September 3, 2025
Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of
the Church
Lectionary: 433
Reading 1
Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
and Timothy our brother,
to the holy ones and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae:
grace to you and peace from God our Father.
We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when we pray for you,
for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and the love that you have for all the holy ones
because of the hope reserved for you in heaven.
Of this you have already heard
through the word of truth, the Gospel, that has come to you.
Just as in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing,
so also among you,
from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth,
as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave,
who is a trustworthy minister of Christ on your behalf
and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (10) I trust in the mercy of God for ever.
I, like a green olive tree
in the house of God,
Trust in the mercy of God
forever and ever.
R. I trust in the mercy of God for ever.
I will thank you always for what you have done,
and proclaim the goodness of your name
before your faithful ones.
R. I trust in the mercy of God for ever.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Lord sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor
and to proclaim liberty to captives.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of
Simon.
Simon's mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever,
and they interceded with him about her.
He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.
She got up immediately and waited on them.
At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him.
He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.
And demons also came out from many, shouting, "You are the Son of
God."
But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak
because they knew that he was the Christ.
At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.
The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him,
they tried to prevent him from leaving them.
But he said to them, "To the other towns also
I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God,
because for this purpose I have been sent."
And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090325.cfm
Commentary on
Colossians 1:1-8
Today we begin reading from Paul’s letter to the Christians
in the city of Colossae. The letters to the Christians of Ephesus and Colossae
(both in the Roman Province of Asia, now part of western Turkey) and the letter
to Philemon are all closely related. All three were written while Paul was
under arrest in Rome.
Several hundred years before Paul’s day, Colossae had been a
leading city in Asia Minor. It was located on the Lycus River and on the great
east-west trade route leading from Ephesus, on the Aegean Sea, to the Euphrates
River. By the first century AD (when this Letter was written) Colossae had been
diminished to a second-rate market town and had been surpassed long ago in
power and importance by the neighbouring towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis, both
of which are cited in the Letter (see Col 4:13).
What gave Colossae importance in New Testament terms,
however, was the fact that, during Paul’s three-year ministry in Ephesus, a
convert, Epaphras, had carried the Gospel to Colossae. The young church that
resulted then became the target of heretical attack, which led to Epaphras’
visit to Paul in Rome and ultimately to the writing of the Colossian letter.
The danger at Colossae was due to basically Jewish
speculations the Christians had taken up about the heavenly or cosmic powers.
These were the powers thought to be responsible for the regular movement of the
cosmos, and the speculations about them, much influenced by Hellenistic
philosophy, attached an importance to these powers that threatened the
supremacy of Christ. Paul’s point is not to deny these powers, but to show
that Christos Kyrios (Greek, “Christ the Lord”) has
established a new order of things and he now governs the cosmos.
According to notes from the Jerusalem Bible and
the New International Version Study Bible:
Paul’s purpose is to refute this Colossian heresy. To
accomplish this goal, he exalts Christ as the very image of God (1:15), the
Creator (1:16), the pre-existent Sustainer of all things (1:17), the Head of
the church (1:18), the First to be resurrected (1:18), the Fullness of deity in
body form (1:19; 2:9) and the Reconciler (1:20-22). Christ is completely adequate.
We “have been given fullness in Christ” (2:10).
Colossians is a relatively short letter and contains much
material also found in the longer letter to the Ephesians.
Following the custom of putting the writer’s name at the
beginning of a letter, Paul introduces himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ by
the will of God, and his fellow-evangeliser, Timothy. Right from the opening
words he reveals how Christ-centred he is. In this relatively short letter, he
uses the title ‘Christ’ 26 times and the title ‘Lord’ (referring to Christ) 7
times.
Timothy is also mentioned in 2 Corinthians, Philippians, 1
and 2 Thessalonians and Philemon, but Paul is really the sole author of the
letter, as indicated by his constant use of ‘I’. In fact, at the end of the
letter he says it has been penned in his own hand (4:18).
The letter is addressed:
To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ
in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Paul frequently calls the members of Christian communities
‘holy ones’ (Greek, hagioi). It is a term which includes the Old
Testament idea of the people of God, but here also expresses a relationship
with Christ. They have been called by God to union with Christ and have
experienced the spiritual benefits of this union. The awareness of it helps
them to be “faithful brothers and sisters in Christ”, i.e. dedicated to working
together on the tasks implied in their calling. And Paul mentions their
spiritual union “in Christ” no less than 13 times in the course of the Letter.
Following the opening greeting there is an expression of
thanksgiving and a prayer which forms the rest of the reading and will be
continued in tomorrow’s reading. Recalling his prayers for them and the deeply
satisfying account of them he has received, Paul congratulates the Colossians
upon their acceptance of Christ and their faithful efforts to live his gospel.
For their encouragement he mentions the success of the gospel in other places,
and assures them that his knowledge of their community is accurate since he has
been in personal contact with Epaphras, their presumed founder.
In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of
the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you
in heaven.
Every one of Paul’s letters, except that to the Galatians,
begins with thanks or praise. The possible reason for Galatians being an
exception is that Paul was quite disturbed by developments there. In
Colossians, thanks is an important theme, repeated a number of times. The
Letters, too, do not thank humans for their faith and love, but rather God, who
is the source of these virtues. And, although Paul usually begins with words of
thanks and praise, the words of concern or criticism will usually follow later
on.
We might note also that thanks is given for the
manifestations of faith, hope and love that the Colossians so clearly display.
The three great Christian virtues of faith, love and hope appear also in
Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, 1 Thessalonians and Hebrews.
And that hope of a future life without end has come to them
through “the word of the truth”, the gospel. The gospel has come to them in the
same way that it is producing fruit and growing all over the world. This
Christian hope is not mere wishful thinking but based on firm assurances that
what is believed will be realised.
Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole
world…
“The whole world”—even if we mean the known world of the
Mediterranean, is still somewhat of an exaggeration. But it does dramatise the
rapid and remarkable spread and acceptance of the gospel into nearly every
corner of the Roman Empire within 30 years of Pentecost. In refuting the charge
of the false teachers, Paul will insist that the Christian faith is not merely
confined to Colossae or the region, but is ‘worldwide’. Paul knew that because
he travelled so much, but many of those he is writing to would have very little
contact with anyone outside their own immediate environment.
And their strong Christian faith is something they learnt
from Epaphras who is:
…our beloved fellow servant…a faithful minister of Christ
on our behalf.
It was he who told Paul about their love in the Spirit.
Epaphras was a native and probably the founder of the
Colossian church, but also evangelised in the nearby towns of Laodicea and
Hierapolis (although the Book of Revelation has some hard words for the
Christians of Laodicea). Paul was clearly fond of Epaphras and admired him,
calling him a “fellow prisoner” (Phil 1:23), his dear fellow servant and a
faithful minister of Christ.
Epaphras was the one who told Paul at Rome about problems in
the Colossian church and thereby stimulated him to write this letter. His name,
a shortened form of Epaphroditus (derived from Aphrodite, the Greek
goddess of love), suggests he was a convert from paganism—but he is not the
Epaphroditus mentioned in the Letter to the Philippians.
Let us today give thanks for the faith we have received and
also to those through whom we have received it and who have helped to enrich it
over the years. As well, we might also consider how many people’s faith has
been enriched by their coming in contact with us, and how much more we could do
in this regard.
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Commentary on Luke
4:38-44
After the scene in the synagogue where Jesus healed a man
possessed by an evil spirit, he goes straight to Peter’s house. It was a
Sabbath day, so Jesus could not move around or do any major activity. He seems
to have used this house as his base when in Capernaum and that part of Galilee.
Jesus had “nowhere to lay his head”, no dwelling of his own, but it seems clear
that he was not homeless. There were always people ready to offer him
hospitality—a custom of the Middle East and a model for Christians of every age
and place.
Peter’s mother-in-law was in the grip of a fever and the
disciples begged Jesus to do something for her. Jesus stood over her and, with
a word, cured her. Immediately she got up and began to serve Jesus and his
group.
There is a lesson here. Health and healing are not just for
the individual. Her healing immediately restored her to the community and the
duty of serving that community. And not just because she was a woman! If it had
been the father-in-law, the same would have applied. As long as we are in
health, our energies are meant to be directed to the building up of the
community and not simply for our personal enjoyment.
“As the sun was setting…”—we need to remember it was a
Sabbath. The Sabbath went from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday (so Jesus
could not be properly buried on the Friday evening when he died). According to
the traditions, Jews could not travel more than two-thirds of a mile or carry
any load. Only after sunset could the sick be brought to Jesus.
As soon as the Sabbath was over, large numbers brought their
sick to him:
…and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them.
As Jesus had announced in the synagogue at Nazareth, the
Kingdom of God had arrived and was entering the lives of people, bringing them
health and wholeness.
Many were also liberated from the power of evil spirits.
These spirits shouted at Jesus “You are the Son of God”. As we mentioned
earlier, by using Jesus’ title they hoped to exert control over him. That did
not work, of course. Whether these were actual cases of possession or were
psychological or mental disorders which made people behave in abnormal ways,
and perhaps ways harmful to themselves and others, is not clear. What is clear
is that the presence of the Kingdom is being felt.
At daybreak—Jesus had been working the whole night for the
people—he went off to a quiet place. The desert is the place where God is to be
found and very likely, as Mark tells us, Jesus went there to pray and to be
alone.
The people, who had seen what he did for them, wanted him to
stay with them (their attitude is in marked contrast to the people of
Nazareth), but he could not and would not:
I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to
the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.
