Reflection for Solemnity of Brotherly Love

On the second Sunday of September each year we celebrate a special feast day, the Solemnity of Brotherly Love.

This Solemnity was set aside by the Synod of our Church in Chicago in 1914. The General Synod established this day for the faithful of the Church in order to remember the great commandment of God that is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

During the Holy Sacrifice of Mass on This solemnity, we read the Gospel except from Luke 10:25-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable begins when a lawyer stood up and began to test Jesus by asking Him – what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

And Jesus said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

And the lawyer then wanted to justify himself by asking,” Who is my neighbor?”

And we all know the rest of the story about the Samaritan man who had pity and assisted the man who was robbed and beaten and left by the roadside. The Samaritan was truly the neighbor of the victim who was robbed.

It is not everyday that we have the opportunity to help someone who encountered such a situation as the man who was robbed. But, each and every one of us has numerous opportunities every day to show compassion and love toward others.

My Brothers and d Sisters, what are we to do?

We can help people who are in need by praying for them and also by giving some material help.

Lots of people around us, members of our families, friends, and people who lost everything need our material and spiritual help. We have to remember them. We can not leave them alone.

The Solemnity of Brotherly Love gives as hints and direction what we have to do and what is our Christian responsibility for each other.

We must remember what Jesus said in today’s Gospel – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”