Sunday 25 October 2026- XXX Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
Mass
Readings: Ex 22:21-27 Ps 18
1Thes 1:5c-10 Mt 22:34-40
Key
Verse to Meditate: "Teacher,
which commandment in the law is the greatest?" (Mt 22:36).
My dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,
In the Gospel texts of recent Sundays, we find
Jesus continuously under interrogation by various groups and individuals. They
seek to test His thoughts and, above all, to find some religious or political
flaw by which to accuse Him. This Sunday, we are presented with another passage
from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus is questioned by a doctor of the
Law. Chapter 22 of Matthew is filled
with questions from the Pharisees on various topics, such as paying taxes, the
resurrection, and the greatest commandment. It concludes with a question that
Jesus Himself poses to the Pharisees regarding the son of David. The following
chapter then shifts to a severe denunciation of the Pharisees in the strongest
possible terms.
The First Reading - Ex
22:20-26
The Book of Exodus outlines
a clear blueprint for a society built on divine justice and compassion. The
directives in this passage can be enumerated into four foundational pillars:
1.Absolute Fidelity to God
(v. 20): A strict prohibition against idolatry, demanding exclusive worship and
loyalty to the Lord alone.
2. Empathy for the Stranger
(v. 21): A command to protect the migrant and foreigner, rooted in Israel’s own
historical trauma and memory of being enslaved in Egypt.
3. Protection of the
Vulnerable (v. 22-24): A fierce defense of widows and orphans—those with the
least societal power. God places Himself as their direct guardian, promising
severe justice against anyone who exploits them.
4. Economic Justice for the
Poor (v. 25): A prohibition against charging interest to the impoverished,
ensuring that human dignity and communal care are always prioritized over
profit and economic exploitation.
Spiritual Reflection: The
Cross of Love and Justice
When read alongside the
Gospel of Matthew (22:34-40), this passage from Exodus provides the practical,
lived expression of what Jesus calls the greatest commandments.
In the Gospel, Christ
reveals that all the Law and the Prophets hang on two inseparable axes: the
vertical love of God and the horizontal love of neighbour. The Exodus reading
perfectly mirrors this cross-shaped theology. Verse 20—the demand for exclusive
worship—is the First Commandment in action: loving God with all your heart,
soul, and mind. But God does not allow faith to remain purely vertical or
abstract. Verses 21 through 25 immediately thrust the believer into the Second
Commandment: loving your neighbour as yourself.
Exodus reveals the mind of
God on justice: He is deeply, viscerally attuned to the cry of the
marginalized. He hears the widow, defends the orphan, remembers the stranger,
and protects the poor. Therefore, Jesus’ linkage of the two commandments is not
just a theological summary; it is a spiritual warning. We cannot claim to
fulfil the first commandment while violating the second. Our worship of God is
fundamentally empty if it is not validated by our compassion for the
vulnerable.
The Second Reading -1Thes
1:5-10
Paul’s First Letter to the
Thessalonians offers one of the most profound glimpses into a thriving, early
Christian community. In this passage (1 Thessalonians 1:5-10), Paul is not
correcting a fractured church; rather, he is overflowing with gratitude for a
community that has become a living embodiment of the Gospel.
The Word
Arriving in Power and the Holy Spirit
Paul emphasizes that the
Gospel he preached was not merely a transmission of human philosophy or
eloquent rhetoric. He states that the Word came "not in word only, but
also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." For the
Thessalonians, hearing the Gospel was an experiential event of divine power
that fundamentally disrupted their old way of life and initiated a profound
inner transformation. The Thessalonians’ reception of this powerful Word was
marked by decisive action.
Awaiting
the Second Coming of Christ
The culmination of their
faith is oriented entirely toward the future: "to wait for his Son from
heaven." Early Christian theology was deeply eschatological, driven by the
imminent hope of Christ’s return. However, for the Thessalonians, this waiting
was not a passive, idle sitting around. It was a dynamic, active vigilance.
Because they were waiting for Jesus—the one who "rescues us from the wrath
that is coming"—their present lives were charged with purpose. Their hope
in the Resurrection and the Second Coming anchored them through their present
persecutions.
Spiritual
Reflection
It is easy to let the
Scriptures become familiar, comfortable texts that we listen to with polite
attention. But Paul reminds us today that the Word of God is meant to arrive
with power and the Holy Spirit. It is meant to shake us, to convict us, and to change
us. Secondly, the Thessalonians had to turn away from the idols of their
culture to serve the living God. While we may not bow down to statues of stone
or bronze, our modern world is crowded with subtle idols—wealth, status,
comfort, political ideologies, and the relentless pursuit of our own egos.
To receive the Word in
faith means asking for the grace to identify our personal idols and boldly turn
our backs on them. Finally, Paul calls us to reclaim our identity as a people
who wait. We are not meant to build our permanent home in the passing anxieties
of this world. We are a people of the horizon, actively and joyfully waiting
for the return of Christ. When we anchor our lives in that eternal hope, the
trials and afflictions of our present moment lose their final power over us.
