Thirtieth Sunday Homily in Ordinary Time Year A

1st Reading – Exodus 22:20-26

Thus says the LORD:
²⁰ “You shall not harass the newcomer, nor shall you afflict him. For you yourselves were once newcomers in the land of Egypt.

²¹ You shall not harm a widow or an orphan.

²² If you hurt them, they will cry out to me, and I will hear their cry.

²³ And my fury will be enraged, and I will strike you down with the sword. And your wives will become widows, and your sons will become orphans.

²⁴ If you lend money to the poor of my people who live among you, you shall not coerce them like a collector, nor oppress them with usury.

²⁵ If you take a garment from your neighbor as a pledge, you shall return it to him again before the setting of the sun.

²⁶ For it is all that he has to cover himself, to clothe his body; nor does he have anything else in which to sleep. If he cries out to me, I will hear him, because I am compassionate.

Responsorial Psalm – Psalms 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51

R. (2) I love you, Lord, my strength.

² I love you, O LORD, my strength,
^3AB O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.

^3CD My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
⁴ Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.

⁴⁷ The LORD lives and blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
⁵¹ You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.

2nd Reading – 1 Thessalonians 1:5C-10

Brothers and sisters:
^5C You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.

⁶ And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit,

⁷ so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

⁸ 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.

⁹ 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

¹⁰ and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.

Alleluia – John 14:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
²³ Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord,
and my Father will love him and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel – Matthew 22:34-40

³⁴ When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,

³⁵ and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking,

³⁶ “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

³⁷ He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

³⁸ This is the greatest and the first commandment.

³⁹ The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

⁴⁰ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”