Loving God and loving your neighbor are inseparably

connected as the greatest commandments in scripture.

How you treat people shows if your love for God is real.

You cannot love God while hating the people around you.

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14

After fourteen years,

I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and Titus came with us.

Following a revelation, I went to lay before them the gospel that I am preaching to the pagans.

I had a private meeting with the leaders – lest I should be working, or have worked, in a wrong way.

They recognized that I have been entrusted to give the Good News to the pagan nations,

just as Peter has been entrusted to give it to the Jews. In the same way

that God made Peter the apostle of the Jews, he made me the apostle of the pagans.

 

James, Cephas and John acknowledged the graces God gave me.

Those men, who were regarded as the pillars of the Church, stretched out their hand to me and Barnabas,

as a sign of fellowship; we would go to the pagans, and they, to the Jews.

We should only keep in mind the poor among them. I have taken care to do this.

When, later, Cephas came to Antioch, I confronted him, since he deserved to be blamed.

Before some of James' people arrived, he used to eat with non-Jewish people.

 

But when they arrived, he withdrew, and did not mingle anymore with them,

for fear of the Jewish group. The rest of the Jews followed him in this pretense,

and even Barnabas was part of this insincerity.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel,

I said to Cephas publicly: If you, who are Jewish, agreed to live like the non-Jews,

setting aside the Jewish customs, why do you, now, compel the non-Jews to live like Jews?

 

Ps 117:1bc, 2

Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊     

Luke 11:1-4

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place; and when he had finished,

one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples."

And Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say this:

Father, may your name be held holy, may your kingdom come; give us each day the kind of bread we need,

and forgive us our sins; for we also forgive all who do us wrong; and do not bring us to the test."

 

Gospel Reflection ：

 The Lord's Prayer has a deeply communal spirit.

Prayer is essential in the life and ministry of Jesus.

Many times, we have heard of Jesus going to a deserted place to pray.

He sets aside time to connect with the Father who sent Him. In the Gospel,

Jesus teaches His disciples a very important prayer that challenges

those who pray to nurture not only their relationship with God but also with their neighbors.

 

The Lord's Prayer has a deeply communal spirit.

It moves us toward a deeper reverence for the God whom we praise

and fosters a deeper relationship characterized by sensitivity and reconciliation with others,

who are children of the same Father in Heaven.