Daily Catholic Mass Readings for October 31, 2021
First Reading: Deuteronomy 6.2-6
2So may you fear the Lord your God, and keep all his commandments and precepts, which I am entrusting to you, and to your sons and grandsons, all the days of your life, so that your days may be prolonged3Listen and observe, O Israel, so that you may do just as the Lord has instructed you, and it may be well with you, and you may be multiplied all the more, for the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey4Listen, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength6And these words, which I instruct to you this day, shall be in your heart
Psalm 18
1Unto the end. For David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this canticle to the Lord, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said: I will love you, O Lord my strength.2The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my liberator. My God is my helper, and I hope in him: my protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my support3Praising, I will call upon the Lord. And I will be saved from my enemies4The sorrows of death surrounded me, and the torrents of iniquity dismayed me5The sorrows of Hell encompassed me, and the snares of death intercepted me6In my tribulation, I called upon the Lord, and I cried out to my God. And he listened to my voice from his holy temple. And my cry in his presence entered into his ears7The earth was shaken, and it trembled. The foundations of the mountains were disturbed, and they were shaken, because he was angry with them8A smoke ascended by his wrath, and a fire flared up from his face: coals were kindled by it9He bent the heavens, and they descended. And darkness was under his feet10And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew: he flew upon the feathers of the winds11And he set darkness as his hiding place, with his tabernacle all around him: dark waters in the clouds of the air12At the brightness that was before his sight, the clouds crossed by, with hail and coals of fire13And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fire14And he sent forth his arrows and scattered them. He multiplied lightnings, and he set them in disarray15Then the fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were revealed, by your rebuke, O Lord, by the inspiration of the Spirit of your wrath16He sent from on high, and he accepted me. And he took me up, out of many waters17He rescued me from my strongest enemies, and from those who hated me. For they had been too strong for me18They intercepted me in the day of my affliction, and the Lord became my protector19And he led me out, into a wide place. He accomplished my salvation, because he willed me20And the Lord will reward me according to my justice, and he will repay me according to the purity of my hands21For I have preserved the ways of the Lord, and I have not behaved impiously before my God22For all his judgments are in my sight, and his justice, I have not pushed away from me23And I will be immaculate together with him, and I will keep myself from my iniquity24And the Lord will reward me according to my justice and according to the purity of my hands before his eyes25With the holy, you will be holy, and with the innocent, you will be innocent26and with the elect, you will be elect, and with the perverse, you will be perverse27For you will save the humble people, but you will bring down the eyes of the arrogant28For you illuminate my lamp, O Lord. My God, enlighten my darkness29For in you, I will be delivered from temptation; and with my God, I will climb over a wall30As for my God, his way is undefiled. The eloquence of the Lord has been examined by fire. He is the protector of all who hope in him31For who is God, except the Lord? And who is God, except our God32It is God who has wrapped me with virtue and made my way immaculate33It is he who has perfected my feet, like the feet of deer, and who stations me upon the heights34It is he who trains my hands for battle. And you have set my arms like a bow of brass35And you have given me the protection of your salvation. And your right hand sustains me. And your discipline has corrected me unto the end. And your discipline itself will teach me36You have expanded my footsteps under me, and my tracks have not been weakened37I will pursue my enemies and apprehend them. And I will not turn back until they have failed38I will break them, and they will not be able to stand. They will fall under my feet39And you have wrapped me with virtue for the battle. And those rising up against me, you have subdued under me40And you have given the back of my enemies to me, and you have destroyed those who hated me41They cried out, but there was none to save them, to the Lord, but he did not heed them42And I will crush them into dust before the face of the wind, so that I will obliterate them like the mud in the streets43You will rescue me from the contradictions of the people. You will set me at the head of the Gentiles44A people I did not know has served me. As soon as their ears heard, they were obedient to me45The sons of foreigners have been deceitful to me, the sons of foreigners have grown weak with time, and they have wavered from their paths46The Lord lives, and blessed is my God, and may the God of my salvation be exalted47O God, who vindicates me and who subdues the people under me, my liberator from my enraged enemies48And you will exalt me above those who rise up against me. From the iniquitous man, you will rescue me49Because of this, O Lord, I will confess to you among the nations, and I will compose a psalm to your name50magnifying the salvation of his king, and showing mercy to David, his Christ, and to his offspring, even for all time
Second Reading: Hebrews 7.23-28
23And certainly, so many of the others became priests because, due to death, they were prohibited from continuing24But this man, because he continues forever, has an everlasting priesthood25And for this reason, he is able, continuously, to save those who approach God through him, since he is ever alive to make intercession on our behalf26For it was fitting that we should have such a High Priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted higher than the heavens27And he has no need, daily, in the manner of other priests, to offer sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people. For he has done this once, by offering himself28For the law appoints men as priests, though they have infirmities. But, by the word of the oath that is after the law, the Son has been perfected for eternity
Gospel: Mark 12.28-34
28And one of the scribes, who had heard them arguing, drew near to him. And seeing that he had answered them well, he questioned him as to which was the first commandment of all29And Jesus answered him: "For the first commandment of all is this: ‘Listen, O Israel. The Lord your God is one God30And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart, and from your whole soul, and from your whole mind, and from your whole strength. This is the first commandment.31But the second is similar to it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.32And the scribe said to him: Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth that there is one God, and there is no other beside him33and that he should be loved from the whole heart, and from the whole understanding, and from the whole soul, and from the whole strength. And to love one’s neighbor as one’s self is greater than all holocausts and sacrifices.34And Jesus, seeing that he had responded wisely, said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that, no one dared to question him
Sermon
The readings today remind us of the heart of our faith: love. In Deuteronomy, Moses calls the people to love God with all their heart, soul, and strength, and to pass this love on to future generations. This command is not just about rules but about relationship—a deep, personal bond with the one true God. In the Gospel, Jesus reaffirms this when a scribe asks him about the greatest commandment. Jesus quotes the Shema from Deuteronomy and adds the command to love our neighbor as ourselves, emphasizing that these two loves are inseparable. The scribe recognizes the truth in Jesus’ words, and Jesus commends him, saying he is close to the kingdom of God.
The second reading from Hebrews helps us understand how Jesus makes this love possible. As our eternal high priest, Jesus offers a once-for-all sacrifice that frees us from sin and enables us to approach God confidently. His priesthood is perfect because he is holy, innocent, and undefiled, and his sacrifice is sufficient for all time. This means we don’t have to earn God’s love; it is already given to us in Jesus. Our response, then, is to live out of this love, letting it shape every part of our lives.
So how do we apply this to our daily lives? First, we must remember that love is the foundation of everything. Loving God and neighbor is not just a feeling but a choice we make every day. It means putting God first, even when it’s hard, and treating others with the same kindness and compassion we desire for ourselves. Second, we must recognize that this love is only possible because of Jesus. His sacrifice frees us to live without fear and to trust in his mercy. Finally, we are called to share this love with others, just as Moses shared it with the Israelites and just as Jesus shared it with the scribe. May we live today in the reckless, self-giving love of God, knowing that this is the heart of the kingdom.