The Gospel Reading - Mt 22:34-40
The Pharisees
The first verse of today’s
Gospel reading (Mt 22:34) mentions the Pharisees, who heard that Jesus had
silenced the Sadducees when they raised a question regarding the resurrection
of the dead (Mt 22:23-33), saying, "For in the resurrection they neither
marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven" (Mt
22:30). Now it was their turn to question Jesus. To do this, a lawyer among
them asked, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" (Mt
22:36).
The Pharisees were supposed
to be the guardians of the practice of the Law (Mt 23:2-3). Jesus respected
their role as teachers, but he also cautioned the people about their
hypocrisy—namely, interpreting the Law according to their own understanding and
expecting everyone else to follow it. Many of the Pharisees, however, rejected
the young Rabbi of Nazareth. Through their rigid interpretation, the Pharisees
developed a meticulous casuistry that made the yoke of the Law unbearable.
Because they followed the
Law for its own sake, Jesus chided them for neglecting its weightier matters:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill,
and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and
mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the
others" (Mt 23:23). Often, the controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees
also revolved around the observance of the Sabbath. According to them, Jesus
broke the Sabbath rest by healing the sick on that day and by declaring that
the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath (Mt 12:8; Mk 2:27).
The Two
Most Important Laws – Love of God and One’s Neighbour
In today’s Gospel, Jesus
summarizes the whole of the Law and the Prophets in just two laws, namely, the
love of God and the love of one's neighbour above all. Jesus considered the
first commandment to be the greatest, as it is the foundation from which all
others derive: "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Mt 22:37-38). The second
commandment, which flows from the first, is taken from Leviticus 19:18:
"You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Mt 22:39). What is most
important, however, is that Jesus confirms, “On these two commandments hang all
the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:40).
The First
Commandment is to Love
The first commandment for
any disciple of the Lord is to love: "You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." Love
of God comes first. We are to love God with our heart, soul, and mind, which
means with the whole of our lives. There were 613 precepts that a pious
Israelite was required to observe in Jesus' time. Among these, 365 were
prohibitions—one for each day of the year—and the remainder were positive
precepts—one for each bone in the human body, according to the medical
knowledge of the time.
The
Second Commandment : The second commandment is also heavily stressed by
Jesus in the Gospels. If someone loves God, he cannot help but love his
neighbour. The phrase "the Law and the Prophets" appears again in
another context where Jesus demands that we treat others as we want them to
treat us: "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you;
for this is the law and the prophets" (Mt 7:12). Even speaking against a
brother or condemning him is considered speaking against the Law: "Do not
speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil
against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the
law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge"
(Jas 4:11).
The
Manner of Treating the Poor : Regarding the manner of
treating the poor, St. James calls it a "royal law" and says the
following about its observance: "You do well if you really fulfill the
royal law according to the scripture, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself'"
(Jas 2:8). If we fail to keep any part of the law, we will be condemned as
transgressors of the Law (Jas 2:10).
Who is My
Neighbour?
In the Gospel of Luke, the
lawyer, seeking to justify himself, asks a further question: "And who is
my neighbour?" (Lk 10:29). In response, Jesus narrates the famous parable
of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). The lawyer then answers Jesus, acknowledging
that the real neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers was
"the one who showed him mercy." Jesus concludes by sending the lawyer
off with the instruction: "Go and do likewise" (Lk 10:37).
Furthermore, in the Judgment of the Nations, many will be judged fit to enter
the kingdom based on whether they acted as a true neighbour to the needy and
the poor: "And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you
did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to
me... Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these,
you did not do it to me'" (Mt 25:40, 45).
The Gospel of Christ
The Gospel of Christ is the
Gospel of love: love for God, love for our neighbour, and love for ourselves.
These three form the test proving that faith is not just a word, a concept, or
an idea, but a dynamic energy—the virtue that propels life toward its full
meaning. The Word of God is not an abstract theory, but an ever-new grace to be
received with the help of the people of God and the prophetic witness of each
person. Sometimes, there is a tendency to believe in God but to put aside His
envoys because they are fallible human beings. Instead, faith in Jesus is faith
in one who is both true man and true God. It is no coincidence that Christ does
not respond with a single commandment, but with two that are actually two sides
of the same coin: the love of God and the love of one's brothers and sisters.
Learning to love others by trying to understand them helps one to mature,
thereby enabling us to discover God's love in a new way.
Points for Personal
Reflection
- What
is the purpose of God's Law and the commandments in my life?
- Do I
love God above all else, with all my heart, soul and mind?
- What
is the nature of my love for God and for others?
- Does
my love for my neighbour take its origin from my love for God?
- Do I
see the poor, the marginalised and the suffering as my neighbours?
- Is
my faith expressed through concrete acts of love, mercy and compassion?
- Am I
a person who knows the commandments, or am I also a person who lives them?
