Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
God in People
You Will Be Known By Your Love
Greeting (See Second Reading)
We have become imitators of the Lord
and it was with the joy of the Spirit
that we accepted the Gospel;
we have become servants of the real, living God.
May Jesus, the Lord we expect, be always with you.
R/ And also with you.
1. God In People
Do we love God? Of course, we say; what a queer question! Is it really so self-evident that we love God with our whole heart and soul and mind? There is a good test of our love of God: How patient are you with your cranky husband or wife? Can you forgive the former friend who cheated you in an important deal? Can you still love the neighbor who unjustly brought you to court about the boundary of your property? Your neighbor is the visible shape of the invisible God. Ask Jesus in this Eucharist to recognize him in your neighbor.
2. You Will Be Known By Your Love
Do people say of our Christian communities today what they said about the first Christians, “See how the love one another”? How different our world would be if we had put into practice a love like that of God and the first Christians! Christian love, the one with which we love God and people and ourselves is a love that has God as its source and force. It is this love that Jesus teaches us and asks of us here in this Eucharist.
Penitential Act
It is difficult to love God in people.
Let us ask the Lord and people
to forgive us where we have failed.
(pause)
The child in the slums was you, Lord,
and we did not love you:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
The shy alien living among us is you, Lord,
and we have not learned to love you:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
The family around the corner
that has failed to repay its debts is you, Lord,
and it is difficult to love them:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
In your great mercy, forgive us, Lord,
and help us to love you in people.
Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray that our love of God
may become real and tangible
in our love of our neighbor
(pause)
God, you display your almighty power
in loving us without regret.
In the human heart of Jesus your Son
you have shown us how far love can go.
Give us a love that is forgiving,
generous and gentle like his,
that we may recognize and welcome him
in our brothers and sisters.
And may our hearts reach out first
to the poorest and the least lovable,
with the gratuitous love you have given us
in Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
First Reading (Ex 22:20-26): Love the Poor in the Name of the Covenant
In the name of the covenant, God’s people are asked to do the same for the poor as God has done for his people: show love to strangers, widows and orphans, to people with debts.
Reading 1: Ex 22:20-26
“You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
“If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people,
you shall not act like an extortioner toward him
by demanding interest from him.
If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge,
you shall return it to him before sunset;
for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body.
What else has he to sleep in?
If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives and blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Second Reading (1 Thes 1:5-10): Faith Is Contagious
The faith of the Christians of Saloniki is a model to all who believe and inspire other communities. For genuine faith is contagious.
Reading 2:1 Thes 1:5c-10
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit,
so that you became a model for all the believers
in Macedonia and in Achaia.
For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth
not only in Macedonia and in Achaia,
but in every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything.
For they themselves openly declare about us
what sort of reception we had among you,
and how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God
and to await his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.
Alleluia: Jn 14:23
Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord,
and my Father will love him and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel (Mt 22:34-40): Above All: Love
Jesus makes love of neighbor the sign of the love of God. What matters above all is love of God and of people.
Gospel: Mt 22:34-40
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Intercessions
Let us pray to our kind and merciful God that his love for us may animate all we do and that our love may become contagious. Let us say: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
– That the Church, the People of God, may never cease to proclaim by its teaching, life and liturgy that love of God and neighbor is the heart of the Gospel and that people are God’s gift to us, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
– That people may not lose their hearts in today’s economic systems of profit, efficiency, production and competition, but that they may keep giving first place to human relationships of friendship and respect, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
– That we may have room in our hearts and homes for refugees and strangers, that we may learn to share our goods and ourselves with the little people loved by God – the poor and the lonely and those who suffer, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
– That those who don’t know how to forgive, those who have not experienced much happiness in life or whose longings have not been fulfilled may encounter a bit of God’s goodness in our attention and care, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
– That in our Christian communities we may uplift one another rather than tear down, accept each other with trust and affection, forgive one another from the heart and go forward together in hope and love, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
Our gentle God, help us to love you and one another with your measure, that is, without measure, in Christ Jesus our Lord. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
in this Eucharist we remember
how Jesus your Son gave himself
with a love without measure,
going all the way through suffering and death.
Make our love creative, like his,
that we too may not break the crushed reed
nor put out the smoldering wick
but lift up the weak
and sustain one another in hope.
Let this be our answer to your love,
by the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
In this Eucharist we remember how Jesus sacrificed himself for us because he loved us without limits. Let us thank the Father for this love and offer him our willingness to live for him and for people.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
We know that the Father loves us
and so we pray to him
Jesus’ prayer of trust. R/ Our Father…
Deliver Us
Deliver us Lord, from the coldness of sin
which refuses to warm up
to you and our neighbor.
Keep us free from pride
which looks down on others.
Banish all envy and hatred from among us,
and bind us together in your love,
that we may prepare in hope and joy
for the full coming among us
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom…
Invitation to Communion
This is Jesus the Lord, who said:
Love the Lord your God
with your whole heart and soul;
love one another as I have loved you.
By this love people will know
that you are my disciples. R/ Lord, I am not worthy…
Prayer after Communion
God our Father,
you have satisfied our hunger for love
by giving us your Son Jesus Christ.
Following his example, let us send no one away empty,
exclude no one, classify no one,
build no walls around ourselves or others.
Let our happiness not be complete
as long as our brothers and sisters suffer.
Help us to take all the risks of love,
for it is not so much our love we want to give
but yours, which became visible
in Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Blessing
In this Eucharist we have experienced
God’s love for us.
Now that he has warmed us with his love,
may we let its glow shine
on those around us,
with the blessing of almighty God:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go, and love one another
as the Lord has loved you. R/ Thanks be to God.
Love can continue until now
We often disagree on what love really means, which at times even becomes the cause for the lack or even loss of love among some of us. But “love is a many splendored thing,” as the title song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKcg1vBfxAE) of the 1955-movie goes, which incidentally was filmed in colonial Hong Kong. And more than any discussion or explanation, love is best understood through deeds of love.
Love was what St. Mother Teresa did when she left the comfort of the convent and went to the streets of Calcutta in search of the abandoned, the dying, the poorest of the poor. She shared in Jesus’ “work of love” as she fed the hungry and cared for the dying. Her love of God and of the poor was not only “nature’s way of giving” but also her “reason to be living,” as she served the poor through “small things done with great love.” She was “the April rose that only grows in the early spring.”
That season of spring, of love began by God who is love himself, proclaimed and witnessed to by Jesus, and carried on by numerous apostles of love can continue until now if we truly love our neighbor as ourselves.