Sunday Reflection for October 25: Loving God and Neighbor Is the Greatest Commandment; Reformation Sunday Considers How the Church Keeps Renewing Itself
October 25 is the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and also Reformation Sunday in Lutheran churches. The readings proclaimed in churches across the United States that day included Exodus 22:20-26, Psalm 18, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, and Matthew 22:34-40. In the Gospel, a Pharisee asks Jesus which commandment in the law is the greatest; Jesus answers: the first is "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind," and the second is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" — "the whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."
In his reflection for the day, Bishop Edward Malesic of the Diocese of Cleveland wrote that the Pharisees of the time counted more than 600 commandments in Scripture and argued over which was the greatest, yet Jesus summed up the whole law in two: love God, and love your neighbor. He reminded the faithful that when debating fine points they should remember: love God, and love every neighbor. The Exodus reading echoes this: God shows special care for the resident alien, the widow, the orphan and the poor, and asks His people to treat the most vulnerable with the same mercy.
In Lutheran churches, the day is also Reformation Sunday. The day's reflection in Faith Lens, a column of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, reminded congregations that Martin Luther himself was both saint and sinner, and that in recent years the church has celebrated the Reformation while also facing up to problems in Luther's writings; what Luther wanted at the time was to reform the church he grew up in, not to found a new one. The column said the essence of reform is continual renewal, not forgetting the past. Starting from different traditions, the two reflections for the day arrive at a similar point: faith is not about arguing over how many rules there are, but about returning to the two commandments of loving God and loving neighbor, and living them out in daily life.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 大教堂中殿内景，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0
