The 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 12, 2025

Luke 17, 11-19

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

This miracle is told us only by St. Luke.  We ought to pause and think of how much the four Gospels differ just in terms of content.  Luke, for instance, relates to us so many parables we do not have from the other three Evangelists.  And yet, all four paint the same portrait of the Lord.  This points to the authenticity of their witness.

In the account used for the Gospel in today’s Mass, there is nothing the Lord says or does in it that conflicts with anything we could find in the other Gospels, despite the fact that only Luke presents it to us.  The account begins with Luke reminding us that the Lord is still working his way through Galilee and Samaria — about a third of his Gospel tells us of the events and preaching on this journey.  “As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.”  We are not told if the Lord was entering a Samaritan town where he could at least obtain food if not shelter, or if he is still in Galilee.  The ten lepers approach him as he is preparing to enter the gates of the town.  They cannot go in because of their disease and must reach Jesus before he disappears.  That Luke mentions that there are ten of them may be more than telling a fact.  The number ten was a perfect number for the ancient people as it is the sum of its parts: 1+2+3+4=10.  This number signified wholeness, as though the ten lepers signified the world, or, all in the world unclean through sin.

“They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice.”  The ten lepers recognized the Lord either through a previous encounter or through someone in the crowd telling them that Jesus was coming.  They had heard of him, and maybe had heard him preach.  They knew of his power, which tells us of how widespread through Israel his reputation for healing had gotten: even the lepers had known of this in their dismal camps far outside conversation with the local inhabitants.  All the same, they would never have found Jesus if he had not gone to the town looking for them.  This is true for us as well.  “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” They do not specify in their prayer what they want from him, but will be happy no matter what he does do for them.  “And when he saw them.”  The Son of God had seen them from all eternity: their childhoods, their youth, perhaps their marriages and becoming fathers; he saw their joyous times before the leprosy struck them and caused them to lose it all, and to suffer from hunger, shame, pain, loneliness, and the everyday misery of a serious, chronic disease.  

“Go show yourselves to the priests.”  Jesus does not cure them immediately but tests their faith in order to strengthen it.  They have called him “Master”, so let them obey him at once if they believe him to be their Lord.  “As they were going they were cleansed.”  It is as they were obeying him that they are healed.  If we hope to be forgiven our sins or to be healed from some malady, we must be in a state of obedience to the Lord.  He will not forgive us if we intend to sin again for we would not be receptive of his grace.  “And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice.”  How seldom we hear in the Gospels that anyone gives thanks to God for the miraculous healing they have received.  So often do we celebrate some good turn in our health or welfare and forget the One who did this for us as a sign of his love for us.  This man shows us how we should feel: “He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.”  Luke then points out, “This man was a Samaritan.”  All ten might have been Samaritans as far as we know, but we only know of this man.  Luke identifies him as such because of the lesson Jesus will teach through him.  “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?”  Jesus announces to the Apostles that he had cured these ten after they had gone out of their sight, and then makes it clear that he expected all of them to return to give thanks.  “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”  The word translated here as “foreigner” does indeed have the sense of a person from another nation.  If this cure is taking place in Galilee then we can see the Samaritan as an alien because of his country of origin.  But if this is taking place in Samaria, then the Lord is speaking of him as a “foreigner”  in terms of his religion.  In both cases, it is unusual for the Samaritan to come back to give thanks to the Jewish Messiah.  His gratitude is most sincere.

“Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”  The Lord attributes faith to the Samaritan.  This is astonishing especially if the others who were healed were Jews.  The ones who should have known to be thankful, were not.  This signifies how the Gentiles would receive the Faith while the Jews, for the most part, would not.  And the fact that one out of the ten returned shows that while all in the world are redeemed by the Cross of Christ, not all will be saved.  Only those with faith will live.  Jesus tells the man with faith to stand up, as he will call the Blessed to rise from their graves on the Last Day; he will tell them that their faith has saved them; and he will tell them to “go”, that is, free from sin and filled with grace, into heaven.

Saturday in the 27th Week Of Ordinary Time, October 11, 2025

Luke 11, 27-28

While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

The wedding ceremony went well.  My sister’s daughter shone with her beauty (which, as I informed my sister, comes from my side of the family) and the groom was handsome.   

