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Gospel Reading for August 21, 2026 – Matthew 22: 34-40
ENLIGHTENED
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.”
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Loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves is the key to living the kind of life that will lead us to eternal life.
The Pharisees often asked questions, not because they genuinely wanted to know the answers, but because they wanted to test Jesus. This is why they failed to understand what Jesus was teaching and could not find the way that leads to the Father.
There are many questions about the Catholic Faith—its teachings and practices. Since most Catholics are baptized as infants, do we truly make the effort to seek answers to these questions so that we ourselves may be ENLIGHTENED and, in turn, become more deeply enriched in the practice of our Faith?
Lord Jesus, may we learn to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. May our love for You be reflected in the way we live and in the way we love others.
