Scripture readings for Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ex 22:20-26 Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51 1 Thes 1:5c-10 Mt 22:34-40
Really, it’s a lot harder than it sounds. We’ve heard this passage so often, maybe we’re used to it. But encountering Matthew’s Gospel this Sunday, maybe we need to hear it again — and realize just what Jesus is asking of us.
It sounds simple. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…Love your neighbor as yourself.”
We’ve come to think of these as the two great commandments, and I don’t think anyone would quibble with that. Jesus himself noted, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” Who could disagree? It seems plain enough and reasonable enough, and certainly these are the building blocks for a just, moral and even holy life.
But it’s easier said than done. Loving God can be a challenge during difficult times — just as loving our parents is sometimes a challenge — but it’s hard not to be grateful for the Creator who gave us life, gave us the world, and so often continues to give us blessings beyond measure.
Then, of course, there’s that second commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Think about it. Consider what this involves. This is a tall order. How often do we ignore it, dismiss it, shrug it off?
Probably more often than we would like to admit. Frankly, this is possibly the one commandment people break most consistently. Love your neighbor. No exceptions. Love the person you would prefer to hate. And then go a step further: Love that person as you love yourself. No exceptions.
What does that mean? In short, love the world. All of it. Love the irritable, the spiteful, the bigoted, the angry. Love the selfish, the cruel, the petty. Love the one who is completely different from you. Love the Republican and the socialist, the atheist and the Muslim, the holy and the hurtful. Love the one you just don’t get and love the one you can’t get enough of. Love the one who speaks your language and love the one who doesn’t.
Love without restrictions, because love has no borders. Your neighbor (as the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us) is anyone and everyone. Look past language, nationality, beliefs, customs.
The first reading from Exodus even makes it plain: “You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.”
How are we doing with that?
A friend of mine noted not long ago, “That doesn’t mean you have to like them. But it means you have to love them.” That means: Treat them with dignity, respect, compassion and charity.
Live with a sense of justice and fairness. Wish the best for others and try to believe the best about them before suspecting the worst. Remember that all our neighbors, like all of us, are works in progress, clay still being shaped, sand being sifted. None of us is finished.
God gets that. Do we? Strive every day to imagine seeing others as God does — as his beloved children, creatures of possibility and promise, made in his image. Love your neighbor as yourself. Like I said: It’s harder than it sounds.
This weekend, the Scripture offers us a challenge daring us to look at those around us and then, whether we want to or not, to look at ourselves.
What do we see?
Deacon Greg Kandra is an award-winning author and journalist, and creator of the blog “The Deacon’s Bench.”
