Sunday Readings

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 13, 2025 Readings: Deuteronomy 30.10-14; Colossians 1.15-20; Luke 10.25-37 Prayer of the heart has traditionally been used to name contemplative prayer practice that consists in the simple act of intentional love. It is consenting to our being in the Triune God through Christ Jesus, our Savior, in the context of holding one’s consciousness in an attitude of silence, trusting in the embrace of saving faith. The word, “heart” has come to stand for so many different meanings of love. It is the case in today’s readings from Sacred Scripture. The word “love” is used. What is the basic, fundamental, radical, “sine qua non” relationship with God and in God? It is a love relationship. But again, the word “love” is used in so many different ways in our culture. The very words of Sacred Scripture rise up before us to draw us into them so that we can be transformed into their living meaning. Let the Word explain the word “love” in the context of the living Tradition of the Church. The First Reading states the basic commandment: Love God absolutely. When you return to the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul…. This is not an abstract love. It is not a sentimental love. It is not a love that has to do solely with sex or with emotions. It is love centered in God because it is centered into the very meaning of our being, in our very essence. This love is co-extensive with our being and person in the fullness of our center, filling all our capacities for God above all. For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky…. Nor is it across the sea…. No it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out. You have only to carry it out, that is, we have to consent to the love of God for us present in the very moment of our awareness. In the moment we have to remember that the love of God consists in that God first loved us. It is infinitely close to us because it is the very meaning of all our being. Divine love is God’s will for us in every moment and circumstance and relationship of our day-to-day existence. The Second Reading describes the source of this divine love. It is found in the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Being in Jesus we are in God and we therefore are in that love. It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him and by means of him to reconcile everything in his person, everything, I say, both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross. The power of the name of Jesus, uttered in the very depths of our souls in love, is the gift from the Father and of the Holy Spirit within us. Jesus in his holy name is the way to the Trinity: God within us and we in God. God in all things as creator and redeemer is realized when Christ finally delivers up all creation to the Father. The Third Reading shows divine love as Incarnate. The Divine Love of God is incarnate in the Man, Jesus. The Savior and Wisdom-Teacher reiterates the commandment of God his Father from Deuteronomy, the first Reading of the Liturgy: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind (The Gospel Reading). Then the parable makes incarnate the second part of the commandment of love: and [love] your neighbor as yourself. Anyone who comes into your life’s path must be the object of your loving compassion. This the love that breathes between spouses united “for better or for worse,” in the indissoluble bond of sacramental marriage, the members of the family, of the community, of all who lie before us in their needs. This “anyone” we come upon, shares in the divine image. Jesus is the good Samaritan himself in his compassion for the suffering of the world. Jesus is also the victim described in the parable. He identifies with each individual who suffers. “I was hungry and you fed me….” The ultimate of God’s compassion is that Jesus becomes himself the victim lying on the side of the road, wounded and left for dead. It is in his cross and his blood that we find our reconciliation with God and with one another (Second Reading), Washed and bathed in these Readings from Sacred Scripture we enter into the Mystery of the Eucharist; we enter into the daily practice of our contemplative prayer; and we embrace the daily opportunities to be compassionate in a world filled with so much suffering.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 13, 2025

Readings: Deuteronomy 30.10-14; Colossians 1.15-20; Luke 10.25-37

Prayer of the heart has traditionally been used to name contemplative prayer practice that consists in the simple act of intentional love. It is consenting to our being in the Triune God through Christ Jesus, our Savior, in the context of holding one’s consciousness in an attitude of silence, trusting in the embrace of saving faith.

The word, “heart” has come to stand for so many different meanings of love. It is the case in today’s readings from Sacred Scripture. The word “love” is used. What is the basic, fundamental, radical, “sine qua non” relationship with God and in God? It is a love relationship. But again, the word “love” is used in so many different ways in our culture.

The very words of Sacred Scripture rise up before us to draw us into them so that we can be transformed into their living meaning. Let the Word explain the word “love” in the context of the living Tradition of the Church.

The First Reading states the basic commandment:

Love God absolutely.
When you return to the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul….

This is not an abstract love. It is not a sentimental love. It is not a love that has to do solely with sex or with emotions. It is love centered in God because it is centered into the very meaning of our being, in our very essence. This love is co-extensive with our being and person in the fullness of our center, filling all our capacities for God above all.

For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky…. Nor is it across the sea….   No it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.

You have only to carry it out, that is, we have to consent to the love of God for us present in the very moment of our awareness. In the moment we have to remember that the love of God consists in that God first loved us. It is infinitely close to us because it is the very meaning of all our being. Divine love is God’s will for us in every moment and circumstance and relationship of our day-to-day existence.

The Second Reading describes the source of this divine love. It is found in the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Being in Jesus we are in God and we therefore are in that love.

It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him and by means of him to reconcile everything in his person, everything, I say, both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross.

The power of the name of Jesus, uttered in the very depths of our souls in love, is the gift from the Father and of the Holy Spirit within us. Jesus in his holy name is the way to the Trinity: God within us and we in God. God in all things as creator and redeemer is realized when Christ finally delivers up all creation to the Father.
The Third Reading shows divine love as Incarnate. The Divine Love of God is incarnate in the Man, Jesus.

The Savior and Wisdom-Teacher reiterates the commandment of God his Father from Deuteronomy, the first Reading of the Liturgy:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind (The Gospel Reading).
Then the parable makes incarnate the second part of the commandment of love: and [love] your neighbor as yourself.

Anyone who comes into your life’s path must be the object of your loving compassion. This the love that breathes between spouses united “for better or for worse,” in the indissoluble bond of sacramental marriage, the members of the family, of the community, of all who lie before us in their needs. This “anyone” we come upon, shares in the divine image. Jesus is the good Samaritan himself in his compassion for the suffering of the world.

Jesus is also the victim described in the parable. He identifies with each individual who suffers. “I was hungry and you fed me….” The ultimate of God’s compassion is that Jesus becomes himself the victim lying on the side of the road, wounded and left for dead. It is in his cross and his blood that we find our reconciliation with God and with one another (Second Reading),

Washed and bathed in these Readings from Sacred Scripture we enter into the Mystery of the Eucharist; we enter into the daily practice of our contemplative prayer; and we embrace the daily opportunities to be compassionate in a world filled with so much suffering.