Gospel of the day

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Book of Exodus 22,20-26.
Thus says the LORD: "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 ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
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.
If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset;
for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."


Psalms 18(17),2-3a.3bc-4.47.51a-51b.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.

My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.

The LORD lives! And blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed;

to David and his posterity forever


First Letter to the Thessalonians 1,5c-10.
For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the holy Spirit and with much conviction. You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the holy Spirit,
so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth not only in Macedonia and (in) Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.
For they themselves openly declare about us what sort of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God
and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from (the) dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.


Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 22,34-40.
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,
and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He 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."

In harmony, love assigns to all things their proper measure... For true love—wholly divine—there exists a good far more precious and desirable than anything else. It draws all who seek it, gathering them around itself. In its justice, it values ​​the merits of heavenly desires and spiritual yearnings—divinely inspired—just as highly as the deeds of one who strengthens himself in the love of God. This is evident to those who love God with a perfect love: "I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind, to give to each according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." (Jeremiah 17:10)

True lovers of God must seek no one but Him under false pretenses. They reject any prompting of their own concupiscence that would draw them toward another object. Alas, all too often, man seeks and carries out his own will, as demonstrated by the temptation of Adam. Yet, he cannot serve both God and the devil, for the devil hates what God loves, and vice versa. So it is with man: the flesh delights in sin while the soul thirsts for righteousness; hence the violent struggle between them. Man’s strength is exhausted in this combat, for the servant is compelled to serve his master. Either the flesh subdues the soul for sin, or the soul subjugates the flesh and accomplishes what is good.

When man follows the desire of his soul out of love for God, he renounces himself and lives as a stranger on this earth. (...) Once he has turned toward the good and his wounds have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, the angelic hosts, beholding this healing, sing the praises of the wondrous God. Let the man who fears God, who loves Him, set his heart to heed these words!

    dailygospel.org