The Word of Love

 The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary, today, challenge our tendency to disputes that may displace our Love with heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love in Strength

The Reading from the Second Letter of Timothy defines Timothy’s Conduct including a Warning against Useless Disputes.

* [2:8–13] The section begins with a sloganlike summary of Paul’s gospel about Christ (2 Tm 2:8) and concludes with what may be part of an early Christian hymn (2 Tm 2:11b–12a; most exegetes include the rest of 2 Tm 2:12 and all of 2 Tm 2:13 as part of the quotation). The poetic lines suggest that through baptism Christians die spiritually with Christ and hope to live with him and reign with him forever, but the Christian life includes endurance, witness, and even suffering, as the final judgment will show and as Paul’s own case makes clear; while he is imprisoned for preaching the gospel (2 Tm 2:9), his sufferings are helpful to the elect for obtaining the salvation and glory available in Christ (2 Tm 2:10), who will be true to those who are faithful and will disown those who deny him (2 Tm 2:12–13).

* [2:14–19] For those who dispute about mere words (cf. 2 Tm 2:23–24) and indulge in irreligious talk to the detriment of their listeners (2 Tm 2:16–19), see notes on 1 Tm 1:3–7; 6:20–21. Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Tm 2:17), while accepting the Christian’s mystical death and resurrection in Christ through baptism, claimed that baptized Christians are already risen with Christ in this life and thus that there is no future bodily resurrection or eternal glory to come. The first quotation in 2 Tm 2:19 is from Nm 16:5; the other quotation is from some unidentified Jewish or Christian writing. (2 Timothy, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 25 expresses confidence in God who forgives and guides.

* [Psalm 25] A lament. Each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Such acrostic Psalms are often a series of statements only loosely connected. The psalmist mixes ardent pleas (Ps 25:1–2, 16–22) with expressions of confidence in God who forgives and guides. (Psalms, PSALM 25 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Gospel of Mark presents an exchange between Jesus and a scribe who is impressed by the way in which Jesus has conducted himself.

* [12:28–34] See note on Mt 22:34–40.(Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)

* [22:34–40] The Marcan parallel (Mk 12:28–34) is an exchange between Jesus and a scribe who is impressed by the way in which Jesus has conducted himself in the previous controversy (Mk 12:28), who compliments him for the answer he gives him (Mk 12:32), and who is said by Jesus to be “not far from the kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34). Matthew has sharpened that scene. The questioner, as the representative of other Pharisees, tests Jesus by his question (Mt 22:34–35), and both his reaction to Jesus’ reply and Jesus’ commendation of him are lacking. (Matthew, CHAPTER 22 | USCCB, n.d.)

Jay Carney comments that standing with the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan Woman, and “Good Pharisees” like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, Mark’s Good Scribe undermines this “us and them” dynamic. Jesus calls every person to be his disciple, loving God and neighbor alike. He praises truth and goodness wherever he encounters them, even amidst the opposition.

It bears no repeating that Americans live in an increasingly polarized political climate. I have also seen this dynamic play out in my research in eastern Africa where ethnicity, party, religion, and generation (Gen Z vs. the Gerontocracy) have become major social dividers. One of the great dangers of polarization is the collective stereotyping that accompanies it. We know what these people are like before we even encounter them, and we know they are bad. Rather than a unique subject of inestimable dignity, the individual human person is subsumed beneath a categorization. It is hard to even encounter the person outside their perceived “tribal” loyalties and identities. (Carney, 2026)

Don Schwager quotes “Love God with one's whole self,” by Gregory of Nyssa, 330-395 AD

"Human life consists in a threefold unity. We are taught similarly by the apostle in what he says to the Ephesians, praying for them that the complete grace of their 'body and soul and spirit' may be preserved at the coming of the Lord. We use the word 'body,' for the nutritive part, the word for the vital, 'soul,' and the word 'spirit' for the intellective dimension. In just this way the Lord instructs the writer of the Gospel that he should set before every commandment that love to God which is exercised with all the heart and soul and mind (Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27). This single phrase embraces the human whole: the corporeal heart, the mind as the higher intellectual and mental nature, and the soul as their mediator." (excerpt from ON THE MAKING OF MAN 8.5.10) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 12:28-34  comments that every morning, the first thing that Jews in ancient Israel did was recite the prayer above, a prayer called the Shema. This beautiful prayer proclaims that Israel has only one God, and that he is God over all of creation. He isn’t just one of many “gods” like the idols of neighboring nations; he was and is omnipotent, loving, powerful, and faithful.

