Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ex 22:20-26; Ps 18; 1Thes 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40
For the Sundays of Missionary Month in October 2026, we are pleased to share with you some of the meditations prepared for the month as part of a collaborative initiative involving the National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Italy, India and the United States, together with the PMU International Secretariat.
The commentaries on the biblical readings for Missionary Month have been sent by email to all the PMS National Directors, who may use them in their various missionary animation activities.
We would like to express once again our gratitude to the National Directors who contributed to the preparation of these texts and, in particular, to the authors: Rev. Fr. Alessandro Sacchi (Italy); Rev. Prof. Yesu Karunanidhi (India); and Msgr Roger Landry (United States).
The PMU has also provided some additional points for reflection.
A scholar of the law approaches Jesus in today’s Gospel with a question that asks about the single most important thing we must do in life. “Teacher,” he queries, “which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
This was not an easy question, since there are 613 precepts in the Old Testament.
Jesus’ answer, however, is clear and synthetic: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Then he adds two things. “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And: “The whole law and the prophets,” in other words all that God commands, “depend on these two commandments.”
Everything in the Christian life flows from love of God and love of neighbor, not as two separate realities, but one interrelated movement. Jesus doesn’t tell us, “Love me as I have loved you,” but “love one another as I have loved you.” Our love for Jesus will be shown in our love for our neighbor, who he calls us to love with unrationed mind, heart and soul.
The first reading from the Book of Exodus makes this very concrete. God speaks with urgency about the treatment of the vulnerable: the stranger, the widow, the orphan, and the poor. Our care for them reveals our love for God. It shows whether our relationship with God is real. Jesus would make this abundantly clear later when he would say that the way we treat the hungry, thirsty, naked, stranger, ill or imprisoned is the way we treat him (Mt 25:31-46).
If sharing God’s love of our neighbor is so essential to the Christian life, why is it sometimes so difficult? The answer is found in the second reading, when St. Paul reminds the Christians in Thessalonika how their faith began: not simply as a teaching they received, but as an encounter that changed them. “Our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit,” which helped them turn “from idols to serve the living and true God.”
We cannot really love as Jesus commands unless we have first encountered his love for us. We are loved first, and from that love, we learn how to love.
This is the foundation of the Church’s missionary activity.
In his message for 2026 World Mission Sunday, Pope Leo XIV underlined that love is the “essence” of the Church’s mission. He said, “The mission of the disciples and the Church as a whole is to continue the mission of Christ in the Holy Spirit: a mission born of love, lived in love, and leading to love. … Impelled by the love of Christ, the Apostles then went out to evangelize for Christ (cf. 2 Cor 5:14). In the same way, throughout the centuries, multitudes of Christians — martyrs, confessors and missionaries — have given their lives to make this divine love known to the world. Thus, guided by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, the Church’s evangelizing mission will continue until the end of time.”
He praised the love of God and neighbor found in missionaries past and present, who sacrifice in order to share the love of God with people who once were strangers. Like St. Francis of Assisi, who once lamented, “Love is not loved,” he urged us, like St. Therese of Lisieux, “to love Jesus and make him loved.”
Jesus in today’s Gospel makes it plain that loving God and neighbor — or in St. Therese’s word’s, loving him and making him loved — is the single most important thing we need to do. Everything else the Church does hinges on this two-fold command, which flows from the experience of Jesus’ having loved us enough to give his life for us and then to become our very food in the Sacrament of Love — the efficacious sign of divine love — on the altar. Let us receive that love anew, be transformed by it even more, and then let that love overflow for the evangelization and transformation of the world.
Useful points to consider:
Pope Leo XIV, Angelus, Liberty Square (Castel Gandolfo), Sunday, 13 July 2025
[…]It is written in the Law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,” and “your neighbour as yourself” (Lk 10:27; cfr Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18). When we do these two things, we respond to the Father’s love. God’s will is the law of life that the Father himself was the first to follow, by loving us unconditionally in his Son, Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, let us look to Jesus! He shows us the meaning of authentic love for God and for others. It is a love that is generous, not possessive; a love that forgives without question; a love that reaches out and never abandons others. In Christ, God made himself a neighbour to each and every man and woman. That is why each of us can and should become a neighbour to all whom we meet. Imitating the example of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, we too are called to bring consolation and hope, above all to those who are experiencing discouragement and disappointment.
