October 11, 2025
Saturday of the
Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 466
Reading
1
Thus says the
LORD:
Let the nations bestir themselves and come up
to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
For there will I sit in judgment
upon all the neighboring nations.
Apply the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe;
Come and tread,
for the wine press is full;
The vats overflow,
for great is their malice.
Crowd upon crowd
in the valley of decision;
For near is the day of the LORD
in the valley of decision.
Sun and moon are darkened,
and the stars withhold their brightness.
The LORD roars from Zion,
and from Jerusalem raises his voice;
The heavens and the earth quake,
but the LORD is a refuge to his people,
a stronghold to the children of Israel.
Then shall you know that I, the LORD, am your God,
dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain;
Jerusalem shall be holy,
and strangers shall pass through her no more.
And then, on that day,
the mountains shall drip new wine,
and the hills shall flow with milk;
And the channels of Judah
shall flow with water:
A fountain shall issue from the house of the LORD,
to water the Valley of Shittim.
Egypt shall be a waste,
and Edom a desert waste,
Because of violence done to the people of Judah,
because they shed innocent blood in their land.
But Judah shall abide forever,
and Jerusalem for all generations.
I will avenge their blood,
and not leave it unpunished.
The LORD dwells in Zion.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (12a) Rejoice
in the Lord, you just!
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many isles be glad.
Clouds and darkness are round about him,
justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the LORD of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
Light dawns for the just;
and gladness, for the upright of heart.
Be glad in the LORD, you just,
and give thanks to his holy name.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Blessed are those who hear the word of God
and observe it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101125.cfm
Commentary on Joel 4:12-21*
Today we have our
second and final reading from the prophet Joel. It is an apocalyptic-style call
to a people who are suffering, who see only a bleak future with threats on all
sides. It is a message full of hope in the ultimate future.
It begins with a
call to the nations. The nations may “rouse themselves” (literally “sanctify”)
to make war on Yahweh and march on Zion, but there in the “valley of decision”
they will meet their judgement and ultimate defeat. It is considered ‘holy’
because all war was regarded as a sacred undertaking. Earlier in the chapter,
Yahweh had said he would gather all the nations together and take them to the
Valley of Jehoshaphat where he would put them on trial. That is now about to
happen. The call for the nations is to hammer their ploughshares into swords
and their bill-hooks into spears. This is the exact reversal of what is to
happen in paradise as described by Isaiah (2:4).
Let the nations
rouse themselves
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit to judge
all the neighboring nations.
The valley of
Jehospaphat is called the “valley of decision” later in the passage. It seems
to be a symbolic name for a valley near Jerusalem that is here depicted as the
place of God’s ultimate judgement on the nations gathered against Jerusalem. It
was there that King Jehoshaphat had witnessed one of the Lord’s historic
victories over the nations.
Put in the
sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
for their wickedness is great.
Because of their
numerous crimes, the nations are ripe for punishment. The use of warlike
weapons against them is likened to the use of reaping instruments on the fields
and vines at harvest time.
As a result of the
Lord’s great army (the plague of locusts) that had marched against Judah (see
Joel 1:1-11), there have been no harvests. That harvest was now to be restored.
In the final great day of the Lord, there will also be a harvest—the harvest of
God’s judgement on the nations. Revelation (14:14-20) draws heavily on this
picture of judgement.
Today’s reading
continues:
Multitudes,
multitudes,
in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.
The word for
“decision” also means an instrument with sharp wheels or stones used in
threshing. Just as the threshing machine divides the wheat from the chaff, so
will God’s decision be against those who have been unfaithful. The valley is
now viewed as the place where that decree will be executed.
Next comes a brief
description of the Day of Yahweh.
The sun and the
moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.
The Lord roars from Zion
and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
and the heavens and the earth shake.
The language is
apocalyptic. “The Lord roars” like a lion and destroys the unbelieving nations.
And as God at the head of his army had thundered against Jerusalem, so he will
on that day thunder against Jerusalem’s enemies, and he will:
dwell in
Zion, [his] holy
mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy,
and strangers shall never again pass through it.
