy task, especially when we recognize that others don’t always treat us with that sense of selfless love and, in fact, can be downright cruel to us at times. Nonetheless, Christ’s law of love stands firm. We are to love. Always.
Jesus offers us the perfect example of selfless love on the cross. He died out of love for us. In order to make reparation for our sins so that we could enjoy life everlasting, the Lord experienced the most excruciating suffering, simply because He wanted us to reap the reward. The stewardship way of life calls us to follow Jesus’ example and act on this selfless love. By doing so, we set an example and call others to follow Christ, just as St. Paul praised the Thessalonians for doing in the second reading.
The Lord has given us the gift of love and, through His own suffering and death, He has shown us how to selflessly share that love by laying down our lives for others. What’s more, He has given us our time, our talent, and our treasure, and it is our duty as Christian stewards to use them in love of God and in love of neighbor.
