Discussion Questions

First Reading

Exodus 22:20-26

F1. God’s love brought the Israelites out of Egypt where they had been aliens. According to this reading, how were they to repay God’s love? Do you yourself repay God’s love for you? Do you pass it on? Do you pay it forward?

F2. Does God hear the cry of immigrants? What about minorities and especially the poor, and all those suffering because of climate change? What can you do to be part of God’s compassion toward all of the suffering?

Second Reading

1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10

S1. Are you “receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit?” Is that Spirit the great forgotten one for you, or do you guard, or even cherish that gift that inspires you to “sound forth”?

S2. Every place the Thessalonians went, the “word of the Lord sounded forth.” How can you yourself “sound forth” (without preaching)? Do you know anyone in the world who does that today? In your parish? In your workplace? Can you “sound forth” with actions instead of words?

Gospel

Matthew 22:34-40

G1. You were made in God’s image and likeness, and every good thing you have comes from God. What does God ask in return? Is it always easy? Discuss whether “love your neighbor” includes your arrogant neighbor or just your kind one.

G2. The Pharisee who was a scholar of the Law tries to draw Jesus into a dispute over the “hierarchy of prescriptions.” According to Pope Francis, how does Jesus’ response flip the discussion from anxiety and obedience to love?

But Jesus establishes two essential principles for believers of all times; two essential principles of our life. The first is that moral and religious life cannot be reduced to an anxious and forced obedience. There are people who seek to fulfil the commandments in an anxious or forced manner, and Jesus helps us understand that moral and religious life cannot be reduced to anxious or forced obedience, but must have love as its precept.

The second principle is that love must tend together and inseparably toward God and toward neighbor. This is one of the primary innovations of Jesus’ teachings, and it helps us understand that what is not expressed in love of neighbor is not true love of God; and, likewise, what is not drawn from one’s relationship with God is not true love of neighbor. …

In today’s Gospel passage, once again, Jesus helps us go to the living and gushing wellspring of Love. And this wellspring is God himself, to be loved completely in a communion that nothing and no one can break. … And the proof of our journey of conversion and holiness always consists in love of neighbor. … The verification that I love God is that I love my neighbor.

Pope Francis Angelus, 30 Ord A
Saint Peter's Square Oct. 25, 2020

Anne Osdieck
 

**From Saint Louis University