Reflection for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 25, 2026. Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40.
A lawyer comes to test Jesus. He wants to know which commandment in the law is the greatest, and I suspect he hoped for a debate. Jesus doesn’t argue. He gives a plain answer, taken from the prayer every faithful Jew knew by heart: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37, RSV-CE).
Then he keeps going, and that is the part I never want to rush past: “a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39, RSV-CE). He doesn’t say it is lower, or that it comes later. He says it is like the first, as if there were one love with two directions.
The first reading helps me hear what that likeness means. God tells Israel, “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21, RSV-CE). The passage goes on to the widow, the orphan, and the poor man whose cloak is held as a pledge. Then God says, “if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate” (Exodus 22:27, RSV-CE). The neighbor’s cry reaches God’s own ear. Loving God and loving a neighbor are not two separate jobs.
I have often watched the two run together at a bedside. A hand on a shoulder, a cup of water, a quiet “I’m here.” Small things, but they are the second commandment kept in the middle of the first. Saint John says it simply: “he who loves God should love his brother also” (1 John 4:21, RSV-CE).
Most of us are better at one than the other. Some pray faithfully and are short with the people at home. Some give themselves away all day and have little left for God. The Gospel doesn’t scold either one. It asks us to keep the two together.
And notice the last words, “as yourself.” Many of us have been hard on ourselves for so long that we forget we are counted among the neighbors. Be as gentle with yourself this week as you would be with a friend.
Today’s psalm is the first commandment turned into a prayer: “I love thee, O Lord, my strength” (Psalm 18:1, RSV-CE). Say it in the morning, then look for one person who needs a hand.
A Prayer
Lord God, you are worth loving with everything I have, and I do not love you as well as I want to. Turn my heart toward you and my hands toward the person in front of me. Where I have been hard on my neighbor, or hard on myself, forgive me and soften me. Make my love for you and my love for others one love, and let it grow. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
This week’s printable: a one page daily examen of love, in large print, with quiet questions for each evening.
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