Thursday of week 9 in Ordinary Time
Saint Norbert, Bishop
Gospel – Mark 12:28-34
“Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.” There is big difference being near to the kingdom of God and being in the kingdom of God. When you stick to the norms and act according to the norms you are close to the kingdom of God. When you go beyond the norms to love the other, you become part of the Kingdom of God. That is totally different. When all the commandments are observed as norms, you are near the reality of the kingdom of God. But when you use each commandment as the way to love God and to love you neighbor it has different way to live and to actualize. Often we like to stay close to the commandments but we don’t like to use them to love others. This is the challenge the Gospel of today is posing before us. Every norm or percept we follow must help us to love God and to love our neighbour. Let’s reflect: Are we obeying the commandments because we want to love God and love other?
Thursday 6 June
