October 26, 2026 Monday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel: Lk 13:10-17
Today is Monday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time. The passage from the Holy Gospel of Luke presents the narrative of Jesus healing a woman who had been afflicted by a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Let us try to understand.
We often encounter in hospitals and in family life those who suffer from illness, rushing from place to place and enduring the pain brought by their diseases. Like the woman in the Gospel who had been afflicted for eighteen years (cf. Lk 13:10-11), they urgently need healing and long for consolation, yet few comfort them or provide the necessary help within their means. Some even think that they suffer such torment because they have done something wrong and thus brought this calamity upon themselves. Fearing that they might be implicated if they help them, they choose to distance themselves and no longer associate with them.
In fact, before we came to know God, we were like this woman. Because of the disobedience of our first parents, we lived under the power of the devil—the source of all evil—and were bound by him. Even though we receive in this world the light of the sun that illuminates the heavens, the earth, and all that is under the earth, we still lived in the darkness brought by sin. Our souls thus contracted a deadly disease and urgently needed God’s healing. God, who is rich in mercy, just as Christ did for that woman today, invites us to come to Him when we face afflictions. He desires that through receiving the Baptism of Christ, we may die with Christ, that is, to nail the old self subject to death “to the cross with Christ, so that the sinful self may perish, and we may no longer be slaves to sin” (cf. Rom 8:6-7), freeing us from the bonds of sin and restoring us to the freedom of the children of God. He further desires that we receive the Holy Spirit, consubstantial with the Father and the Son, “and by His leading, put to death the deeds of the flesh” (cf. Rom 8:13), so that we may live in His infinite love and become His children, and so that we may be co-heirs with Christ, thereby sharing in the eternal divine life of Christ.
Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise. 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
October 25, 2026 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel: Mt 22:34-40
Today is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The passage from the Holy Gospel of Matthew presents a dialogue between a certain lawyer and Jesus. In this dialogue, Jesus teaches us the commandment of love. Let us try to understand.
We often act like the well-trained lawyer in the Gospel (cf. Mt 22:34-36), who often wants to test others according to our own will, so that because they cannot answer our questions, we appear to have profound knowledge. Because in our eyes, we seem to know more than others. Therefore, when we ask questions, we often exhaust our understanding of worldly things, intending to exhaust others, so that because of the exhaustion of their thoughts, our vanity can be satisfied. Because in our view, we only need to keep one of the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses in ancient times (cf. Ex 20:1-17), and we consider ourselves to be keeping the Law, thus we often overlook the infinite mercy that God reveals through the Law He established for humanity. In fact, “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law who will be declared righteous.” (cf. Rom 2:12-13) This means: those “apart from the law” refer to the Gentiles who do not know Moses; those “under the law” refer to the Jews who received the Law of Moses, that is, the lawyer talking with Jesus today. This well-trained lawyer intended to test Jesus according to his own understanding of the Law, yet he himself did not practice the Law of Moses in his life. Thus, his end would be eternal perdition.
From Jesus’ response to this lawyer, we can see: Jesus did not change the Law, nor did He diminish it; on the contrary, He fulfilled it. Because the general principle of the Law that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai is to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. (cf. Mt 22:37,39) The reason we love God is because He loves us; He did not spare His Son, but let His only Son offer Himself as a sin offering for us. The reason we must love ourselves is because we are created in God’s image and likeness. (cf. Gen 1:26) The reason we must love our neighbor is because God has entrusted them to our care. We must not only care for them, but also actively seek them out, and through our concrete lives and actions, manifest God’s holy love and gracious face to them.
Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise. 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
October 24, 2026 Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time or Optional Memorial of Saint Anthony Mary Claret Gospel: Luke 13:1-9
Today is Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time. The Church today celebrates the optional memorial of Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop. The recently published Roman Missal tells us: Saint Anthony Mary Claret (1807–1870) was born near Barcelona, Spain. In 1849, he founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Claretians) and was appointed Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. He worked tirelessly to spread the Gospel and strove to improve the living conditions of slaves. Anti-clerical sentiment at the time was so severe that he survived no less than fifteen attempts on his life. In 1857, he returned to Spain and served as confessor to Queen Isabella II.
Today, the passage from the Gospel of Saint Luke presents us with a parable Jesus told His disciples on His journey to Jerusalem—a parable about a fig tree, the owner of the orchard, and the gardener. Let’s try to understand.
We often experience hardship in life—illness, the death of loved ones, setbacks in our careers. Whenever we encounter these things, it is easy to judge according to our own private opinions: those who suffer must have committed grave sins, and so God punished them. But Saint Paul tells us: sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and thus death came to all, because all have sinned (cf. Rom 5:12-14). Yet God, rich in mercy, sent Christ into the world, “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, he made him to be sin who did not know sin” (2 Cor 5:21). The infinitely merciful Christ poured out His precious blood on the Cross, pleading for those who hurt Him: “Father, forgive them!” (Luke 23:34). Therefore, whenever we experience some suffering in life, we should thank God for the pain we endure—for it is through suffering that we more deeply experience Christ’s love, so that our thoughts, words, and deeds may become ever more like His.
Some told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Jesus answered: “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! And if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” (Luke 13:1-5). We might be filled with righteous indignation, hoping that Jesus would condemn Pilate. But Jesus teaches us a different worldview: God is love, and He loves everyone—including those who hurt Him. Pope Leo XIV said: “God’s love is infinite. It does not come with a discount, because He loved us first!” Saint Paul also says: “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3-4).
In the parable Jesus tells today, we see for three years the owner found no fruit on the fig tree and wanted to cut it down; the gardener begged to let it remain one more year, to dig around it and fertilize it (Luke 13:6-9). The Father is the owner; Jesus is the gardener. The fig tree represents us—if we do not bear fruit of righteousness, we shall be cut down. Jesus desires that we be united to Him through Baptism, for He is the true vine; if we abide in Him, we shall bear much fruit (John 15:5). When we become like Him, we will no longer focus only on ourselves, but on the marginalized and the vulnerable in society, willingly serving them and defending their rights. Whenever we do this, we are bearing fruit worthy of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22-23). For only in this way can we remain in God’s vineyard, be with Jesus at every moment, and become His missionary disciples of love.
O God, who for the evangelization of peoples strengthened the Bishop Saint Anthony Mary Claret with admirable charity and long-suffering, grant, through his intercession, that, seeking the things that are yours, we may earnestly devote ourselves to winning our brothers and sisters for Christ. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
您必须登录才能发表评论。