Listen Up!
Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Read this Gospel passage aloud to the family
Mark 12:28-34- One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
(Parent) Reread this part a few times aloud
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength?”
(Parent) Read this meditation aloud to the family
In another Gospel Jesus follows this line up with the statement: “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40). Everything depends on love. Someone may ask, “If the one answer on how to live is this simple—love—then why even have the Ten Commandments, rules about fasting and abstaining, rules about when to take Communion and when not to, and the one million other rules that Catholics keep? The answer is this: we need rules because we don’t love enough. If we loved God and others more, we wouldn’t need rules.
Love gets easier to do with practice. All habits, good and bad, are like this. For instance: Prayer seems easier when we do it often; watching our tempers gets easier after controlling it a few times; “getting the last word” seems less important after repeated effort too. Rules (from the Church, our parents, ourselves) are helpful to train our spiritual muscles, until they are fit—fit to love. Prayer, watching our temper, remaining silent—and especially love will be easier for us if we put in the effort to establish them in our lives. Then we won’t need rules; we’ll be beautiful people who live by one rule: love. Practice love!
To love is to will the benefit of another or to want their good.
Together as a family pray a portion of the Rosary (i.e. – very short if children are young) reflecting on the Scripture above. (Optional – allow a brief time for discussion or questions from children concerning their thoughts and prayer)