The woman who “raised her voice” as the Greek says, is filled with excitement, even elation, at the words Jesus says but still more at his very Person.  She does not cry out in praise of his words, but in praise of him.  Or, it is more than praise.  She may feel love for the first time in her life and expresses her rapture in her blessing of his Mother.  She sees the Mother in the Son and blesses her to bless him.  While she uses a figure of speech to honor Jesus, she also does bless the Virgin Mary.  In this, we begin to see how Mary’s words, “All generations will call me blessed” begin to be fulfilled.  The Lord accepts the woman’s words for himself and his Mother and reveals their full meaning.  The Greek text has: “Indeed, blessed those who hear the word of God and keep it.”  The word translated as “rather” in the lectionary has the primary meaning of “indeed” and “truly”, strengthening the statement it precedes.  Here, the Lord identifies his Mother as blessed in her obedience to God’s will in hearing him, and in her continuous obedience to God’s law and his call throughout her life.  Speaking in this way, he calls this anonymous woman herself to share in this blessedness through her own obedience to God.  Those who place themselves at God’s disposal in this way will hear Jesus say, on the last day: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, 34).

Friday in the 27th Week Of Ordinary Time, October 10, 2025

Luke 11, 15-26

When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said:“ By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons. If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.  When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that man is worse than the first.”

The Holy Scriptures give us a sense of the demons and their power through several vivid pictures.  “Who can strip off his outer garment? Who can penetrate his double coat of mail? Who can open the doors of his face? 

Round about his teeth is terror. His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated. His snorts flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him. The folds of his flesh cleave together, firmly cast upon him and immovable. His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the nether millstone” (Job 41:13–24).  These words specifically describe the biblical sea monster the Leviathan, which is identified by the Fathers as signifying the devil.  Demons, in fact, possess greater power than the Leviathan is said to have here, and are far more dangerous.  When we read about the Lord exorcising demons, we should keep descriptions such as this in mind.  He engages in combat these against demons and drives them out with a command.  The visible power he exercises over demons dramatically signals for us his omnipotence.  The fact that any human can withstand the devil’s temptations and power shows us the armor that God’s grace provides us, as well as the strength of our guardian angels.  We ought to pray regularly to be delivered from temptation before we are ever tempted so that we may always be ready to fight, if we can, or run, if we cannot.  

Thursday in the 27th Week in Ordinary Time, October 9, 2025

Luke 11, 5-13

Jesus said to his disciples: “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

When the Lord Jesus speaks to us about the need to persevere in prayer in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, it may seem that even he is telling us to stay on the line and our prayer will be answered in the order it was received.  That would be a misapprehension, however.  Almighty God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and he loves us with a love beyond all telling, as we are reminded whenever we look upon a crucifix.  He is more willing to grant us what we need than we are to receive it.  So why does the Lord tell us to persevere?  And he does.  His meaning could not be made more plain: “I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.”  The Lord teaches us to persevere and to pray continually not because he needs to know our desperation, but in order to submit ourselves to his Providence.  Unlike some human in a customer service or government office, the Lord does not serve us when he is good and ready: he serves us when we are good and ready.  He gives us that which will assist us here and which will will us to life hereafter in the way and at the time that is best suited for us.  Indeed, the main object of our prayers ought to be for our salvation and for that of members of our families and of our friends.  We ought to pray throughout our lives for this and for the conversion of the world.  We should pray for good health and all that makes for a stable life, too.  We may pray for loved ones who have gotten into trouble, through their own fault or otherwise, though any of the people we pray for possess free will and can resist or reject the graces God offers them.  Perseverance is necessary in our prayers for them as well so that God may persevere, as it were, in offering these graces.  

The story of St. Monica’s prayers for the conversion of her stubborn son Augustine is well-known to us, but very many of us can also cite instances in our own experience of some wayward soul returning to sanity and the Faith after years of wandering aimlessly.  The history of the Church abounds with accounts of wastrels like Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone becoming great saints: in this case, St. Francis of Assisi.  While Francis himself had to respond to the grace God offered, the fact that it was offered is the sign of the effect of the prayers offered by men and women religious in their monasteries, poor widows, suffering martyrs, and ordinary Christians living out their lives in accord with God’s will for them.  Those who won for Francis these offered graces probably never knew of him.  And yet, praying constantly for the conversion of sinners, they assisted Francis in changing his life.

