October 3, 2025
Friday of the Twenty-sixth
Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 459
Reading
1
During the
Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed:
"Justice is with the Lord, our God;
and we today are flushed with shame,
we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem,
that we, with our kings and rulers
and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors,
have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed him.
We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God,
nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us.
From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egypt
until the present day,
we have been disobedient to the Lord, our God,
and only too ready to disregard his voice.
And the evils and the curse that the Lord enjoined upon Moses, his servant,
at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt
to give us the land flowing with milk and honey,
cling to us even today.
For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God,
in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us,
but each one of us went off
after the devices of his own wicked heart,
served other gods,
and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God."
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (9) For
the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple,
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the corpses of your servants
as food to the birds of heaven,
the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the earth.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
They have poured out their blood like water
round about Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
We have become the reproach of our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
O LORD, how long? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name's sake.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to
them,
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.'
Whoever listens to you listens to me.
Whoever rejects you rejects me.
And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100325.cfm
Commentary on Baruch 1:15-22
The Book of Baruch
is one of the deutero-canonical (or ‘apochryphal’) books not found in the
Hebrew or Protestant Bible. The Greek Bible puts it between Jeremiah and
Lamentations, but the Vulgate has it immediately after Lamentations, where it
is also found in our Catholic Bibles.
According to its
introduction (see Bar 1:1-14), it was written in Babylon by Baruch after the
deportation and sent to Jerusalem to be read at liturgical gatherings. The
opening verses of this book ascribe it, or at least its first part, to Baruch,
well-known as the secretary of the prophet Jeremiah. It contains five very
different compositions, the first and the last in prose, the others in poetic
form. The prose sections were certainly composed in Hebrew, though the earliest
known form of the book is in Greek.
Today we have the
first of two readings from the book. It is the beginning of what is called The
Prayer of the Exiles, the exiles being those Jews who were deported to Babylon
from Judah and Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BC. As the
passage seems to belong to a much later date, it may rather reflect the
feelings of a later community who saw in their own situation a similarity with
those exiles.
The author had
begun his book by saying:
These are the
words of the book that Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah son of Zedekiah son
of Hasadiah son of Hilkiah wrote in Babylon, in the fifth year, on the seventh
day of the month, at the time when the Chaldeans [Babylonians] took Jerusalem and
burned it with fire. (Bar 1:1-2)
The details he
gives indicate the year 582 BC, probably in the fifth month—the anniversary of
the fall of Jerusalem—which was doubtless commemorated among the exiles as it
was in Palestine. The passage is a general lament for the situation of the
Israelites now living in exile, far from their homeland and from Jerusalem and
its Temple, the home of Yahweh.
But there is no
complaint against Yahweh for their condition. Their sufferings are due to one
reason and one reason only—the people’s long history of not obeying the Lord
and going their own way. This began from the days the Lord brought them out of
Egypt right up to the present time:
We have
disobeyed him and have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the
statutes of the Lord that he set before us. From the time when the Lord brought
our ancestors out of the land of Egypt until today, we have been disobedient to
the Lord our God, and we have been negligent in not listening to his voice.
The writer
compares the goodness and the integrity of God with that of his people. If they
have suffered by being sent into exile, it is the result of their own sins and
not the doing of the good God.
In our response to
this reading we might reflect on how much of our own pain and misfortunes can
be traced to our own behaviour, individually or corporately. It is so easy to
blame God for our ills and use him as a scapegoat who will not strike back. But
the first step in expressing our love of God must begin with a total
acknowledgment of our own sinfulness.
Paradoxically, it
is those who are most aware of their sinfulness who are closest to God—because
an acknowledgment of sin is an awareness of a gap that needs to be closed.
Those who deny their sin are the least likely to change and convert. But when
we do suffer, the question to ask our God is not “Why me?”, but “What now?” How
are we to turn this experience to a greater love of God and neighbour?
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Commentary on Luke 10:13-16
In today’s Gospel,
we hear strong words from Jesus against towns where he had preached extensively—Chorazin,
Bethsaida and especially Capernaum.
Chorazin is only
mentioned twice in the Bible, here and in the parallel passage of Matthew
(11:21). It was near the Sea of Galilee and probably between 3 and 4 km north
of Capernaum. Bethsaida, the home of some of Jesus’ disciples, was on the
northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had been built by Philip the
Tetrarch, who called it ‘Julias’ after Julia, a daughter of the emperor Caesar
Augustus. Capernaum, situated on the north shore of the lake, appears
frequently in the Gospel narratives and was the centre from which Jesus did
much of his missionary work. His work and preaching would have been most
familiar to the people there.