On “the day of the
Lord” his people will know that he is Yahweh their God, residing on Zion, his
holy mountain. Jerusalem will be his sanctuary and it will never again be
over-run by the “stranger” (i.e. foreigner). The Lord from now on will be with
his people forever. The final blessed state of the now unholy and vulnerable
city will be God’s abiding presence in her. Then she will be holy and
impregnable.
In the third and
last part of the reading, God blesses his people in a dual way: he not only
destroys their enemies, but he also gives them good things.
Times of plenty
are coming:
In that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the streambeds of Judah
shall flow with water…
The Eden-like
lushness pictured in this verse is in great contrast to the terrible drought
which followed the plague of locusts.
…a fountain
shall come forth
from the house of the Lord
and water the Wadi Shittim.
Flowing out from
God’s presence, streams of blessing will refresh his people and make their
place endlessly fruitful. The location of the “Wadi Shittim” is uncertain in
this apocalyptic description of the new Jerusalem. The picture is of a desert
now with an abundance of water.
On the other hand:
Egypt shall
become a desolation
and Edom a desolate wilderness,
because of the violence done to the people of Judah,
in whose land they have shed innocent blood.
Egypt and Edom
were old enemies of Israel and here represent all those nations hostile to
God’s people.
All
life-sustaining blessings are removed from these nations, thus setting in sharp
focus the contrasting destiny of God’s people and the enemies of God’s Kingdom.
This picture of desolation also recalls the earlier description of Judah’s
condition after the locusts. Then:
…Judah shall be
inhabited forever
and Jerusalem to all generations.
I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty,
for the Lord dwells in Zion.
Once God’s judgement
and redemption are complete, his Kingdom will endure and flourish for ever. And
this book of judgement ends on a promising and encouraging note: “the Lord
dwells in Zion” and therefore all will be right with those who trust in God and
live with him.
We do not now hold
that God preserves any particular place for ever, not Jerusalem, not Rome. For
us, Zion is not a physical place. God is present not in stones, but in the
hearts of those who open themselves to him, who hear his word and keep it. The
‘New Jerusalem’ is not a place, but the composite of all those who are in
loving relationship with God and with each other because of Him. As Jesus told
the Samaritan woman:
But the hour is
coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. (John 4:23)
Indeed, an hour is
coming, and is already here, when authentic worshippers will worship the Father
in Spirit and truth. It is just such worshippers the Father seeks.
This brings us to
the end of our selection of readings from the post-Exilic prophets which began
in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time (three weeks ago). We have read passages from
Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah, Baruch, Jonah, Malachi and Joel.
What they have in common
is that all come from the same period, following the return of the Hebrews from
exile in Babylon. Two are historical books (Ezra and Nehemiah) and the rest are
from prophets. And they have appeared more or less in chronological order. On
Monday we will return to reading from the New Testament.
________________________________________
*In some Bible translations, today’s passage is Joel 3:12-21.
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Commentary on Luke 11:27-28
Today’s short
passage is linked to yesterday’s because it begins:
While he was
saying this…
After Jesus has
effectively silenced his opponents and their ridiculous accusations:
…a woman in the
crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and
the breasts that nursed you!”
It was a beautiful
tribute first to Jesus himself, but also to his mother (someone, presumably,
totally unknown to the speaker). In more contemporary terms, we might rephrase
it as, “May God bless the woman that produced such a fine son as you!” This
woman is clearly one of the crowd that has been amazed at the work Jesus is
doing—in contrast to the cynical unbelievers who want to destroy Jesus.
And indeed, we, on
a very different level, do recognise the extraordinary privilege that was
Mary’s to be the Mother of God’s only Son. We pray to Mary:
Blessed are you
among women…
But Jesus turns
the woman’s words around:
Blessed rather
are those who hear the word of God and obey it!
Greatness in God’s
eyes lies not in gifts and privileges that have been granted, but in the
response that is given to God.
The true source of
Mary’s greatness was not in her being chosen to be Jesus’ mother, nor even in
her preservation from original sin, but in that unconditional ‘Yes’ she gave to
the angel at the Annunciation. This ‘Yes’ she faithfully honoured to the
day she stood in grief at the foot of the cross. She heard the word and she
kept it—to the very end.