Wednesday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 8, 2025

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”

“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”  It is a sign of just how distinct the Lord Jesus was as a teacher with a considerable following that, up until his final journey to Jerusalem, he had not taught his disciples to pray in a particular way.  Various leaders among the Pharisees taught their disciples particular prayers to say, and we see here that John the Baptist also had done this.  Jesus seems to wait for the Apostles to ask him to teach them.  That is, they must pray to him to teach them.  That is not to say that the Apostles were not praying previously.  The Lord would have led them in the Psalms and in various other prayers and blessings.  For instance, they would have chanted the Psalms of the Ascent Psalms 120-134) on the road to Jerusalem for the great festivals.  It may be that the Lord waited for them to ask him to teach them to pray because he wanted them to grow in their understanding of their need for this.  The Lord does this with us too.  He knows what we need before we do and many times he gives it to us before we can ask, but he wants us to grow in our faith and love and our understanding of our utter dependence on him.  Our parents carry us when we are very young, but they do not walk for us forever.  They wait for us to gain the strength to walk and then start encouraging us to walk rather than listen to our demands to be carried.

“Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come.”  St. Matthew sets his account of the Lord teaching his disciples to pray into the collection of teachings known as the Sermon on the Mount, as his concern is not so much chronology as grouping teachings and miracles together.  St. Luke places his account in its proper time.  It is the same prayer, but as we have it from each of the two Evangelists, it is translated from the original Hebrew or Aramaic in which the Lord taught it into Greek.  Remarkably, the translations differ only in a few details.  The prayer Jesus teaches begins with the invocation of God the Father and a prayer for the glorification of his name.  The Greek should be translated as “Let your name be sanctified.”  The verb is in the imperative, but it is also passive, so it cannot be translated as “Sanctify your name”.  That is, we who are praying do not call upon the Lord to sanctify his name, but to let it be sanctified.  Who could or would sanctify it if not God?  That is for us to do: Let your name be sanctified by us, that is, by our holiness, which is your gift.  

“Your kingdom come.”  That is, “Let your kingdom come”.  Again, the passive imperative.  The implication is that God’s kingdom is coming and we desire it.  We ask that its coming not be delayed.  With the earliest Christians, we cry out, “Amen, Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22, 20).  Essentially, this is the main subject of the prayer, as the other petitions beseech God to make us ready for the coming of the kingdom.  

“Give us each day our daily bread.”  The Greek: “Give us this day the bread necessary for us.”  This is different from the translation we have in the Greek version, in which the bread is called “super-substantial”, or bread sufficient for today and also for tomorrow.  This Bread strengthens us for the coming of the kingdom.

“Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.”  This too prepares us for the kingdom.  If we do not forgive others, we ourselves will not be forgiven.

“Do not subject us to the final test.”  The Greek: “Do not lead us to the testing”, “trial” or “temptation”:  as the Lord Jesus tells us of the years leading to the great judgment: “There will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if [the number of] those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved” (Matthew 24, 21-22).  A ferocious persecution will arise against the Church in those days and many Christians, including bishops and priests, will flee from Christ.  None of us can be certain that our faith will survive this trial.  Sanctifying God’s name with our personal holiness, praying earnestly, receiving the Body of Christ, frequenting Confession, and forgiving those who have sinned against us will aid us in whatever trial that comes to us.

Tuesday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 7, 2025

Luke 10:38-42

Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

The opening lines of the Gospel reading for today’s Mass would be more accurately translated: “Now it came to pass, as they traveled, that he entered into a certain village, and a woman named Martha received him as a guest.  And there was also a sister named Mary, who was also sitting beside at the feet of the Lord, hearing his word.”  The differences between this and the text as translated above are subtle, but because this is the Word of the Lord, every detail is important.  We will pay as close attention to the written text as Mary paid attention to what she heard the Lord say with his mouth.  First, Jesus was traveling at the time he stopped at this house.  He may have been on his way to Jerusalem and he paused at this village to preach or to draw water from the village well for himself and his Apostles.  The village itself was not his primary or even secondary destination.  And yet he did not treat it with contempt as another traveler with a long road ahead might have done, for it is not significant except for its location.  Luke does not even tell us its name.  (Traditionally, though, it is thought that this was Bethany, where Lazarus, Martha, and Mary lived).  But Jesus treats the place and its inhabitants as though he had come all the way from Capernaum just to visit it.  A woman named Martha received him as a guest.  That is, she did not “welcome” him as though she had known him previously.  Furthermore, to welcome him as a guest meant that she performed or had performed for him certain services, such as anointing his head and washing his feet.  We ought to note that this would be the job of the male member of the household, whether a husband or a brother, but Luke tells us of only Martha and Mary.  Luke also does not mention the Lord’s disciples.  For Mary to have hosted the Lord as well as his Apostles, she would have needed to live in a house bigger than was customary in a “village”, and she would have needed substantial stores of food.  Perhaps receiving these guests required her to run about the village, purchasing a goat or a calf as well as bread or at least flour.

