September 12, 2025
Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 441
Reading I
Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our
savior
and of Christ Jesus our hope,
to Timothy, my true child in faith:
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus
our Lord,
because he considered me trustworthy
in appointing me to the ministry.
I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man,
but I have been mercifully treated
because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.
Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant,
along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 5) You are my inheritance,
O Lord.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.”
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus told his disciples a parable:
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091225.cfm
Commentary on 1
Timothy 1:1-2,12-14
We begin reading today from Paul’s First Letter to Timothy.
The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus are known as the Pastoral
Letters because of their main subject matter.
Timothy was a native of Lystra (in modern Turkey). His
father was Greek, while his mother was a Jewish Christian (Acts 16:1). From
childhood he had been taught the Old Testament (2 Tim 1:5 and 3:15). Paul
called him “my true child in the faith” (1:2), perhaps having led him to Christ
during his first visit to Lystra.
At the time of his second visit Paul invited Timothy to join
him on his missionary travels, and circumcised him so that his Greek ancestry
would not be a liability in working with the Jews (Acts 16:3)—a good example of
Paul’s pastoral flexibility, considering how strongly he spoke against those
who wanted to re-introduce circumcision into the Christian church or to force
Gentile Christians to undergo it.
Timothy shared in the evangelisation of Macedonia and Achaia
(Acts 17:14-15; 18:5) and was with Paul during much of his long preaching
ministry at Ephesus (Acts 19:22). Thessalonika and Philippi, both recipients of
Pauline letters were in Macedonia, while Corinth was in Achaia in southern
Greece. Timothy travelled with Paul from Ephesus to Macedonia, to Corinth, back
to Macedonia, and to Asia Minor (Acts 20:1-6). He seems even to have
accompanied Paul all the way to Jerusalem.
He was certainly with Paul during the Apostle’s first
imprisonment (Phil 1:1; Col 1:1; Philem 1).
Following Paul’s release (see Acts 28), Timothy again
travelled with him, but eventually stayed at Ephesus to deal with the problems
there, while Paul went on to Macedonia.
Paul’s closeness to and admiration of Timothy are seen in
Paul’s naming him as the co-sender of his letters (2 Corinthians, Philippians,
Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Philemon) and in his speaking highly of
him to the Philippians (Phil 2:19-22).
At the end of his life, Paul requested Timothy to join him
at Rome (2 Tim 4:9,21). According to Heb 13:23, Timothy himself was imprisoned
and subsequently released—whether at Rome or elsewhere, we do not know. Timothy
was not an apostle and he was probably not an ‘overseer’ (Greek, episkopos),
since he was given instructions about overseers (3:1-7; 5:17-22). It may be
best to regard him as an apostolic representative, delegated to carry out
special work (see Tit 1:5).
According to the New International Version Study
Bible:
“Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus, appointed by the command of
God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope.” The letter purports to come from
Paul, but there is discussion among scholars to what extent the Letter is
Paul’s own writing, although it certainly reflects much of his thinking as we
know it from his genuine letters.
He calls himself an ‘apostle’, seeing himself as being
specially commissioned by “the command of God our Saviour”, a claim he makes
more than once and a term which the Letter to the Hebrews applies to Jesus
himself (Heb 3:1). In his other letters, Paul seldom uses the term ‘Saviour’,
but in the Pastoral Letters he uses it when speaking both of the Father and of
Christ. In speaking of Christ Jesus as “our hope” he is, as was mentioned elsewhere,
speaking of an attitude of complete confidence in God’s promises yet to be
fulfilled.
The Letter is addressed to Timothy, “true child of mine in
the faith”. Timothy seems to have been found by Paul on a visit to Lystra (in
present-day Turkey) during one of his missionary journeys and brought into the
church by him. Paul, in other words, was his ‘God-father’. He also calls
Timothy his son in the First Letter to the Corinthians (“my beloved and
trustworthy child in the Lord”, 1 Cor 4:17) and in the Second Letter to Timothy
(“Timothy, my beloved child”, 2 Tim 1:2).
To Timothy, Paul wishes:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Compared to other letters, it is a rather brief salutation.
Yet we could hardly ask anything more precious from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus than “grace”, the tangible experience of God’s love in our life; “mercy”,
the compassion of God ready to forgive us at all times; and “peace”, the inner
peace that only God can give and which no one can take from us.
Paul then gives a personal testimony of God’s love in his
life. He expresses his deep gratitude:
…Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me…
This was the strength to break away from his old rigid
religious beliefs which were a source of such hatred and violence. By calling
Paul into his service, Christ his Lord has made a vote of confidence in his
trustworthiness.
God had good reason to have doubts given the fact that Paul
had been:
blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.”
By going all out to destroy the Christian communities, he
was a blasphemer because he was, in fact, attacking Christ himself. On the road
to Damascus, he had been knocked to the ground and had heard a voice say:
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
Paul asked in reply:
Who are you, Lord?
And the answer came:
I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. (Acts
9:4-5)
In attacking the Christians, he was attacking Jesus himself:
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least
of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 25:40)
It is another affirmation of the real presence of Christ in
his Body, the Christian community.
His blaspheming, of course, arose out of his persecuting
activities and his Pharisaical arrogance in wanting to rid the world of what he
regarded as renegade and heretical Jews.
However, the Lord showed compassion on him because, due to
his lack of faith in Christ at the time, he basically was acting in ignorance.
Most prejudice against other people arises from ignorance and hence is not seen
by the prejudiced person as prejudice, but a conviction about the ‘truth’, a
‘truth’ which, in fact, is very incomplete and often completely false.
But since then, Paul says:
…I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in
unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love
that are in Christ Jesus.
