HOMILY FOR FRIDAY OF THE 20TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE II
THEME: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.
BY: Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA
HOMILY FOR FRIDAY AUGUST 19 2022
*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 106:2-9
Matthew 22:34-40
*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
Green
*FROM THE FIRST READING*
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, we heard of the great vision of Ezekiel who saw a great valley filled with innumerable bones, spreading throughout the entire valley, representing the bones of man, of God’s people, all those who had died and perished through sin and death. Yet, God showed Ezekiel His great might and power as He pronounced the coming of His salvation, as a premonition and prediction of what was to come, with the resurrection of the dead and the coming of His salvation in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the whole entire world.
*FROM THE GOSPEL READING*
People can ask questions for different reasons. In this morning’s gospel reading we are told that the Pharisees ask Jesus a question to disconcert him. In other words, their question was not really a genuine question; it was a kind of a trick question intended to put Jesus on the spot. Yet Jesus appears to have treated the question, ‘Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ as a serious question because he gave it a very considered reply. He didn’t exactly answer the question he was asked. He was asked for the greatest commandment of the Law, but he gave the greatest and the second greatest commandment of the Law, implying that both were inseparable.
*CONCLUSION*
Dear brethrens, the commandment ot love God with all one’s heart, soul and mind and the commandment to love the neighbour as oneself belong together in the mind of Jesus. They belong together but they are not on the same level, one is more important that the other, one is first and the other is second. The love of God with all our being is prior to and somehow undergirds our love of neighbour. Jesus seems to be saying that we cannot really love our neighbour fully unless we give first place to God in our lives. Yet, our failure to love our neighbour is a sign that God is nor our first and most complete love.
The Lord be with you!
Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA