July 31, 2026
Saint Ignatius of Loyola (Memorial)
Gospel: Matthew 13:54-58

Today is Friday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time. Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The recently published Missal tells us: Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) was born into a noble family at Loyola. He was wounded at the battle of Pamplona (1521) and experienced a conversion during his convalescence. He went on to write the Spiritual Exercises, studied theology at Paris, and, with his companions, founded the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits have had a huge impact on the reform of the Church, the education of the young, and the preaching of the Gospel to every corner of the world.

Today’s passage from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew presents us with the narrative of Jesus being rejected in the synagogue of His hometown.

We all know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. When Saint Joseph brought Him back from Egypt, He lived in Nazareth until the day of His public appearance (cf. Luke 2:51). The Jews in Nazareth were very familiar with Jesus and His family. Since Nazareth was a very remote place, the Jews there received the education of the rabbis. The world of God taught by those rabbis was one of a God of clear reward and punishment: He only favored those who offered sacrifice to Him and punished anyone who did not. When they heard Jesus’ teaching, they were astonished, but because they knew Jesus’ background, they began to shame Him because of His origins.

Often we are like those in the synagogue of Jesus’ hometown who listened to His teaching, judging the brothers and sisters who proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom to us based on our own human understanding. In our eyes, those brothers and sisters who proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom are, like us, created by God in His own image, and have no extraordinary qualities. We might even think that some of them are less knowledgeable than we are, and therefore we question in our hearts everything they proclaim to us. Like those in today’s Gospel who took offense at Him (cf. Matthew 13:57), we reject all that they proclaim to us and continue to live according to our own will.

However, the compassionate Father has fully revealed Himself to us through His beloved Son. For “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed Him” (John 1:18). He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, upholding all things by His powerful word (Hebrews 1:3). In the fullness of His grace, through the Baptism we have received—washed once and for all in the blood and water flowing from His sacred side—we have been cleansed of original sin and united to Him, and through His glorious Resurrection, we have begun a new life in Him. After He was taken up into heaven, He sent His Holy Spirit to His pilgrim Church, so that together with all the brothers and sisters who have received the Baptism of Christ, died with Christ, and begun a new life in Him, we may receive the Holy Spirit who proceeds from Him and the Father. Through the Holy Spirit we have received, we share in the communion of saints, together with the heavenly saints, partaking in His eternal divine life.

O God, who raised up Saint Ignatius of Loyola in your Church
to further the greater glory of your name,
grant that by his help we may imitate him
in fighting the good fight on earth
and merit to receive with him a crown in heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica