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Gospel reflection for Oct. 25, 2026, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The First Reading might chaff the sensibilities of some parishioners this weekend, especially if they listen to it through the perspective of contemporary political debate. While the readings follow a cycle that is decades old, the challenges within our own country and even more so the actions of the government of Israel do get called into question. The Mosaic Law was very clear on the treatment of non-Israelites who lived in their land, demanding that they be treated with justice and given the rights and dignity that was their due as human persons. This stands as a prelude to the command of Jesus to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Last week Jesus was challenged to address a controversial issue regarding the paying of the Roman tax in a moment that was a total ruse to attempt to trap him into exposing his true political feelings. Jesus clearly outsmarted his saboteurs with the adroit response: “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; to God what belongs to God.”
As the Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus failed, they make a second attempt. This time a Mosaic legal scholar asked Jesus the key theological question: “which of the Commandments is the greatest?”
This seems like it should be less controversial, but Jesus will still add a response which expands the core of the first commandment. Without too much question, the greatest, or first commandment, is Shema O Israel …. the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. The command then is to love God with the totality of one’s being: heart, soul, mind, and strength. All of our thoughts, work, and efforts are focused on the love of God.
But why?
Does God need our love? Is God such a megalomaniac that he created us solely to love him? I recently saw a bit by a current and popular comedian who entertained his audience with this very point, making much of this very image. This is not just a current comedic bit, though, as this same question has been raised by various philosophers over the centuries.
The answer to this question is clearly implied by Jesus as he continues in his response to the legal scholar: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The one love feeds the other.
We love God, not because God needs our love, but because, as we grow in our love for God, we come to a deeper understanding of ourselves as well. Loving God compels us to love our neighbor.
The great Doctor of the Church, St. Theresa of Jesus (Avila) wrote in her seminal work, the “Interior Castle,” this reflection: “The surest sign that we are keeping these two commandments [love of God and love of neighbor] is, I think, that we should keep the commandment of love toward our neighbor; for we cannot know whether we love God, although there may be strong reasons for thinking so, but there can be no doubt whether we love our neighbor or no.”
The St. John the Evangelist wrote even more poignantly: “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.”
Jesus then sees these two Commandments as no longer as two but as one inseparable commandment.
Therefore, the growth in Christian discipleship comes down to: Love God which leads to a deeper appreciation of one’s own giftedness in relationship to God, which then leads to an understanding of the unique giftedness of every other person.
We are all made in the image and likeness of God. That leaves us unique in God’s intentionality, and one in that we all share in the very nature of God himself.
Love is our natural response to experiencing love. We love God and the more that we love God the more we grow in that love the greater our capacity to experience love and then to express love.
For too many Christians today the image of God is too small, and the pathways of love are too narrow. So then, we walk through the tension of judgment and mercy; of love for the many or the few.
Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical “Deus Caritas est” wrote: “… love of neighbour is a path that leads to the encounter with God, and that closing our eyes to our neighbor also blinds us to God.”
When we look at a world around us, fired by dissension, distrust, and deep-seeded animosity, we are called to stand as beacons of love; to be the light of the world which seems to prefer being enveloped in the darkness.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.