Thursday, June 4, 2026
Thursday of the Ninth week in Ordinary Time
Mark 12:28-34
Listen to the whole reading — MP3
First reading
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the offspring of David, according to my Good News, in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained. Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This saying is trustworthy: “For if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. For he can’t deny himself.” Remind them of these things, charging them in the sight of the Lord, that they don’t argue about words, to no profit, to the subverting of those who hear. Give diligence to present yourself approved by God, a workman who doesn’t need to be ashamed, properly handling the Word of Truth.
Responsorial psalm
Psalms 25:4-5,8-9,10,14
Show me your ways, the Lord. Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth, and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation, I wait for you all day long. Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he will instruct sinners in the way. He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are loving kindness and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. The friendship of the Lord is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.
Gospel
Mark 12:28-34
One of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together. Knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the greatest of all?” Jesus answered, “The greatest is, ‘Hear, 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.’ This is the first commandment. The second is like this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to him, “Truly, teacher, you have said well that he is one, and there is none other but he, and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from God’s Kingdom.” No one dared ask him any question after that.
Lectio
There is a quiet tension running through today's readings between words that argue and words that save. Paul, writing from his chains, insists that God's word is not chained, and yet he warns Timothy against quarreling about words "to no profit." How easily our faith can shrink into a contest of correct phrases, a winning of debates, while the heart that should be doing the loving stands off to the side, untouched. The scribe in the Gospel begins with a question, the kind that might have started another endless argument, but Jesus draws him past the argument into something deeper. When the scribe repeats the great commandment in his own words, he is no longer testing—he is consenting. And Jesus tells him he is not far from the Kingdom.
Notice that what brings him near is not a sharper answer but a more loving one. To love God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the neighbor as oneself—this is more than all the burnt offerings, more than all our careful performances of religion. The Psalm gives us the posture for this kind of nearness: "Show me your ways, teach me your paths." It is the prayer of someone who has stopped insisting they already know, the humble whom the Lord will guide. Faithfulness, Paul reminds us, does not rest finally on our own strength—"if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself." Even our wavering is held inside a love that does not waver.
To be "not far" from the Kingdom is a tender and unsettling place to stand. It means something in us has heard the truth and almost crossed over—and is being invited to take the last step from understanding into surrender.
Where in your life have you been winning arguments about your faith while quietly avoiding the harder work of actually loving the person in front of you?
Like the scribe, you may have all the right words about loving God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself—so what is the one step still keeping you "not far" rather than fully inside the Kingdom today?
Saint of the day
St. Francis Caracciolo, Co-Founder (1563-1608)
Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora