Sunday the 25th of October 2026 - The Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Exodus 22:21-27/ Ps 18(17)/1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10/ Matthew 22:34-40
I have recently been on holiday in Europe and visiting various cities I called into several cathedrals. At the doorway to most of them were beggars looking for a few coins from those coming and going. Do we sidestep or ignore these unfortunates, or do we see Jesus in them? It is easy to make excuses to ignore them, but we must take notice of those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We not only have a duty of care to others, we have a duty of love. We cannot enter a church to show our love of God if we are not serving him in those who need our love. We cannot separate the love we offer inside the church and the love we should share outside it.
The first reading today takes us back more than three thousand years, to some of the oldest laws given to the people of Israel. It prohibits the oppression of the foreigner reminding them that they were once aliens themselves residing in the land of Egypt. It calls for no wrong to the widow or orphan. If a man's cloak is taken in pledge, it must be returned by sunset, because it might be the only defence he has against the cold night.
These laws may be old, but they are not out of date. The foreigner, the widow and the orphan were the most vulnerable people of the ancient world as they are today, and God made their protection a sacred duty. These laws, together with the Ten Commandments, became the foundation of civil law in societies rooted in our shared Judeo-Christian tradition. Over time, many of these shared values have been eroded. We see it in how easily the stranger is treated with suspicion, how the weak are pushed to the margins, and how human life is sometimes measured by usefulness and economic value rather than dignity. These principals matter because every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. This truth means that we are called to be Godlike in how we behave, to reflect the One whose image we bear. It also means that every person we meet carries that same image. What we do to them, we do to God. Jesus makes this unmistakable. In the poorest and most vulnerable, we encounter Him. The question God asks us today is, how do we treat Him?
In the Gospel, the Pharisees test Jesus again. Out of the hundreds of commandments in the Law, they ask Him to name the greatest. Jesus lifts the whole conversation above their narrow legal outlook. He tells them and us that we must love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, all our soul, and all your mind. Secondly and equally important we must love our neighbour as ourselves. Jesus tells us that the whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. Jesus did not answer the question directly picking one or two rules from a long list. He gives us a lens through which the entire law and the prophets must be viewed and understood. This is not a law that restricts us, it is a law that sets us free. Only good can from a genuine love. It can never do any harm. This is not a sloppy sentimental love, it is a dedicated, self-sacrificial love, the love we see on the Cross reaching out to all God's people.
To live entirely for God is challenging. Our lives call constantly for compromise, and every compromise quietly puts God into second place, or lower. Saint Paul, in the second reading, praised the Thessalonians because they turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. That was a complete about-face. Too often our turns are mere swerves, or at best ninety degrees. Jesus asks for the full one hundred and eighty. He asks for everything. This wholehearted love of God, and love of neighbour are inseparable, they form a single commandment. We cannot love the God we cannot see while ignoring the brother or sister we can see. We cannot step over the homeless to enter our churches.
Paul said that the Thessalonians became a model for all believers. That is what the Church today is supposed to be, a community that people of every faith and of no faith can look at and see how to love God and love the neighbour. Not a people embroiled in disputes, but a people engaged in the care of all who suffer. There is sometimes a gap between what our Christian life looks like and what Jesus calls it to be. With the psalm we can call for God's help. The God who hears the cry of the poor also hears our prayer. The love we have for others was first a gift to us from God.
Jesus gives us today the rule that we should try to live by, the rule that links all the principals and rules of Christian faith together. Without following it our Christian life make no sense and will achieve nothing. Love of God and love of neighbour is the foundation on which we should stand. In the celebration of Mass Jesus gives Himself to us completely. We cannot honour the Body of Christ on the altar while neglecting Him in the poor outside. As we receive Him, let us ask for the grace of a full about-turn, not just a swerve or a sidestep. Let us look today for those compromises we make that push God from the top slot, let us find the neighbour who is in need of our love. In this way we will come to love God and love our neighbour so that people will come to know that we are Christians by our love.
God Bless Brendan