And so we are told that he was now preaching in the
synagogues of Judea—in the south of the country, although the term may simply
refer to the whole of Jewish territory. No place could have a monopoly on his
attentions.
We need to attach ourselves to Jesus and keep close to him,
but we cannot cling to him in a way that prevents others from experiencing his
healing touch. On the contrary, it is our task as his disciples to see that as
many as possible come to know and experience his love, his compassion and his
healing.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1224g/
Wednesday,
September 3, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Almighty God,
every good thing comes from you.
Fill our hearts with love for you, increase our faith,
and by your constant care
protect the good you have given us.
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 4: 38-44
Leaving the synagogue Jesus went to Simon’s
house. Now Simon’s mother-inlaw was in the grip of a high fever and they asked
him to do something for her. Standing over her he rebuked the fever and it left
her. And she immediately got up and began to serve them.
At sunset all those who had
friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another brought them to him, and
laying his hands on each he cured them.
Devils too came out of many people, shouting,
‘You are the Son of God.’ But he warned them and would not allow them to speak
because they knew that he was the Christ. When daylight came he left the house
and made his way to a lonely place. The crowds went to look for him, and when
they had caught up with him they wanted to prevent him leaving them, but he
answered, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other
towns too, because that is what I was sent to do.’ And he continued his
proclamation in the synagogues of Judaea.
Reflection
The Gospel today narrates four different events: the cure of
Peter’s mother-inlaw (Lk 4: 38-39), the cure of many sick people at night,
after Saturday (Lk 4: 4041), the prayer of Jesus in a deserted place (Lk 4: 42)
and his insistence on the mission (Lk 4: 43-44). With small differences Luke
follows and adapts the information taken from the Gospel of Mark.
•
Luke 4: 38-39: Jesus restores life for service. After having participated in the
celebration of Saturday, in the Synagogue, Jesus goes to Peter’s house and
cures his mother-in-law. The cure causes her to render service immediately,
already standing. Having recovered her health and dignity, she places herself
at the service of the people. Jesus not only cures, but he cures in such a way
that the person places herself at the service of life.
•
Luke 4: 40-41: Jesus accepts and cures the marginalized. At night, when the first
stars appear in the sky, after Saturday is over, Jesus accepts and cures the
sick and those possessed who the people bring to him. The sick and the
possessed were the most marginalized persons at that time. They had no one to
whom to go. They were at the mercy of public charity; besides, religion
considered them impure. They could not participate in the community. It was
as if God rejected and excluded them. Jesus accepts and
cures them, placing his hands on each one of them. Thus, it is clear in what
the Good News of God consists of and what he wants to do in the life of
persons: to accept the marginalized and the excluded and to integrate them into
the community, to live with others.
“Devils came out of many persons shouting: “You are the Son
of God!” But he warned them and would not allow them to speak, because they
knew that he was the Christ.” At that time the title Son of God did not have as
yet the density and depth that it has for us today. Jesus did not allow the
devils to speak. He did not want an easy propaganda dictated by spectacular
expulsions.
•
Luke 4: 42a: To
remain united to the Father by means of prayer. “When daylight came he left
the house and made his way to a lonely place. The crowds went to look for him,
and when they had caught up with him they wanted to prevent him from leaving
them.” Here we see Jesus praying. He has to make an enormous effort to have time
available and a place suitable for prayer. He goes to a deserted place to be
able to stay alone with God. Many times, the Gospels speak about Jesus’ prayer,
in silence (Lk 3: 21-22; 4: 1-2, 3-12;
5: 15-16; 6: 12; 9: 18; 10: 21; 5:
16; 9: 18; 11: 1; 9: 28; 23: 34; Mt 14: 22-23; 26: 38; Jn 11: 4142; 17: 1-26;
Mk 1: 35; Lk 3: 21-22). Through prayer, he maintains alive the conscience of
his mission.
•
Luke 4: 42b-44: To maintain alive the conscience of one’s own mission and not think
about the result. Jesus becomes known. People follow him and they did not
want him to leave them. Jesus does not respond to this petition and says: “I
must proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the other towns too,
because that is what I was sent to do.” Jesus was very clear about his mission.
He does not stop at the result that he has already obtained, but he wishes to
maintain very alive the awareness if his mission. It is the mission received
from the Father which orientates him when he has to take a decision. I have
been sent for this! And here in this text this conscience which is so alive
springs as fruit of his prayer.
Personal Questions
•
Jesus spent much time in prayer and to be alone
with the Father, and he looked for this time. Do I dedicate time for prayer and
to be alone with God?
•
Jesus had a clear conscience of his mission. And
I, a Christian, am I conscious that I have a mission, or do I live without a
mission?
Concluding Prayer
We are waiting for Yahweh; he is our
help and our shield, for in him our heart rejoices, in his holy name we trust.
(Ps 33: 20-21)
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