Luke tells us besides that “there was also a sister named Mary, who was also sitting beside at the feet of the Lord, hearing his word.”  Mary must have been not only younger than her sister but also not old enough to be married since this seems to be Martha’s house — if Mary were old enough to be married, she would be living in her husband’s house. It is apparent that the two women did live together and that Mary was not simply visiting because of how Luke constructs his sentence: he uses the imperfect form of the verb to-be, signifying a continuous action in the past.  If Mary were merely visiting, Luke would most likely have used the aorist tense.  The sense in Luke is something like, “There also was being there a sister named Mary”.  Now, this young, unmarried woman was not sitting beside Jesus as though the two shared a couch: Luke tells us that she sat alongside the Lord “at his feet”.  This indicates something more than a lack of furniture: Mary was adopting the position of a disciple and, even more than that, that of a handmaid, who would sit in close proximity to her master, in a position to hear his ever word and watch the gestures of his hands.  In a word, she was poised to serve even at a cue given by the wave of a hand.  Now, she was “hearing” his word.  The Greek could also be rendered as “comprehending through listening”, which is to say, learning.  She was actively engaged in learning about the Lord Jesus and the kingdom of heaven.

“Martha, burdened with much serving at table, came to him”.  This might be more literally translated as, “Martha was greatly troubled with much serving at table.”  Martha was overwhelmed with all the tasks necessary for providing hospitality for these men.  Even with servants, if there were any, preparing a meal for thirteen or so men plus herself and her sister, would have made enormous work.  We might wonder that Martha invited him into her house in the first place, knowing how much labor would be involved.  We might see here how the Lord affected people — not by his preaching alone, but by his personality.  To see him and to hear his voice caused people to leave everything to follow him, or to otherwise completely change their lives, as in the case of the tax collector Zacchaeus.  Martha perhaps invited the Lord and his disciples to her house out of the joy he gave to her heart, and in her excitement, she overextended herself.  Luke tells us that she was “greatly troubled” by the workload, not that she was very inconvenienced.  She must have wondered how she would carry this through.  She had the reasonable expectation that her younger sister would help her.  As it was Martha’s house, and Mary was living with her, and no mention is made of their parents, we can assume that their parents are dead.  Martha would have acted in place of Mary’s mother.  We could also assume that the two sisters lived poorly, without husbands or regular income, unless it came through using the house as an inn for travelers.  At any rate, the clues Luke provides lead us to think that these were not wealthy women with abundant servants to help them.

“Came to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do serving?’ ”  The Greek says, “Standing, she said, ‘Lord, does it not matter to you that my sister abandoned me to serve alone?’ ”  We can hear the despondency in Martha’s voice and we feel for her.  She also asks a good question.  Why should Martha have to do all the work by herself?  However, we can also ask, Why did Martha invite Jesus and his disciples to her home when, even with her sister’s help, providing the necessary hospitality would have proven difficult?  But Jesus looks tenderly at Martha and addresses the question within her question: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.”  We can hear the depths of his love and compassion for this woman in the repetition of her name, something we know him to do only two other times: when he weeps over Jerusalem (Matthew 22, 37), and when he tells Simon Peter at the Last Supper that Satan has sought to sift him like wheat (Luke 22, 31).  “There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”  Actually, the Greek has it that Mary has chosen “the good portion”, not merely the “better”.  The word  rendered here as “good” does not mean useful or attractive, but “good” in the moral sense.  We can understand “portion” too as “portion of service”, for that it is what Jesus means.  Mary is serving the Lord by listening attentively in the ready position of a handmaid, while Martha labors at providing dinner.  As generous as Martha may be, the service Mary provides far surpasses Martha’s service.  We may recall here the words Jesus quotes the devil in the wilderness: “Man does not live by bread alone but be every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4, 4, from Deuteronomy 8, 3).  With this, Jesus upends the Ancient Near Eastern understanding of hospitality towards guests.  In fact, we can see Jesus as the real servant here, teaching Mary and the others in the house the word of God.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, whose feast we celebrate today, incorporated both the busy, physical, behind-the-scenes service of Martha and the rapt contemplation of her sister Mary. Let us, in our daily service to God, imitate her so that we may pray as we work and work as we pray.

