Gospel Acclamation: Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might have eternal life.

Now here is love. God the Father loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to suffer and die on the cross for us. The Father and the Son did not have to do this. God would only have had to will the world's redemption. He is God, after all. But the way He chose is so much more fitting, and it expresses His overwhelming love so much better.

In fact, we can look at what Jesus has done for us, knowing that He would have done the same thing if we were the only ones in need of salvation, and we can recognize the depths of His love and of the Father's love.

Our response to this love must, of course, be faith that works in love and is expressed in love. We can also look forward to the next great gift that God wants to give us: eternal life. We can start living this life already by God's grace, and we will experience it fully in Heaven when we will see Him face to face.

Gospel Acclamation: Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, and entrusting to us the message of salvation.

We live in a fallen world. With the sin of our first parents, our human nature fell, and all creation went with it. God could have left it at that. He didn't have to do anything about it. Adam and Eve had already shown that they would not obey Him but rather wanted to be “gods” in their own right, choosing for themselves what is “good” and what is “evil.”

But God loves us. He loved (and still loves) Adam and Eve, and He loves all of their sinful, broken, fallen descendants. So He refuses to leave us in our sinfulness and brokenness and fallenness. Instead, He sent His only Son to save us, to reconcile the world to Himself through Jesus' life and death, His passion and resurrection.

God didn't have to do it. He wanted to do it. He doesn't have to save us or forgive us. He wants to save us and forgive us.

But God won't do that without us. We have free will, and God wants us to cooperate with Him, to choose His mercy and love. And He wants us to spread the message of that mercy and love to others. He entrusts to us the message of salvation.

This is a major responsibility. We are all called to proclaim the Gospel in our words and our lives. We are called to cooperate in reconciling the world to God, uniting ourselves to Jesus Christ so that fallen humans and the fallen world can be raised up again.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The word of God is living and effective, discerning reflections and thoughts of the heart.

The “word of God” has multiple meanings within Christianity, so this Gospel acclamation can also take on more than one sense. Ultimately, of course, the Word of God is Jesus Christ Himself, the one Word spoken by the Father from all eternity. He always was; He is now; and He will always be living. He is, as He says, “the life.” And He is fully effective in atoning for our sins and drawing us back to the Father. He discerns the reflections and thoughts of our hearts better than we do, and He will tell us all about them if only we open our hearts and minds to Him in prayer.

Yet the “word of God” also refers to the Sacred Scriptures. These, too, are living, for the Holy Spirit continues to work through the words that He has inspired. When we read the Bible with faith, seeking understanding with an open mind and heart, the Holy Spirit will guide us into truth. In the Scriptures, Dei Verbum tells us, “the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them” (#21). God's message in the Bible teaches us about ourselves. It opens up the secrets of our hearts. It helps us discern where we are in our journey to God. It nudges us toward repentance and toward a deeper love of God.

Indeed, the word of God, both the Word Himself and the words He has spoken, is living and effective, discerning reflections and thoughts of the heart.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In all circumstances, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

God wills us to give thanks in all circumstances. What a challenge! How hard it is to deliberately give thanks when everything seems to be going wrong.

Yet there is a little addition to this statement that we should be mindful of. This is God's will for us in Christ Jesus. We can give thanks precisely because we are in Christ Jesus. It is Jesus Who gives us the ability to give thanks even when times are hard and we are suffering.

When we unite our suffering to Jesus' suffering, we realize the depth of meaning and the redemptive value that it has. We see how it can contribute to the subjective redemption of others, the spreading of grace and the opening up of people's hearts. This is a great grace and a great blessing, and it helps us give thanks in all circumstances, even those that seem the worst.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

The word of the Lord remains forever. This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.

The Word of the Lord is, ultimately, Jesus Christ, the Logos, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the only-begotten Son. He remains forever, for He is eternal.

Yet He has been proclaimed to us. He has taken flesh and walked among us. He taught and healed. He suffered and died. He rose again. And all of this shows us how much He loves us.

We also think of the Scriptures when we speak of the “word of the Lord,” and this, too, is true. The Bible is the word of God in the words of human beings. For thousands of years, God's word has been speaking to us through Scripture, showing us God's love and God's will.

So do we listen? Do we recognize the Word of God in Jesus and the word of God in Scripture? Do we hear and obey? Do we read and study? Do we open our hearts to the message God wants to give us? Do we respond with love to the great love of God's word?