Today’s readings bring us to the heart of Christian life: love of God and love of neighbour belong together. In Christ, that love takes flesh, drawing us into his own self-giving.
Exodus makes this deeply practical. The stranger, the widow, the orphan and the person struggling with debt must be treated with compassion. Even a cloak matters: what one person holds as security may be another’s only protection against the cold. God sees the human need beneath the transaction.
St Bernard of Clairvaux describes how love gradually moves beyond self-interest towards a more generous love of God. Such love cannot remain enclosed within ourselves. Prayer opens the heart to God, and God teaches that heart to make room for others.
In a Cistercian community, this learning takes place through ordinary encounters: listening when tired, sharing another’s burden, asking forgiveness, or giving time we had hoped to keep for ourselves. The same invitation meets us in homes, workplaces and parishes.
Paul describes a community whose reception of the Gospel becomes visible in changed lives. Their faith reaches others because something has happened among them: they have turned towards the living God.
This is the question these readings place before us: what difference does our prayer make to the person beside us?
May Christ deepen our love for the Father, and make that love tangible in the patience, generosity and mercy we offer today.