In order to live eternally, we do not need to cheat death, but to serve life, by caring for others in this, our time together. That is the supreme law that is prior to all society’s rules and gives them their meaning. […]
Pope Leo XIV, Message for the 34th World Day of the Sick 2026, 11 February 2026
The compassion of the Samaritan: loving by bearing another’s pain[…]
3. Always driven by love for God, to encounter ourselves and our neighbor
In the double commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Lk 10:27), we recognize the primacy of love for God and its direct consequences for every dimension of human love and relationship. “Love for our neighbor is tangible proof of the authenticity of our love for God, as the Apostle John attests: ‘No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us… God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them’ (1 Jn 4:12, 16).” Although the object of this love differs – God, neighbor and oneself – and can be understood as distinct expressions of love, they remain fundamentally inseparable. The primacy of divine love implies that human action is carried out not for self-interest or reward, but as a manifestation of a love that transcends ritual norms and find expression in authentic worship. To serve one’s neighbor is to love God through deeds.
This perspective also allows us to grasp the true meaning of loving ourselves. It means setting aside any attempt to base our self-esteem or sense of dignity on worldly stereotypes – such as success, career, status or family background – and recovering our proper place before God and neighbor. Benedict XVI observed, “as a spiritual being, the human creature is defined through interpersonal relations. The more authentically he or she lives these relations, the more his or her own personal identity matures. It is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, but by placing himself in relation with others and with God.”
Dear brothers and sisters, “the true remedy for humanity’s wounds is a style of life based on fraternal love, which has its root in love of God.” I genuinely hope that our Christian lifestyle will always reflect this fraternal, “Samaritan” spirit – one that is welcoming, courageous, committed and supportive, rooted in our union with God and our faith in Jesus Christ. Enkindled by this divine love, we will surely be able to give of ourselves for the good of all who suffer, especially our brothers and sisters who are sick, elderly or afflicted.. […]
Catechism of the Catholic Church
2086 “The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity. When we say ‘God’ we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows that we must necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in him and acknowledge his authority. He is almighty, merciful, and infinitely beneficent. Who could not place all hope in him? Who could not love him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love he has poured out on us? Hence the formula God employs in the Scripture at the beginning and end of his commandments: ‘I am the LORD.’”
2090 When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him in return and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God’s love and of incurring punishment.
Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter to the Bishops Priests and Deacons Men and Women Religious and All the Lay Faithful on Christian Love, Deus Caritas Est
Love of God and love of neighbour
16. […] No one has ever seen God, so how could we love him? Moreover, love cannot be commanded; it is ultimately a feeling that is either there or not, nor can it be produced by the will. Scripture seems to reinforce the first objection when it states: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20). But this text hardly excludes the love of God as something impossible. On the contrary, the whole context of the passage quoted from the First Letter of John shows that such love is explicitly demanded. The unbreakable bond between love of God and love of neighbour is emphasized. One is so closely connected to the other that to say that we love God becomes a lie if we are closed to our neighbour or hate him altogether. Saint John’s words should rather be interpreted to mean that love of neighbour is a path that leads to the encounter with God, and that closing our eyes to our neighbour also blinds us to God.[…]
18. Love of neighbour is thus shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by the Bible, by Jesus. It consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend. Going beyond exterior appearances, I perceive in others an interior desire for a sign of love, of concern. This I can offer them not only through the organizations intended for such purposes, accepting it perhaps as a political necessity. Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave. Here we see the necessary interplay between love of God and love of neighbour which the First Letter of John speaks of with such insistence. If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God. But if in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be “devout” and to perform my “religious duties”, then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely “proper”, but loveless. Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbour can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me. […]
Pope Francis, Angelus, Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, 25 October 2020
[…] In today’s Gospel passage, once again, Jesus helps us go to the living and gushing wellspring of Love. And this wellspring is God himself, to be loved completely in a communion that nothing and no one can break. A communion that is a gift to be requested each day, but also a personal commitment not to let our lives become enslaved by the idols of the world. And the proof of our journey of conversion and holiness always consists in love of neighbour. This is the test: if I say “I love God” and do not love my neighbour, it does not work. The verification that I love God is that I love my neighbour. As long as there is a brother or sister to whom we close our hearts, we will still be far from being disciples as Jesus asks us. But his divine mercy does not allow us to be discouraged, but rather calls us to begin anew each day to live the Gospel consistently. […]
