16 November 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Mark 12:30–31
A scribe asks which commandment is first. Jesus joins two texts of the Law, Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18: love God with everything, and love your neighbour as yourself. The scribe agrees that this is “much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices,” and Jesus tells him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Paul's hymn shows what this love looks like: patient, kind, not envious or boastful, not insisting on its own way. Without it, tongues, prophecy and even martyrdom are nothing. Love is not one gift among others; it is the life of the Church, the Bride's wedding garment.
Theme: “The greatest is love.”
Jesus joins the two great commandments; Paul paints love's portrait.
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:4–5
“Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’”” Mark 12:29–30
Apply: Pray the Shema slowly this morning.
“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18
“The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31
Apply: Forgive one grudge today.
“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:6
“And ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one's neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Mark 12:33
Apply: Come to the Qurbana reconciled with others.
Love is the first and greatest commandment.
Without it we are nothing; with it we are near the Kingdom.
Take-home resolution: Read 1 Corinthians 13 each evening this week.
Dear friends, a scribe asks which commandment is the first of all. Jesus joins two texts of the Law: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:29–31). The scribe agrees that this is much more than all burnt offerings, and Jesus says: you are not far from the kingdom of God.
Paul describes what this love looks like: love is patient, love is kind; it is not envious or boastful or arrogant; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends (1 Corinthians 13:4–8).
Today, read these verses putting your own name in place of the word love: am I patient? am I kind? Wherever something is lacking, let us take one step forward this week. Amen.
Children, Jesus said: love God with all your heart and love others as yourself. Be patient with a friend today!
God of love, teach me to love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and my neighbour as myself. Make me patient and kind, for without love I am nothing. Amen.
Today both readings ask what matters most. Paul tells the Corinthians, proud of their spectacular gifts, that without love even the greatest gifts are nothing. In the Gospel a scribe asks Jesus which commandment is first, and Jesus joins love of God and love of neighbour into one answer. The two readings explain each other: the “greatest gift” is the fulfilment of the “greatest commandment”.
Setting.
Corinth was a rich, mixed port city, and its young Church was divided. In chapters 12–14 Paul deals with spiritual gifts. Some Corinthians prized speaking in tongues above everything. Chapter 13 stands between the teaching on the body of Christ (ch. 12) and practical rules for worship (ch. 14). It is not a wedding poem first of all, but a correction of a gifted and quarrelsome community.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (13:3)
A note on the text. The Greek manuscripts differ by one letter. Some of the oldest read “so that I may boast” (kauchēsōmai), which the NRSV follows. Others read “to be burned” (kauthēsomai), which the Latin Vulgate and the Malayalam POC follow (ദഹിപ്പിക്കാൻ). Either way the point is the same: even martyrdom without love would gain nothing.
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant” (13:4)
St Paul could almost be describing Christ. Put the name of Jesus in place of “love” and the sentences remain true.
“Love never ends.” (13:8)
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this chapter to describe charity, the greatest of the theological virtues, and calls it the “form” of all the virtues: it gives them life and order (CCC 1822–1827, quoting 1 Corinthians 13:1–7). St Thérèse of Lisieux, reading chapters 12 and 13, understood that her vocation in the heart of the Church was love (Story of a Soul, ms. B, in substance).
Setting.
Jesus is teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem in the last days before his Passion. One group after another has questioned him to trap him. This scribe is different: he heard that Jesus “answered them well” and asks a sincere question. Later rabbinic tradition counted 613 commandments in the Law, and teachers of the Law did discuss which ones were weightier.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (12:30)
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (12:31)
Jesus was asked for one commandment and gave two. They cannot be separated: love of neighbour is the proof of love of God (compare 1 John 4:20).
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (12:34)
The scribe understands; he is near. The one step left is to follow the one who is speaking to him. The Kingdom is not only a teaching but a person.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism opens its teaching on the Ten Commandments with this answer of Jesus: the two great commandments sum up the whole Law (CCC 2055, 2196). This Gospel shows a moment of agreement between Jesus and a Jewish teacher on the heart of the Law, and the Church sees in it the common root she shares with the Jewish people (Nostra Aetate 4).
Is 1 Corinthians 13 about marriage?
Paul wrote it for a whole community troubled by pride and division. It fits a wedding well, because marriage needs exactly this patient love, but it applies to every Christian relationship.