Pope Leo Ties the Greatest Commandment to Love of Neighbor

On 25 October 2026, Pope Leo XIV led the Sunday Angelus in St. Peter's Square. His subject was the Gospel reading from Matthew 22:34-40. In that passage a teacher of the Law tests Jesus (YHWShA) by asking which commandment ranks highest.

The Pope noted that the answer comes from Deuteronomy 6:5, as OSV News records. He said YHWShA puts love at the center of the bond with God (Alohim). Believing that Alohim exists, is one, and is all-powerful falls short of what is asked. In the Pope's words, Alohim wants a personal relationship. Love cannot be forced, he said, so the command names a human longing that is met in communion. Human love is real when it answers a love that comes first. That is why the commandment asks for heart, soul and mind together.

The Pope then turned to the second commandment, love of neighbor. He said it comes from the same source as the first. Close ties with Alohim let a person see self and others as Christ sees them. Selfishness gives way, and a life becomes a gift. He quoted Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who wrote that "Love alone" moves the Church's members, per OSV News. Without love, he warned, faith loses its core and good deeds shrink to moralism.

The two outlets agree on the substance, and their quotations match. They differ in scope. Vatican News gives a summary with subheadings. OSV News prints the whole address, including remarks after the prayer. Those remarks cover the humanitarian situation in Taiz, Yemen, and a terrorist attack on an Orthodox church in Hamoud, Jordan. They also mention a gathering in Assisi on 27 October for the 40th anniversary of a meeting called by John Paul II. The Vatican News text supplied here leaves these out. The outlets also show different times, 12:05 and 11:03 AM, and neither explains the gap.

For readers of the biblical text, the value is modest but real. The Gospel scene is a dispute over how the commandments rank, and the answer rests on a line from Deuteronomy. The Pope's reading is pastoral and devotional. He stresses a relational sense of the command and the whole person it addresses. The sources give no historical or Second Temple context for the scene, so this brief offers none. It records how a major church voice reads these verses today, and how it links the Deuteronomy line to love of neighbor.

Compiled from the reports below. Read the originals.