Prayer Requests and Gratitudes

Sunday, October 26, 2014

'Prickly' People

~~~ Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~~~
~~~ Exodus 22:20-26 ~~~ Psalm 18 ~~~ 1 Thessalonians 1:5C-10 ~~~
~~~ Matthew  22:34-40 ~~~

...for I am compassionate...
...model for all the believers...
 ...have no need to say anything...

Which one of the above verses best describes you?
Are you compassionate?
Are you a model of your faith?
Do your actions truly speak louder than your words?

These are all worthy to be practiced.
In the Gospel from Matthew today we hear Jesus
 'silenced' the Sadducees.
He silenced them...although they had witnessed
 his compassion toward others...
While his actions spoke much louder than his words;
they still remained hard headed.
They were determined to find some way
to justify their biased belief system.


Jesus silenced those who would resist him
 with emphasizing one thing...love.
The two greatest Commandments,
completely loving God and extending that same depth
of love to your neighbor.
We have no problem loving God
after all he is the Creator of heaven and earth.
But when it comes to loving our neighbor
with the same amount of fervor,
well that is a different story.

What needs to be 'silenced' in your heart?
Loving our neighbor happens in varying degrees.
Let's face it some people are just more loving than others.

God is challenging us to love the prickly people in our lives.
This is where we must model with compassion...
this is when our actions must overshadow
 the words we may want to speak.

 ...serve the living and true God...

If we want serve the living God with our whole heart,
our whole soul, our whole mind we must move
into the second commandment of loving our neighbor.

Jesus combined these two commandments
 so that we come to see our neighbor as he sees them.
We are surrounded with opportunities to be more compassionate...
to be better models...to live without speaking words.
We are invited to love even the 'prickly' people in our life.

Be mindful when you do not feel like loving someone
for that is precisely when you must call to mind
 the second commandment of love.

Let your actions speak above your feelings.
Who knows things may change.
Compassion  is powerful...for it targets the heart.

Blessed to be given Jesus,
 the perfect model of love and compassion.
~~~Peace~~~

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