November 3, 2026
Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
or Optional Memorial of Saint Martin de Porres
Gospel: Lk 14:15-24

Today is Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time. The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of Saint Martin de Porres. The recently published Roman Missal tells us: Saint Martin de Porres (1579–1639) was born in Lima, Peru, the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a former slave. He became a Dominican lay brother and was exemplary in his care for the sick, his love for the poor, and his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

Today, the Scripture passage from the Gospel of Luke presents to us the banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven. I would like to take this opportunity to offer some reflections.

We often resemble the person who was dining with Jesus at the house of the Pharisee, thinking that if we have received the Baptism of Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we can be at ease. For we often think that we have already secured victory, and that the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation we have received will safely lead us to the heavenly homeland of which Jesus spoke. Gradually, we become dull to God’s call, sluggish in responding to His invitation to each of us and conformed to the children of this world. Such phenomena are common in the Church: some young people who aspire to religious life, burning with zeal for their vocation and generously dedicating themselves, quickly lose momentum once they enter the seminary, eventually abandoning their vocation halfway and returning to secular life; some priests, who have undergone excellent priestly formation, soon become deficient in prayer during their pastoral ministry, neglecting their relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist, and gradually conform themselves to this world, forgetting the mission and responsibilities they bear. All this stems from frail human nature.

Dear brothers and sisters: Since we have been baptized into Christ, we should follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit and live according to His dispositions, so that we may live under the light of God’s grace, no longer subject to the invasion of all evil thoughts in this world, and worthily fulfill our vocation. After fulfilling our own vocation, we should also help our brothers and sisters who, like us, live in this changing world, so that after discerning their vocation, they too may, through the guidance of the same Spirit, worthily fulfill their mission. Thus, when we end this earthly life, we may be in the Heavenly Jerusalem, together with all creation delivered from sin and death, sing the praises of the Lord forever.

O God, who led Saint Martin de Porres
by the path of humility to heavenly glory,
grant that we may so follow his radiant example in this life
as to merit to be exalted with him 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