Do something different today. Before you leave home, and again as you get ready for bed tonight, pray the Shema. As you recite this prayer, remind yourself that you have only one God. Consider his greatness and the mercy he has shown you, and acknowledge him as Lord. Then, in your own words, tell him that you want to love and serve him with all of your heart and soul, mind and strength. Do it again when you start the day tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. Let this consecration develop into a daily habit. Over time, you’ll find yourself more able to love the Lord with everything you are.

“Lord, you alone are my God. I want to love and serve you with everything I am.” (Meditation on Mark 12:28-34, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments that in the reading from 2 Timothy, Paul is portrayed as if in prison to contrast with the Word that cannot be imprisoned. Even in prison, Paul was able to evangelize the Pretorian Guard. The distinction is made between the denial of Jesus and being unfaithful. “We mess up and we sin” but to deny Him is complete rejection. We cannot participate if we deny Him.  Our faith is something to be lived every day even with difficult consequences. The leader’s attempt to embarrass Jesus is an opportunity to present the Great Commandment. Jesus proclaims our command to love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength. “Mind” is not in the Hebrew Great Commandment and Friar Jude comments that “heart” is our intellect, soul is “time of persecution when “our very soul” is threatened", “strength” is our physical possessions and  “mind” probably refers to our “conscience.” Faith is both vertical and horizontal. Jesus declares closeness to the Kingdom of the Scribe who recognizes the proclamation of God's truth.

Father Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis who reflects on the liberating impact of receiving unconditional love.

In any relationship, fierce love causes us to cross boundaries and borders to discover one another, to support one another, to heal one another. When we do this, when we go crazy with affection, and offer wild kindness to our neighbor across the street or across the globe, we make a new kind of space between us. We make space for discovery and curiosity, for learning and growing. We make space for sharing stories and being changed by what we share. This is the space of the border, of “mestizaje”, of both/and. It’s the kind of space where we can enhance our knowing with what the other knows; we can develop this kind of knowing, which W. E. B. Du Bois called “double consciousness.” We can learn to see the world not only through our own stories, through our own eyes, but also through the stories and worldview of the so-called other. This is the kind of space that changes us, that grows empathy, this is ubuntu…. We simply must open our eyes, look across the room, the street, the division, the border—and reach out to that neighbor, offering our hand, our compassion, and our heart. (Rohr, 2026)

We contemplate the Love we experience through the Spirit and seek the guidance to be wise in our practice of this love with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

References

Carney, J. (2026, June 4). Daily Reflection June 4, 2026 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved June 4, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-june-4-2026 

Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 4, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/12? 

Matthew, CHAPTER 22 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 4, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22? 

Meditation on Mark 12:28-34. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved June 4, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/06/04/1584966/ 

Psalms, PSALM 25 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings, Audio and Video Every Morning | USCCB. Retrieved June 4, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/25?4 

Rohr, R. (2026, June 3). Resisting Definition — Center for Action and Contemplation. CAC.org. Retrieved June 4, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/resisting-definition/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Love the Lord with All Your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 4, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

2 Timothy, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 4, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2timothy/2? 

Separation and Healing

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with our Baptismal anointing as priest, prophet, and leader as we are reminded to process what we hear and decide how we speak with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Speaking about Justice

The reading from the First Book of Kings describes the tearing apart of Solomon’s kingdom.

* [11:26–43] The last major unit of the Solomon story tells how the prophet Ahijah announces the divine intention to take the larger part of Solomon’s kingdom from his control and give it to Jeroboam, Solomon’s servant. This counterbalances the first unit of the story, 1:1–2:12a, where another prophet, Nathan, managed to influence the royal succession and obtain the throne for Solomon. The unit is also the first part of the story of Jeroboam (11:26–14:20). It thus acts as a literary hinge connecting the two stories. Chronicles contains a death notice for Solomon in 2 Chr 9:29–31.

