Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara
Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Today’s Gospel places us on very holy ground. Jesus, the Word of God himself, tells us what lies at the heart of the law and religion. The Pharisees ask a question, almost like a game: “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” The rabbis often sought the “canon within the canon”—the law that somehow clarified the whole of the law. Jesus gives his well-known reply: “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 first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
In the end, it’s about love. The love of God and neighbor are tightly connected. If we follow the law without loving, we’re wasting our time. If we love God but hate our neighbors, we’re wasting our time.
But why are these two loves so closely connected? Because Jesus is not merely God; he is the God-man, in whom divinity and humanity meet. So you cannot love him as God without also loving the humanity he created and embraced.
More to it: God loves everything and everyone he has made. Nothing visible or invisible would exist unless God loved it into being. Therefore, if you love God with all your soul, heart, and mind, you will unquestionably love what God loves. This is precisely why the two commandments are interlaced. Growing up in my family, I learned that my mother loved certain things not so much because they were her thing, but because my father, whom she loved, loved them. As we can see, the requirement to love goes far beyond simple affection or warm sentiment. We must express our love for our neighbor in concrete ways. So, who in your life right now needs love most? Who is the poorest in your life right now? Think of someone who irritates you, someone you find distasteful, someone you don’t really like, someone you make an effort to avoid, or someone you may not automatically seek out. You may have plenty of reasons not to like them. But remember this: God has loved that person into existence. What matters is not the person’s worth to you, but their worth to God. You might consider that person ‘worthless,” “useless,” or “not needed.” But the stubborn fact is that this person has value and worth to God. So love that person because God loves them, and we love God.
You love the Lord with all your mind, heart, and soul. Right? If you truly do, you won’t forget the poor, the marginalized, the widow, the alien, or the forgotten. You won’t forget those on the margins of society, as mentioned in today’s first reading (Exodus 22:20-26): “You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him.” God loves all things and all people. They would not exist unless he had loved them into being. Throughout the pages of the Bible, we see God’s focused attention on the “poorest of the poor.” God loves those who are most in need of love with a special love. And so should we, if we love God with everything we have. For the past 55 years, the Catholic Church has spoken about the preferential option for the poor. Now, don’t get it twisted. The Church loves everybody because God loves everybody, and the Church loves what God loves. However, the Church has a special love for those who are poor in every sense of the term. The command now is to love them especially.
God bless you!
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