It is never too late to be converted and change one’s ways.
No matter what we may have done, God is ready to receive us back. We, however,
have a very strong tendency to continue condemning people for their past or for
their perceived background. We tend so easily to stereotype and scapegoat
people.
But people can change; they can change radically; and they
should be judged and evaluated on how they are now and not on how they were at
a former time. Paul is a good example of this.
We need to remember that God always accepts us as we are in
the here and now. It is important that we try to act towards others in the same
way.One sincere act of love on our part wipes out everything.
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Commentary on Luke
6:39-42
In Matthew, the parallel passage today is addressed to the
Pharisees, but in Luke it is addressed to the disciples, and Jesus makes two
points.
First, the blind cannot lead the blind. The disciple, left
to himself or herself, does not know very much and depends on their teacher.
But once the disciple is fully trained and has learnt everything it is possible
to discern from the teacher, then the learner becomes an extension of the
teacher. At that point, the disciple shares the teacher’s knowledge and wisdom
and can, in turn, be a guide to others.
This is something we all have to do: to listen carefully to
what Jesus tells us and make it part of our own lives. Only then can we
effectively lead others to him.
Second, we have to be very careful about sitting in
judgement on others. Jesus uses a graphic image of someone trying to remove a
speck of dust from another person’s eye while there is a large “log” in their
own. How can we see properly to correct the vision of our brother or sister
when our own vision is so distorted?
The faults we so easily see in others are often trivial in
comparison with our own shortcomings. Of course, much of the energy we exert in
putting down others (the main staple of gossiping sessions!) is sub-consciously
to compensate for the shortcomings we are all too aware of in ourselves.
Instead of lifting ourselves up by changing our ways, we try to drag others
down.
And so often our judgements are based purely on external
behaviour. We usually have no idea of the inner motives or intentions of other
people, or an awareness of their inability to behave otherwise than they do.
And, while we can be very ready with criticism behind
people’s backs, we do not dare to say such things to their face. Yet, there may
be times when we will be asked to give—as far as is possible—an objective
evaluation of a person’s behaviour or their fitness for some responsibility.
And, not infrequently, we sadly shy away from this responsibility.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1236g
Friday,
September 12, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
God our Father, you redeem us
and make us your children in
Christ. Look upon us, give us true freedom and bring us to the inheritance you
promised.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 6: 39-42
Jesus also told them a parable, ‘Can one
blind person guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? Disciple is not
superior to teacher; but fully trained disciple will be like teacher.
Why do you observe the splinter
in your brother’s eye and never notice the great log in your own? How can you
say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out that splinter in your eye,” when
you cannot see the great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your
own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter in
your brother’s eye.
Reflection
Today’s Gospel gives us some passages of the discourse which
Jesus pronounced on the plains after having spent the night in prayer (Lk 6:
12) and after he had called the twelve to be his apostles (Lk 6: 13-14). Many
of the phrases in this discourse had already been pronounced on other
occasions, but Luke, imitating Matthew, puts them together in this Discourse of
the Plains.
•
Luke 6: 39: The parable of the blind man who
guides another blind man. Jesus tells a parable to the disciples: “Can a blind
man guide another blind man? Will not both of them fall into a hole?” A parable
of one line, quite similar to the warnings which, in Matthew’s Gospel, are
addressed to the Pharisees: “Alas for you, blind guides!” (Mt 23: 16, 17, 19,
24, 26) Here in the context of the Gospel of Luke, this parable is addressed to
the animators of the communities who consider themselves the masters of truth,
superior to others. Because of this they are blind guides.
•
Luke 6: 40: Disciple – Master. “The disciple is
not greater than the teacher, but the well-prepared disciple will be like the
teacher” Jesus is the Master, not the professor. The professor in class teaches
different subjects but does not live with the pupils. The Master or Lord does
not teach lessons, he lives with the pupils. His subject matter is himself, his
life witness, his way of living the things that he teaches. Living together
with the Master, the Lord has three aspects:
•
(1) the Master is the model or example to be
imitated (cf. Jn 13: 13-15).
•
(2) The disciple not only contemplates and
imitates, he commits himself to the same destiny of the Master, with his
temptations (Lk 22: 28). His persecution (Mt 10: 24-25), his death (Jn 11:
16);
•
(3) He not only imitates the model, he not only
assumes the commitment, but arrives at identifying himself with him: “I live,
but it is not I who live, but Christ lives in me!” (Ga 2: 20). This third
aspect is the mystical dimension of the following of Jesus, fruit of the action
of the Spirit.
•
Luke 6: 41-42: The splinter in the brother’s
eye. “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice
the great log in your own? How can you say to your brother: ‘Brother, let me
take out that splinter in your eye, when you cannot see the great log in your
own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see
clearly enough to take out the splinter in your brother’s eye.” In the Sermon
on the Mountain, Matthew treats the same theme and explains a bit better the
parable of the splinter in the eye. Jesus asks for a creative attitude which
will make us capable to go and encounter the others without judging them,
without preconceptions and rationalizing, but accepting the brother (Mt 7:
1-5). This total openness toward others considering them as brothers/sisters
will arise in us only when we are capable of relating with God with total trust
as his children (Mt 7: 7-11).
Personal Questions
•
Splinter and log in the eye. How do I relate
with others at home and in my family, in work and with my colleagues, in
community and with the brothers and sisters?
•
Master and disciple. How am I a disciple of
Jesus?
Concluding Prayer
Lord, how blessed are those who
live in your house; they shall praise you continually.
Blessed those who find their strength in you, whose hearts
are set on pilgrimage. (Ps 84: 4-5)
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