+(Intro) In our first reading this morning we will hear of the many ways we are to relate to our neighbor and to God. Only by being truly loving persons can we begin to do this, so let us reflect a moment on how we may fail to be the loving persons we are called to be.
(After the gospel) A striking aspect of our gospel is that neither the blessed nor the accursed knew when they were doing what was pleasing to or offensive to God. They are both asking: “When did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison and minister to or not minister to you.
There is something very hidden about love’s nature that does not draw attention to itself. If we are in search of God, this is where God is to be found, whether in the hungry, the thirsty, the unborn, the stranger, the poor, the naked, the ill or the imprisoned.
Only the person who is loving in all relationships and situations is truly blessed and we know that this can be so only by the grace of God. So let us pray to God that our own hearts may be filled with the Holy Spirit that we may be as truly loving as we are loved.
Lev 19:1-2,11-18; Matt 25:31-46