Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Thursday of the ninth week in ordinary time, June 4th, 2026

Delivered by Randy from the Parish of Christ the King in the Archdiocese of Makassar, Indonesia. 2 Timothy 2: 8-15; Rs psalm 25: 4bc-5ab.8-9.10.14; Mark 12: 28b-34.THE HEART OF LOVE Our meditation today has the theme: The Heart of Love.Usually love is beautiful in words. But love becomes perfect if it is done orpracticed. So love that is expressed in words and manifested in actionsfollowing their words, is actually the heart of love. But there is a problem with love here. The problem is thatpeople practice love as a theory or formula, and so they have all ideas,notions and norms of love. For example, in such expression like “Don't speakharshly”, “Don't look dirty to other people”, and many similar otherprohibitions, we see that people practice love by observing those standards. That was something made by the Jews, especially thescholars and scribes. They had more than 600 formulas of rules for people to bebetter and have faith. But it turned out that they didn't have the heart or the core of love. Too obsessed in theory and formula, thenthey forgot to practice that love. And Jesus himself taught them: the heart oflove is to love God and others, both of which are equally important and true. So, the fundamental condition is not to go to extremes,namely to be fanatical for one, while forgetting or hating the other. The Apostle Paul advised Timothy in hissecond letter that proclaiming and deepening faith about the death andresurrection of Christ is a basic method for growing in faith. The content ofthe proclamation was started by the Apostle Peter in the first days after Jesusrose. He preached before all those who believed and those who did not.  Another aspect that is also very important is livingout one’s faith and understanding of that faith. The Apostle Paul continued hisadvice, that his disciple Timothy and all of us followers of Christ should alsodie with Christ so that we will live with Him. We should persevere so that wecan reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will deny us. If we are unfaithful, Heremains faithful, because Jesus cannot deny Himself. Maybe our life today is full with things in our busy daysindicating our practice of love through words, illusions, pictures, promises,theories, formulas, rules, dreams, personal ambitions, money, careers and allmatters related to the needs of the world. It can be true in reality, that theheart of love, namely the act of loving God and others is real, direct, anduseful beyond calculation. Perhaps it is also true that our minds are stilllooking for the heart of love that is already blurred or lost. Is the heart oflove now with you or far from you?  Let'spray. In the name of the Father... O Lord Jesus Christ, may we remain under theguidance of Your Spirit in faithfulness and obedience to love You and ourneighbors, through which we are able to become Your true disciples. Bless usfor this intention. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit... In the name of the Father...