Some of the people
we saw Jesus arguing with yesterday were powerful and influential in their
society; they were the ‘great’ ones of that society. But they neither heard,
nor saw, nor kept the word of God, although they claimed to be experts in it.
And even Jesus
himself was not great just because of his powers over demons or his ability to
silence his accusers, but because he, too, heard the word of his Father and
kept it. There was a total identity between what his Father wanted and what
Jesus was saying and doing.
For us, too, it
must be exactly the same. That is the only greatness that matters, the only
greatness that we need be concerned about.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1277g/
LECTIO DIVINA
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father, your love
for us
surpasses all our
hopes and desires. Forgive our failings, keep us in your peace and lead us in
the way of salvation.
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 11: 27-28
It happened that
as Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, 'Blessed
the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you!' But he replied, 'More
blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it!'
Reflection
Today's Gospel is
very brief, but it has a very important significance in the Gospel of Luke in
general. It gives us the key to understand what Luke teaches regarding Mary,
the Mother of Jesus, in the so-called Gospel of the Infancy (Lk 1 and 2).
•
Luke
11: 27: The exclamation of the woman. "At that time as Jesus was speaking,
a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said: "Blessed the womb that
bore you and the breasts that fed you!" The creative imagination of some
apocryphal books suggests that the woman was a neighbor of Our Lady, there in
Nazareth. She had a son called Dimas, who with other boys of Galilee at that
time, went to war with the Romans, was made a prisoner and killed at the side
of Jesus. He was the good thief (Lk 23: 39-43). His mother, having heard about
the good that Jesus did to people, remembered her neighbor, Mary, and said:
"Mary must be very happy to have such a son!"
•
Luke
11: 28: The response of Jesus. Jesus responds, giving the greatest praise to
his mother: "More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and
keep it." Luke speaks little about Mary: here (Lk 11: 28) and in the
Gospel of the infancy (Lk 1 and 2). For him, Luke, Mary is the Daughter of
Sion, image of the new People of God. He represents Mary as the model for the
life of the communities. In Vatican Council II, the document prepared on Mary
was inserted in the last chapter of the document Lumen Gentium on the Church.
Mary is the model for the Church. And especially in the way in which Mary
relates with the Word of God, Luke considers her as an example for the life of
the communities: "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep
it." Mary teaches us how to accept the Word of God, how to incarnate it,
live it, deepen it, make it be born and grow, allow it to shape us, even when
we do not understand it, or when it makes us suffer. This is the vision which
is subjacent in the Gospel of the Infancy
(Lk 1 and 2). The key to understand these two chapters is given to us by
today's Gospel: "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep
it!" Let us see in these chapters how Mary enters into relationship with
the Word of God.
•
Luke
1: 26-38:
The Annunciation:
"Let it happen to me as you have said!"
To know how to
open oneself, to accept the Word of God so that it becomes incarnate.
•
Luke
1: 39-45:
The Visitation:
"Blessed is she who has believed!"
To know how to
recognize the Word of God in a visit and in many other facts of life.
•
Luke
1: 46-56:
The Magnificat:
"The Lord has done great things for me!"
To recognize the
Word in the story of the people and sing a song of resistance and hope.
•
Luke
2: 1-20:
The Birth of Our
Lord: "She pondered all these things in her heart!" There was no
place for them. The marginalized accept the Word.
•
Luke
2: 21-32:
The Presentation:
"My eyes have seen the salvation!" The many years of life purify the
eyes.
•
Luke
2: 33-38:
Simeon and Anna:
"A sword will pierce your soul too!"
To accept and
incarnate the Word in life, to be a sign of contradiction.
•
Luke
2: 39-52:
At twelve years
old in the Temple: "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's
house?"
They did not
understand what he meant!
•
Luke
11: 27-28:
The praise to the
mother: "Blessed the womb that bore you!" Blessed are those who hear
the Word of God and keep it.
Personal Questions
•
Do you
succeed in discovering the Word of God in your life?
•
How do
you live devotion to Mary, the Mother of Jesus?
Concluding Prayer
Sing to him, make
music for him, recount all his wonders! Glory in his holy name, let the hearts
that seek Yahweh rejoice! (Ps 105: 2-3)
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