Monday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 6, 2025

Luke 10, 25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The Lord Jesus speaks in this parable of “a Samaritan traveler who came upon [the wounded Jew] was moved with compassion at the sight.”  Now, probably the Samaritan knew this man was a Jew, since the road lay in land between Jericho and Jerusalem, that is, in Jewish territory, although not far from that of Samaria.  Yet Jesus expressly tells us that this Samaritan “was moved with compassion” at the sight of this wounded and perhaps dead Jewish man.  Luke uses Greek verb here to tell us how Jesus felt when he saw the widow whose son had died, and whom he would raise (Luke 7, 13).  The Lord then touched the bier on which the dead man was being carried out of the city to his grave, causing those who were carrying it to stop in their tracks.  With the words, “Young man, I say to you, Arise,” the man sat up and began to speak.  Luke concludes this account with the words, “And he gave him to his mother.”  Something similar happens in the parable.  The Samaritan is so moved to compassion that he does not fear to touch even death, but does so and finds the man still alive.  Hurrying, the Samaritan unburden his beast of whatever merchandise or goods it was carrying and put the man on it, which must have taken a good deal of work to do this by himself.  Then, cleaning his wounds and binding them up, he left his goods behind, possibly hiding them in nearby caves, and took him to an “inn”.  This inn would have been something like a bunkhouse, or a cabin with several beds or simply straw mattresses on the floor.  Privacy would have occurred only if there were no other occupants to the place.  The Samaritan left the (Jewish) innkeeper with instructions to care for the wounded man, with promises of further payment if that was necessary.  And just as Jesus gave the son back to his mother, the Samaritan gives the wounded Jew back to his compatriot, the innkeeper, who must have been as astounded in the story as the “scholar of the law” was to hear this.  Here, the outsider teaches mercy.  Jesus teaches it to the crowd, and the Samaritan teaches it to the innkeeper as well as to the wounded man, who seems unconscious throughout the story.  Of course, Jesus raising the dead man is a sign for how he will touch death and destroy it by entering into it, out of compassion for us travelers wounded nearly to death by sin.

The Samaritan in the parable did not need to save the Jew, but he did not let the Jewish man’s animosity for his people stop him from acting on the compassion he felt.  He loved the man anyway, at some risk and at some cost.  So we should “Go and do likewise”, showing the compassion of Jesus to those around us.

The 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 6, 2025

Luke 17, 5–10

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished’? Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’ ”

“Increase our faith.”  The Greek here really means, “Add to our faith”, as though we possessed a certain quantity of faith and we want more of it added to our store.  “Increase” our faith means to grow what is already present.  The Christian needs to pray for both addition and increase.  Addition, in terms of learning and understanding more of what the Lord teaches us through his Church.  We can read books on doctrine or on the Scriptures, we can ask questions of our priests, and we can go to classes and talks offered by our parishes.  Increase, in terms of our strength in believing and our perseverance in our faith.  St. Luke translates the .Aramaic in which the Apostles made this request using the aorist tense of the imperative mood, which tells us they were asking for a one-time and not continuous addition to their faith.  

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”  The Lord corrects their short-sighted prayer by using the continuous present active tense: If you are having faith the size of a mustard seed.  Faith must abide.  The Apostles should ask for the Lord to continuously increase their faith and add to their understanding.  “Mulberry tree”.  The tree in question is actually a sycamore tree, a very large shade tree.  The moving of a sycamore tree to the sea indicates accomplishing a deed which would seem impossible.  Thus, if the Apostles had this amount of faith, which indeed sounds like a minute amount, they would be able to believe in the Holy Trinity and that the Lord became incarnate in Mary’s virginal womb.  Further, they would be able to enter a synagogue in some faraway land and convert the Jews in it to Christ.

“Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?”  The Parable of the Useless servant is found only in Luke.  It comes across as a little strange because of where it is placed within his Gospel and also because of its moral.  But we can see that it is connected to the Lord’s response on faith involving the sycamore tree in that faith will also turn the Apostles in the Lord’s good servants, willing to die for him.  Now, the master who comes in from a hard day’s work in the fields is no more likely to tell his servant to seat himself so that he, the master, can wait on him than a sycamore tree is to move itself to the sea.  The servant — household slave — is naturally supposed to wait on the master.  “Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?”  One would be grateful to a family member or friend who served him out of the goodness in their hearts, but not to a slave whom he owned.  “When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’ ”  This is our position in relation to the Lord: we are in reality his slaves, his creations, and to do his will is in our best interest.  He owes us nothing but we owe him everything.  He does not need us, but we are in every way dependent upon him.  We should be glad that he gives us any work to do so that by doing it well we can show our appreciation for all he does for us.  In the end, though, if all we do is to obey his commands, we have not done much.  We should not need to wait for our Lord to tell us to bring him food, for instance, but to anticipate his commands.  We should also do what he commands us with love.  Consider the server in a restaurant who does no more than hand out menus and take orders.  That is the bare minimum required by the job, but the server who acts like he or she is glad to see the customer, makes suggestions, offers to banter, refills glasses before being asked, and does whatever possible to make the customer’s meal enjoyable, that is the one to be commended, and who will be rewarded.

Let us serve gladly our Lord, who teaches us how to serve by the example of his life, death, and resurrection, spent in eagerness for our salvation.

Saturday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, October 4, 2025

Luke 10, 17-24

The seventy-two disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.” Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”  At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” 

The seventy-two disciples had been sent out in pairs to various villages and towns.  Some planning must have gone into this enterprise so that a village or town was not neglected because another one had been visited twice.  The disciples had gone out to the towns as though fugitives from a sacked city,  with nothing beyond the clothes they wore.  But rather than returning to the Lord Jesus exhausted and dispirited, they arrive excited and joyful.  Many miracles and exorcisms had occurred through their hands: “Lord, even the demons are subject to us.”  The fearsome, snarling, sneering demons who had taken up residence within a person as though in a nest, were subject to these followers of Jesus who, up until a very short time before, had little to recommend them.  But they know their own mortality and that they had not accomplished these deeds on their own.  In fact, no one knows better than the miracle worker that it is the Lord who actually heals.  The healer feels no power running through him and may not even be aware that the person for whom he is praying has recovered.  There are no flashes or thunders, there is no music to announce the fact of the completed healing or successful exorcism.  It is clearly God, and him alone: “because of your name.”

The Lord then makes an extraordinary statement: “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.”  The Greek is better translated, I beheld Satan, as a flash of lightning, fall from heaven.  The verb tense of “I beheld” is in the aorist tense, not the perfect, indicating a completed action in the past that was done once.  Here, Jesus speaks of an event so distant in the past that neither the universe nor time existed yet.  It is in an instant following the creation of the angels in which they were offered a choice as to their eternity.  We read of Lucifer’s choice: “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who did rise in the morning? How are you fallen to the earth, that did wound the nations? And you said in thy heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High’ ” Isaiah 14, 12-14).  And to this, the Archangel Michael cried out, “Who is like God?”  They fought and the devil fell from heaven “down to hell, into the depth of the pit” (Isaiah 14, 15).  He fell as “a flash of lightning”, that is, instantaneously and shedding his brilliance in his plunge, for he went from being the brightest of the angels to the darkest.  This statement the Lord Jesus made told his disciples why his name had such power: because he was God.  Only God could have made such a comment.  “Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you.”  The “serpents and scorpions” of which the Lord Jesus speaks are the demons, so here he confirms the power he has given them.  “Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”  That is, written in the Book of Life in heaven: “There shall not enter into [heaven] any thing defiled or that works abominations or makes a lie: but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb” (Revelation 21, 27).  

The Lord gave his disciples no chance to react to this because “at that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.”  That is, the Lord and the Holy Spirit rejoiced together, Jesus rejoicing through the Holy Spirit, the Embrace of Love that bound the Father and Son together.  He prays aloud, and in so doing reveals the mystery of his Divine Sonship: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”  This reads very much like something we might expect to find in the Gospel of St. John.  Jesus reveals the mystery here in order to show his disciples that they are cooperating in the work of grace, and that they are the ones “the Son wishes to reveal” the mystery of God as his divine Father.  The Son does not tell them this before they go to the villages and towns because it would have been too much for them then.  But now, seeing his power work through them, they are ready.