* [11:29] The narrator uses a powerful wordplay here. In the Hebrew consonantal text, Ahijah’s cloak (slmh) is indistinguishable from Solomon’s name (slmh). Since a prophetic gesture such as Ahijah’s was understood as effecting the event it announced, Ahijah’s tearing of his cloak embodies the divine action that will tear Solomon’s kingdom apart (cf. vv. 11–13). (1 Kings, CHAPTER 11, n.d.)

Psalm 81 declares God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel.

* [81:10] There shall be no foreign god among you: as in Ps 50 and 95, Israel is challenged to obey the first commandment of fidelity to God after the proclamation of the exodus. (Psalms, PSALM 81, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus Cures a Deaf Man.

* [7:24–37] The withdrawal of Jesus to the district of Tyre may have been for a respite (Mk 7:24), but he soon moved onward to Sidon and, by way of the Sea of Galilee, to the Decapolis. These districts provided a Gentile setting for the extension of his ministry of healing because the people there acknowledged his power (Mk 7:29, 37). The actions attributed to Jesus (Mk 7:33–35) were also used by healers of the time.

* [7:36] The more they proclaimed it: the same verb proclaim attributed here to the crowd in relation to the miracles of Jesus is elsewhere used in Mark for the preaching of the gospel on the part of Jesus, of his disciples, and of the Christian community (Mk 1:14; 13:10; 14:9). Implied in the action of the crowd is a recognition of the salvific mission of Jesus; see note on Mt 11:5–6. (Mark, CHAPTER 7, n.d.)

Scott McClure comments that as central as the sacraments are to our spiritual life (indeed, they are essential), Jesus sends all of us forth to love and serve one another as he does in his healing of the deaf man in today’s gospel.

It is God who finds us. Today’s gospel shows us this as it was Jesus who went out and found the deaf man. All twelve of Jesus’ apostles would attest to the same experience of being found by him. 

Our faith is one that calls us out of ourselves and calls us out into the world. The celebrant of that Mass those years ago was right - we do find God in the sacraments. But let us do justice to these amazing gifts Jesus instituted so we, too, might love as he loved and allow ourselves to be found by him. (McClure, 2024)

Don Schwager quotes “The touch of the Lord,” by Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 AD).

"That power which may not be handled came down and clothed itself in members that may be touched, that the desperate may draw near to him, that in touching his humanity they may discern his divinity. For that speechless man the Lord healed with the fingers of his body. He put his fingers into the man's ears and touched his tongue. At that moment with fingers that may be touched, he touched the Godhead that may not be touched. Immediately this loosed the string of his tongue (Mark 7:32-37), and opened the clogged doors of his ears. For the very architect of the body itself and artificer of all flesh had come personally to him, and with his gentle voice tenderly opened up his obstructed ears. Then his mouth which had been so closed up that it could not give birth to a word, gave birth to praise him who made its barrenness fruitful. The One who immediately had given to Adam speech without teaching, gave speech to him so that he could speak easily a language that is learned only with difficulty (Genesis 1:27-28). (excerpt from HOMILY ON OUR LORD 10.3) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 7:31-37 comments that this amazing gift of new life in Christ is what inspired the apostles to preach the gospel. It’s what they gave their lives for. They knew that Jesus had changed everything, and they couldn’t help but speak about it to anyone who would listen—even when they were ordered not to (Acts 4:18-20).

So what do you have to say about your experience? Don’t keep it to yourself! Be like the man in today’s Gospel, and let everyone know how Jesus has changed you. Shout it from the rooftops, in fact. Because the good news is too good to keep hidden!

