31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 3, 2024)

Dt 6.2-6; Heb 7.23-38; Mk 12.28-34

• Sins against the Gospel of Life don’t always take the form of the grave ones like abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, or the manipulation of embryonic life. It also includes more common ones such as the objectification of persons, the use of pornography, and other sins against purity, which also violate the dignity of man made in the image and likeness of God.

• In our toxic culture, where lewd advertisements are plastered on our streets and pornography is piped directly into our homes so easily through the Internet, faithful Christians are no less immune from sins against the flesh than our neighbours.

• Fortunately for us, however, the Second Reading, which is taken from the Letter to the Hebrews, tells us about the eternal and mediating priesthood of Jesus Christ. This should give us great comfort, especially if we fall into impurity, because in Christ we have a “holy, innocent, undefiled” God who, though fully Man, is “separated from sinners” and so able to “make intercession” for us who approach God through Him. Let us ask Him to give us pure hearts to love God and our neighbour.

Pro-Life Intercession

For the grace to see and love each person as a neighbour like ourselves, including the unborn, the outcast, the burdensome, the stranger, and the criminal, we pray to the Lord ...