An Inexhaustible Capacity: The Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026

                                           An Inexhaustible Capacity:

The Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026 

October 25, 2026

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Exodus 22:20-26; Psalm 18; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Matthew 22:34-40

 

 

In these readings, we get right at the heart of our Christian faith. Love of God and love of neighbor belong together and cannot be separated. We cannot say we love God and then not react to the suffering of another person. We cannot hold grudges or maintain estrangement and or keep our relationships separate and then say we love God. We know that we have received the mercy and love of God, and because of that, we are called to make that love tangible in the world. We do not earn God’s love by serving others, and our salvation is dependent upon how well we care for others.

 

The ancient Israelites learned a valuable lesson. As people in desert climates, they understood the precariousness of life. One who is away from the community is vulnerable, and the sojourners and migrants depend upon the goodwill of others for existence. The Israelites knew this as they were once aliens in Egypt and in Babylon. Their memory of being vulnerable taught them the value of compassion and hospitality. We also can feel like aliens outside of community whenever we experience loneliness, exclusion, grief, or need an occasional helping hand. As we received mercy, it teaches us to recognize the needs of others. 

 

Why do we at times hold to the law and forget compassion? Why does our selective adherence to the law have such a hold on our consciousness, especially when we like to break the law and not get caught? We want mercy when we bend or break the law, but we want the other person to pay the extreme price. What is that all about? Why do we do that so often? We become law abiders and law lovers when someone else breaks the law and seeks to get ahead or at least preserve one’s own life. Read social media each day. Someone is arrested or convicted for breaking the law, and we are sometimes the one who does so and then we justify our actions and do not seem the harm we cause. Still, we want punishment for others and for those who get caught. How do we integrate love of neighbor for our selective pursuit of justice?

 

The essential question in this passage is: Who is my neighbor? If I turn a blind eye to someone or do not even look at the person, we dismiss that person as my neighbor. Does our unwillingness to see the other person cancel the fact that he or she is still my neighbor? Sometimes we draw an imaginary circle around those for whom we feel responsible – our family, friends, work colleagues. We may care deeply about them, but there are people outside that circle. What about the person who made mistakes, cannot get their lives together, the one whose suffering makes us uncomfortable, or the one who is lonely or needy. The temptation is to believe that our responsibility ends somewhere.

Loving our neighbor has limits. We cannot solve every problem or meet every need because we have limited time, energy, and resources. It does not mean that we have to abandon reasonable boundaries. It does mean that we cannot dismiss another person’s dignity or suffering just because that person is not part of our immediate world. Our neighbor, even if the person is completely different from us – class, race, social status – has dignity that matters. Our neighbor is not just a person with whom I identify. The neighbor may be someone who needs the love of God today. The neighbor is someone we are called to see, to recognize, to approach, and as Jesus says, to love. 

 

Our hearts have an inexhaustible capacity. We can make room for compassion, we can practice generosity, and we can recognize the dignity of those whom the world overlooks. When we learn to notice our neighbor and to see them with the eyes of God, our circle of concern widens, and our love for God becomes visible in the love we give to others. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass 

Monday: (Ephesians 4) Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

 

 

Tuesday: (Ephesians 5) Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the Church, he himself the savior of the Body.

 

Wednesday: (Ephesians 2) You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.

 

Thursday (Ephesians 6) Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.
Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the Devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.

 

Friday (Philippians 1) I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you, praying always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, because of your partnership for the 

Gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it.

 

Saturday (Philippians 1) As long as in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Indeed, I shall continue to rejoice, for I know that this will result in deliverance for me through your prayers and support from the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

 

Gospel:  

Monday: (Luke 13) Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.

 

Tuesday: (Luke 13) Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”

 

Wednesday (Luke 6) Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles.

 

Thursday (Luke 13) Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.

 

Friday (Luke 14) On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?”

 

Saturday (Luke 14) On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.

 

Saints of the Week

 

October 28: Simon and Jude, apostles (first century) were two of the Twelve Disciples called by Jesus, but little is known about them. We think they are Simon the Zealot and Judas, the son of James. Simon was most likely a Zealot sympathizer who would have desired revolution against Rome; Jude is also called Thaddeus and is patron saint of hopeless causes. Both apostles suffered martyrdom. 

 

October 30: Dominic Collins, S.J., priest and martyr (1566-1602), was a Jesuit brother who was martyred in his native Ireland. He became a professional solider in the Catholic armies of Europe after the Desmond Rebellion was put down in 1583. He joined the Jesuits in 1584 at Santiago de Compostela and was sent back to Ireland in 1601 with a Spanish contingent. He was captured, tried for his faith, and sentenced to death.

 

October 31: Alphonsus Rodriguez, S.J. (1532-1617) was widowed at age 31. When his three children died, Alphonsus joined the Jesuits as a lay brother at age 40 after attempting to complete the rigors of study. He was sent to the newly opened college in Majorca where he served as a porter for 46 years. His manner of calling people to sanctification was extraordinary. He served obediently and helped others to focus on their spiritual lives.

 

October 31: All Hallows Eve (evening) owes its origins to a Celtic festival that marked summer's end. The term was first used in 16th century Scotland. Trick or treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling when poor people would go door to door on Hallomas (November 1) receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2.)

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• October 25, 1567. St Stanislaus Kostka arrived in Rome and was admitted into the Society by St Francis Borgia. 
• October 26, 1546. The Province of Portugal was established as the first province in the Society, with Simao Rodriguez as its first provincial superior. 
• October 27, 1610. The initial entrance of the Jesuits into Canada. The mission had been recommended to the Society by Henry IV. 
• October 28, 1958. The death of Wilfrid Parsons, founder of Thought magazine and editor of America from 1925 to 1936. 
• October 29, 1645. In the General Chapter of the Benedictines in Portugal, a statement published by one of their order, that said St Ignatius had borrowed the matter in his Spiritual Exercises from a Benedictine author, was indignantly repudiated. 
• October 30, 1638. On this day, John Milton, the great English poet, dined with the Fathers and students of the English College in Rome. 
• October 31, 1602. At Cork, the martyrdom of Dominic Collins, an Irish brother, who was hanged, drawn, and quartered for his adherence to the faith.