“Lord, open my lips to speak about the miracle of your mercy!” (Meditation on Mark 7:31-37, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler discusses the symbolic action of the prophet tearing his garment and informing Jeroboam that he would become leader of the ten northern tribes of Israel. The action of Jesus opening the ears and releasing the tongue of the man is revisited in our Baptismal liturgy. Friar Jude reminds us to fill our speech with value, compliment, and gratitude.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that the Trinity has tremendous practical, pastoral, and political implications. We don’t have time for anything less than loving! Fear will never build a “new creation” (Galatians 6:15); threat is an entirely bankrupt and false storyline. The lowest level of motivation is guilt, shame, reward, and punishment; it has not moved us anywhere close to a civilization of love. [2]

When we—as individuals, a family, a church, or nation—find ourselves drawing any negative or fearful conclusions about God, we need only look deeply inside ourselves and we will probably find that we are angry and projecting our anger onto God. This very human pattern is illustrated throughout the Bible. [3]

Our sacred stories reflect both the growth and resistance of the human soul. I call it three steps forward, two steps backward. References to the “wrath” of God are examples of two-steps-backward storytelling. Yet the whole story moves slowly and inexorably toward inclusivity, mercy, unconditional love, and forgiveness.

The Trinity beautifully undoes all negativity by a totally positive movement that never reverses its direction. God is always giving, even in those moments when we experience the inaccessibility of love as if it were divine anger. I do not believe there is any wrath in God whatsoever—it’s theologically impossible when God is Trinity. [4] (Rohr, 2024)

We are reminded about the importance of our participation in our environment and our need to invoke the Spirit as a guide to understand what we are hearing and to reflect our connection to Christ in what we are speaking.

References

Mark, CHAPTER 7. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 9, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/7? 

McClure, S. (2024, February 9). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved February 9, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/020924.html 

Meditation on Mark 7:31-37. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved February 9, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/02/09/891893/ 

1 Kings, CHAPTER 11. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 9, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1kings/11?29 

Psalms, PSALM 81. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 9, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/81?10 

Rohr, R. (2024, February 9). No Time for Anything but Love — Center for Action and Contemplation. Richard Rohr. Retrieved February 9, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/no-time-for-anything-but-love/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 9, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=feb9 

Unconditional Love

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine the constraints we place on accepting the prompts of the Spirit to transform our relationships with others through practice of unconditional love.

Brothers and Sisters

The reading from the Prophet Micah declares God’s Compassion and Steadfast Love.

* [7:18–20] The final lines of the book contain a hymn of praise for the incomparable God, who pardons sin and delights in mercy. Thus the remnant, those left after the exile, is confident in God’s compassion and in the ancient promises sworn to the ancestors. (Micah, CHAPTER 7, n.d.)

Psalm 103 is a Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness.

* [Psalm 103] The speaker in this hymn begins by praising God for personal benefits (Ps 103:1–5), then moves on to God’s mercy toward all the people (Ps 103:6–18). Even sin cannot destroy that mercy (Ps 103:11–13), for the eternal God is well aware of the people’s human fragility (Ps 103:14–18). The psalmist invites the heavenly beings to join in praise (Ps 103:19–22). (Psalms, PSALM 103, n.d.)

The Gospel of Luke presents the Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother.

* [15:1–32] To the parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15:1–7) that Luke shares with Matthew (Mt 18:12–14), Luke adds two parables (the lost coin, Lk 15:8–10; the prodigal son, Lk 15:11–32) from his own special tradition to illustrate Jesus’ particular concern for the lost and God’s love for the repentant sinner. (Luke, CHAPTER 15, n.d.)

Eileen Wirth knows that the father’s response mirrors God’s love for us and his unconditional willingness to forgive us for our misdeeds.

Parents, especially, get this because their intense bonds with their children tend to withstand even great hurt and disappointment. It’s a heart thing.

Since the goal of this parable is to teach us about God’s limitless mercy and love, the story ends after making that point. However, in our  “prodigal families,” we struggle with how to move through the fraught days ahead.

This parable provides no explicit guidance for that, but we can draw helpful lessons from it. The father presumably survived the interminable period when his son was gone through faith and hope that he would eventually return. God did not abandon him during that awful period. Nor will God abandon us.

