Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 22, 34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Silenced them

1) Pharisees. At times, we carry within us a Pharisee-like attitude: we talk too much, try to impress others, or feel the need to be right. I remember once sitting at a table when a friend asked me about my trip to Rome when I met Pope Leo. Just as I began to answer, I mentioned something about Artificial Intelligence, and another priest immediately joined in and took over the conversation. He spoke for so long that I never had the chance to finish my story. Sometimes we want to be the center of attention or have the spotlight focused on us. Yet we fail to be quiet and truly discover the person sitting next to us, someone who may have something valuable to offer. There are moments when God Himself invites us into silence so we can learn one of life’s most essential lessons: to listen. Wisdom, and the richness others bring into our lives, often come through attentive listening.

2) The law. When we want to do something but avoid it only because it’s forbidden, faith can become little more than a moral rulebook. But when we are tempted to do wrong and freely choose not to, guided by clear convictions, faith becomes something lived. So learn to act from conviction rather than from fear or from a checklist of moral obligations. Some people know moral doctrines by heart yet know the Gospel far less deeply. Encountering the living Christ “christifies” us: it transforms our lives and frees us from being bound to anything or anyone, including rules and regulations followed merely to impress others.

3) To love. What Jesus offers is a way of life in Him and the discovery that a relationship with God is unlike any other. It allows us to see and savor everything from a new perspective. When we find Jesus, life takes on a different depth, and we begin to appreciate even the simplest and most ordinary things before us.

Never forget that something good is on the way! 

God bless you and protect you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.