A homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 25, 2026
Exodus 22:20-26, 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10, Matthew 22:34-40
What is Love?
At this very moment, there are about 6.8 billion-with-a-B answers to that question. And all of them are correct, at least to a degree.
What is Love?
Let’s start with today’s passage from Matthew’s telling of the Gospel:
[A] scholar of the law tested [Jesus] by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
[Jesus] said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
(I don’t usually include this much of the day’s Gospel, but this one is a biggie. We should keep a copy in our wallets.)
So Love is a verb. It’s something we all are commanded to do. Love is a command from God.
Question answered.
But:
Now more questions need answers. Let’s start with the 5 Ws and the H.
Whom do we love?
Everybody.
Well, that’s a train-derailing answer. Everybody??? More than a few of us can name at least one person we have trouble even thinking lovingly about, let alone acting lovingly toward them.
Everybody?
Yes, everybody.
It’s true, there are people we like more than others, people we connect with, people we shower varying amounts of kindness and affection and gooey-sloppy-kissy mush all over. Those people are easy to love, however we define Love.
But then there are those who are difficult to love (nobody is unlovable).
And they’re where the answer to “How” comes in: We don’t have to like ’em, we just have to love ’em.
We can’t wish them any harm or do anything that would cause someone else to harm them. We can disagree with them respectfully — Love and Respect are kissing cousins — and we can agree to disagree. If we don’t hear from them, we don’t celebrate; we check up on them.
The opposite of loving is not hating. It’s being indifferent. Out of sight must never mean out of mind. We’re out of our minds if we believe that.
Jesus never said loving would be easy. That’s why he made it a commandment and not a kind thought, not a nice little suggestion.
Love God and love everybody is a gotta-do.
So Love is an active verb.
The answer to “When” is now. Always. ‘Nuff said.
The answer to “Where” is everywhere. Worldwide.
The answer to “Why” — besides our not wanting to be punished for disobeying a divine commandment (stick) — is to bring God’s peace to the Earth (carrot).
But:
What?
Is?
Love?
It’s a noun: It’s a feeling. It’s 6.8 billion variations of that feeling, which each of us expresses (oh, wait! Verb!) in a unique way. Divine wisdom created us to be unique and yet interconnected.
It’s a way of life, a mindset, a feeling that powers random acts of kindness and life-risking and -surrendering acts of bravery alike.
It’s the source of life. Its absence causes decay, death, and destruction.
Love is mind-boggling, in all its flavors from familial love through romantic love through heroic love.
Which makes sense, because God is mind-boggling.
God is Love.
And the love we feel — noun and verb — is God’s presence within us.
Within everybody.
Noun.
And.
Verb.
aha…
