October 25, 2026
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Mt 22:34-40

Today is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The passage from the Holy Gospel of Matthew presents a dialogue between a certain lawyer and Jesus. In this dialogue, Jesus teaches us the commandment of love. Let us try to understand.

We often act like the well-trained lawyer in the Gospel (cf. Mt 22:34-36), who often wants to test others according to our own will, so that because they cannot answer our questions, we appear to have profound knowledge. Because in our eyes, we seem to know more than others. Therefore, when we ask questions, we often exhaust our understanding of worldly things, intending to exhaust others, so that because of the exhaustion of their thoughts, our vanity can be satisfied. Because in our view, we only need to keep one of the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses in ancient times (cf. Ex 20:1-17), and we consider ourselves to be keeping the Law, thus we often overlook the infinite mercy that God reveals through the Law He established for humanity. In fact, “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law who will be declared righteous.” (cf. Rom 2:12-13) This means: those “apart from the law” refer to the Gentiles who do not know Moses; those “under the law” refer to the Jews who received the Law of Moses, that is, the lawyer talking with Jesus today. This well-trained lawyer intended to test Jesus according to his own understanding of the Law, yet he himself did not practice the Law of Moses in his life. Thus, his end would be eternal perdition.

From Jesus’ response to this lawyer, we can see: Jesus did not change the Law, nor did He diminish it; on the contrary, He fulfilled it. Because the general principle of the Law that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai is to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. (cf. Mt 22:37,39) The reason we love God is because He loves us; He did not spare His Son, but let His only Son offer Himself as a sin offering for us. The reason we must love ourselves is because we are created in God’s image and likeness. (cf. Gen 1:26) The reason we must love our neighbor is because God has entrusted them to our care. We must not only care for them, but also actively seek them out, and through our concrete lives and actions, manifest God’s holy love and gracious face to them.

Almighty ever-living God,
increase our faith, hope and charity,
and make us love what you command,
so that we may merit what you promise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica