Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time ‘a’

Mk 12:28-34

Each morning when I watch the news, I am saddened by the fact that there is so much hate in this world. And because of that, there are wars all around the world, gun violence in our communities and many innocent people lose their lives. So how can we stop this? How to establish peace in this world? Well, we can certainly pray for peace. We do so, almost every day, knowing that only God has the power to stop hatred and violence. We can’t do anything else, just pray for perfect peace and harmony. Or, perhaps we can make certain changes, and then we too can change this world into a better and more peaceful place. Can we? Maybe we don’t have the power to stop those wars that are taking people’s lives and devastating their countries. But we do have the power to change the world around us. How? Jesus gives us an answer today -- love God and love your neighbor. That’s it! See, if you truly love God and another person as yourself, despite their beliefs, ages, gender, color of skin, or the language they speak, if you can love that person, then you will not spread any gossip, lies, hatred, envy or anger. If all of us took Jesus’ words seriously and followed only those two commandments, then this world would turn into a perfect peaceful place.