Reading I
Dt 26:16-19
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
“This day the LORD, your God,
commands you to observe these statutes and decrees.
Be careful, then,
to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Today you are making this agreement with the LORD:
he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways
and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees,
and to hearken to his voice.
And today the LORD is making this agreement with you:
you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you;
and provided you keep all his commandments,
he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory
above all other nations he has made,
and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God,
as he promised.”
Gospel
Mt 5:43-48
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Meditation: Psalm 119:1-2,4-5,7-8
Happy those who observe God’s decrees, who seek the Lord with all their heart. (Psalm 119:2)
We all want to observe God’s decrees, but it’s not always easy. God’s laws are a privilege and a gift—something the psalmist expresses eloquently in these verses. But they also place boundaries on our desires and inclinations. They are the path to true freedom, but sometimes it feels like the opposite, as if God doesn’t want us to get what we really want.
However, the psalmist provides a remedy for this situation: He tells us to seek the Lord with all our hearts. He knows that when we apply ourselves to seeking the Lord—and not just put in a token effort—we will find him.
How can you seek the Lord with all your heart? Perhaps one or two days each week, you can get up a half hour earlier, while it is still quiet in your home, and spend time in prayer. Maybe you can carve out another half hour on the other days to read and ponder Scripture. Or you could try to get to a weekday Mass a couple of times a week and linger a bit afterward, talking with the Lord and listening to him.
When we do these things regularly, we will learn to “hearken to his voice” (Deuteronomy 26:17). And this is what we will hear God saying to us: “Yes, it’s true. Not only have I loved you from all eternity, I delight in you!” This is a life-changing message that we need to hear again and again. And as we hear this message, we will find ourselves responding by trying to please the Lord in all that we do. We will find that God’s desires—that we become holy, that we love as he loves, that we build his kingdom on earth—have become our desires.
Isn’t it amazing? So much can happen if we seek the Lord. Not only do we hear his voice and know his love, we are changed! We come to see his laws as a gift to us, not a burden. We find ourselves wanting to obey him, because we know that he has nothing but the best for us.
“Lord, I seek you with all my heart. To listen to your voice and to obey you is my joy. Thank you for your love.”
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