Prompts for Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, October 29, 2023
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and
one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment
in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first
commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question:”What
do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”
He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, ‘The
Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”‘? If
David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an
answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
-Matthew 22:34-46
“Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love
their cow- for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who
love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when
they love Him for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in your
mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth.”
-Meister Eckhart 1260-1327
“O Lord, whatever share of this world
You could give to me,
Give it to your enemies:
Whatever share of the next world
You want to give to me –
Give it to your friends.
You are enough for me.
O God, my whole concern and desire in this world,
Is that I should always remember you
Above all the things of this world,
And that in the next
I should meet with you alone.
That is why I always pray: “Your will be done.”
O my Lord,
if I worship you
from fear of hell, burn me in hell.
If I worship you
from hope of Paradise, bar me from its gates.
But if I worship you
for yourself alone, grant me then the beauty of your Face.”
Rābiʿah al-Baṣrī 713/17-801, Sufi saint
Quoted from The Essential Mystics, Andrew Harvey
“Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit; it is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love
because I love; I love in order that I may love…. Of all the motions and affections of the soul,
love is the only one by means of which the creature, though not on equal terms, is able to treat
with the Creator and to give back something resembling what has been given to it. What God
loves, he only desires to be loved, knowing that love will render all those who love Him happy.”
- St. Bernard of Clairvaux 1090-1153
“Love God and you will be humble; love God and you will throw off the love of self; love God
and you will love all that He gives you to love for love of Him.”
-François Fénelon 1651-1715
“Loving as He loves,
Helping as He helps,
Giving as He gives,
Serving as He serves,
Rescuing as He rescues,
Being with Him twenty-four hours,
Touching Him in his distressing disguise.”
-St. Teresa of Calcutta 1910-1997
“Let everyone understand that real love of God does not consist in tear-shedding, nor in that
sweetness and tenderness for which usually we long, just because they console us, but in serving
God in justice, fortitude of the soul and humility.”
- St. Teresa of Avila 1515-1582
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