Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – 25th October 2026
Dear brothers and sisters,
In today’s Gospel, a lawyer comes to Jesus and asks Him a question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus answers: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And immediately He adds: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
Two commandments. One simple word: love.
And yet, perhaps this is one of the most difficult things Jesus asks of us. Because it is easy to talk about love. It is easy to say, “I love you.” But it is much harder to love when we are tired, when someone upsets us, when we feel misunderstood, or when someone hurts us. And perhaps this is where today’s Gospel begins to challenge us.
Love is not measured only by what we say, but above all by what we do.
We can come to church every Sunday. We can say beautiful prayers. We can know many things about God. But what happens when we go home?
How do we speak to our husband or wife? How patient are we with our children? How do we treat our parents, especially as they grow older and need more of our attention? How do we react when someone disappoints us?
Because our love for God must be visible in the way we treat the people He places in our lives.
Pope Benedict XVI reminded us in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est that love of God and love of neighbour cannot be separated. We cannot claim to love the God we cannot see if we refuse to love the people we can see.