Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 9:18-26
Jesus – the ladder of grace

Today, the Word of God speaks to us of salvation and liberation. In the first reading, we listen to the journey of Jacob, during which he rests and dreams of a ladder stretching from earth to heaven (Gen 28:10–22). It is not a tower built by human pride like Babel, but a ladder from which God descends. This is the heart of the mystery: we do not climb up to God by our own strength — it is God who comes down to meet us, in Jesus, the ladder between heaven and earth.

This ladder is grace. It is God’s loving initiative, fulfilled in the incarnation. Christ is Emmanuel, “God-with-us,” who brings heaven close to us and walks with us in mercy.

Faced with this revelation, Jacob responds with faith: “The Lord shall be my God” (Gen 28:21). His prayer becomes trust. We echoed this today: “O my God, I trust in you.” Trust is born in moments of weakness, when the false securities of the world fall away, and we discover that only God saves.

In the Gospel (Mt 9:18–26), we meet two people who understand this: a synagogue official begging for his daughter’s life, and a woman suffering for years. Both are poor in spirit. Both approach Jesus with faith. And Jesus responds not with judgment, but with liberation. He lifts them up.
Jesus teaches us to put the “least” first — the sick, the outcast, the forgotten. These are the ones closest to his heart. We are called to be like the angels on Jacob’s ladder, helping others climb, lifting the poor, the broken, the weary.
Let us not walk past them. Let us be the hands that carry them toward the light. For only in lifting others do we ourselves rise toward heaven.
Amen.

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Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica 2025