Somewhat irrationally I cling to the cliché that when God closes a door, he opens a window. That’s not always true but often it is. (Wirth, 2023)

Don Schwager quotes “Life through death,” by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Did you make it possible for yourselves to merit God's mercy because you turned back to him? If you hadn't been called by God, what could you have done to turn back? Didn't the very One Who called you when you were opposed to Him make it possible for you to turn back? Don't claim your conversion as your own doing. Unless He had called you when you were running away from Him, you would not have been able to turn back." (Commentary on Psalm 84, 8) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 invites us to turn our attention from what we do to what God does. Each of today’s readings paints a part of that picture. The prophet Micah reminds us that our Father delights in showing mercy: “Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin?” (7:18). The psalmist proclaims that God is eager to forgive our sins and save us from our guilt: “He pardons all [our] iniquities. . . . He redeems [our] life from destruction” (Psalm 103:3, 4). And in the Gospel, Jesus tells us that our Father sees us, even when we are a “long way off,” even when we’re wondering how to make our way back, and he runs toward us (Luke 15:20).

This is your God. He pours out his grace today so that you can “come to your senses” (see Luke 15:17). He comes to meet you today in your prayer. He runs to you in Confession, where you can let go of your burdens of sin. And he pleads with you to enter the celebration of his Body and Blood. All this, God does. All this, so that you might come home.

“Thank you, Father, for always helping me to come home to you.” (Meditation on Luke 15:1-3, 11-32, n.d.)

Desmond Ryan, Honorary Fellow in the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, and Colaborador Externo, Departament de Treball Social i Serveis Socials, Universitat de València, argues that if we look at this story in a new way we see the harmful consequences of prioritising relationships based on authority over those based on a sibling model.

God, however, is present to every age. If so, scripture must be reclaimable by all, even by the men and women of this age of suspicion. It can have no less rich resources to offer us than have been received by earlier generations. This parable reclaims me by prompting me to raise my voice in respectful yet insistent challenge of our Christian legacy of adult-averse institutions, world-refusing spirituality, and deafness to youth. I would wish to challenge the waste of human beings whose mutual giving and receiving in love is diminished by the continuing dominance of the vertical axis over the horizontal, of fatherhood over brotherhood, of institutional preaching over humane teaching, of dependence over partnership, of feeling comfortable with oneself over anticipating the needs of others. (Ryan, 2010)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the declaration of Micah that God’s promises to Israel will be fulfilled even as they are not deserved. Prodigal, or incredibly generous, is a description of the father in the parable of the Lost Son from Luke. Friar Jude notes behaviour that is not characteristic of a Jewish father of the time. Friar Jude notes how even as both sons in the parable treat the father as an object, we get the message that God wants to make the returned part of His life.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that the contemplative practice of walking a labyrinth grew out of the medieval commitment to going on pilgrimage.

Labyrinths seem to have emerged from the collective unconscious, representing a clear path to center, to the Divine. A classical labyrinth has seven cycles, each representing a stage of life, and seven U-turns as we learn to change course at least that many times in a normal life. A straight-line trajectory grows no one; it only makes you more and more rigid and inflexible. Find a labyrinth (on the ground, printed on paper, or carved in wood) for your feet or fingers to traverse in the company of God’s presence. Walk or trace the labyrinth as if on pilgrimage, without a goal beyond the experience itself. Move consciously and slowly, allowing the Divine to guide and teach. Let the path teach its own lessons. There is no one correct message. The turning circuits of a labyrinth remind us that life is change, transformation, and repentance (that is, metanoia or turning around). (Rohr, n.d.)

We are called to challenge the boundaries in our culture that inhibit relationships between people that recognize our connection as brothers and sisters with mutual love and care.

References

Luke, CHAPTER 15. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/15?1 

Meditation on Luke 15:1-3, 11-32. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/03/11/629241/ 

Micah, CHAPTER 7. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/micah/7?14 

Psalms, PSALM 103. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/103?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Pilgrimage: Weekly Summary. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/pilgrimage-2023-03-11/ 

Ryan, D. (2010, March 12). The Prodigal Father - A Postmodern Homily. Thinking Faith. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20100312_1.htm 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Father, I Have Sinned against Heaven and You. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=mar11 

Wirth, E. (2023, March 11). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/031123.html