25 August, 2023 | Friday of the 20th Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel Mt 22:34-40 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Reflections: In the Old Testament Moses gives 613 laws. On Mount Sinai, Moses receives the Ten Commandments from God and gave them to the Israelites. In the New Testament Jesus sums up the whole law into just two – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Our following of the law should be in both vertical and horizontal,which is to love God above and love our neighbor, at ou