Jesus says that if
the gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon had witnessed all that Jesus had said and
done in those towns of Palestine, they would have repented long ago—just as the
pagan people of Niniveh had repented at the preaching of Jonah.
Tyre and Sidon
were towns on the Phoenician coast, north of Palestine (Lebanon today). Jesus
was said to have visited the area just once and only very briefly, so the
people there did not have an opportunity to witness Jesus’ miracles or hear his
preaching, unlike the people in the towns mentioned above.
And Jesus goes
further. Addressing his disciples he says:
Whoever listens
to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects
me rejects the one who sent me.
In other words, to
listen to the messengers of Jesus is equivalent to listening to him
personally—to reject those messengers is to reject Jesus and to reject God.
And in our own
times, perhaps we should emphasise that those ‘messengers’ are not just
bishops, priests and religious. They include all those who sincerely proclaim
the gospel by their words and their lives.
It might be no
harm then for each of us today to hear those warnings of Jesus addressed to
ourselves. How well have we really responded to the call of Jesus in the
Gospel? How open are we to hear that message coming to us from different kinds
of people in our community? How committed are we to accepting, living and
sharing that Gospel with others?
Might it be true
to say that there are people in other parts of our world, our country, our
society who, if they were given what we have been given, who heard what we
hear, would respond much more generously than we have done?
There is never any
room for complacency in our Christian life. Because we have been given so much,
so much more is expected of us. As Jesus says elsewhere, we may be very
surprised to see others, who never had an opportunity directly to hear the
gospel, go before us into God’s Kingdom.
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Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father, you show
your almighty power in your mercy and forgiveness.
Continue to fill
us with your gifts of love.
Help us to hurry
towards the eternal life your promise and come to share in the joys of your
kingdom.
We ask this
through our Lord Jesus Christ, Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 10: 13-16
Jesus said: 'Alas
for you, Corazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had
been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in
sackcloth and ashes. And still, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at
the Judgement than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be
raised high as heaven? You shall be flung down to hell.
'Anyone who
listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who
reject me reject the one who sent me.'
Reflection
The Gospel today
continues speaking about the sending out of the seventy-two disciples (Lk 10:
1-12). At the end, after sending them out, Jesus speaks about shaking off the
dust from the shoes, if the missionaries are not welcomed or accepted (Lk 10:
10-12). Today's Gospel stressed and extended the threats upon those who refuse
to receive the Good News.
• Luke 10: 13-14 - Alas for you, Corazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! The place which
Jesus travelled or covered in the three years of his missionary life was small.
It measured only a few square kilometers along the Sea of Galilee around the
cities of Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Corazin. Precisely in this very small space
Jesus works the majority of his miracles and presents his discourses. He has
come to save the whole of humanity, and he hardly went out of the limited space
of his land. But tragically, Jesus had to see that the people of those cities
do not want to accept the message of the Kingdom and are not converted. The
cities fixed themselves in the rigidity of their beliefs, traditions and
customs and they do not accept the invitation of Jesus to change life. Alas for you, Corazin; Alas for you
Bethsaida! For if the miracle done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes." Jesus
compares the two cities with Tyre and Sidon which in the past were unyielding enemies
of Israel, ill-treating the people of God. For this reason they were cursed by
the Prophets: (Is 23: 1; Jr 25: 22; 47: 4; Ez 26: 3; 27: 2; 28: 2; Jl 4: 4; Am
1: 10). And now Jesus says that these same cities, symbols of all the evil done
to the people in the past, would have already converted if so many miracles
would have been worked in them as in Corazin and in Bethsaida.
• Luke 10: 15: And you Capernaum. "Did you want to be raised high as Heaven? You
shall be flung down to hell. Jesus recalls the condemnation which Isaiah,
the Prophet launched against Babylonia. Proud and arrogant, Babylonia thought:
"I shall scale the heavens; higher
than the stars of God I shall set my throne. I shall sit on the Mount of the
Assembly far away to the north. I shall climb high above the clouds, I shall
rival the Most High" (Is 14: 13-14). That is what it thought! But it
completely deceived itself! The contrary happened. The Prophet says: "Now you have been flung down to Sheol, into
the depths
of the abyss!" (Is 14: 15). Jesus compares Capernaum with
that terrible Babylonia which destroyed the monarchy and the temple and took
the people as slaves, from which it never succeeded to recover. Like Babylonia,
Capernaum thought it was something important, but it fell into the most
profound hell. The Gospel of Matthew compares Capernaum with the city of Sodom,
the symbol of the worse perversion, which was destroyed by God's anger (Gen 18:
16 to 19: 29). Sodom would have converted if it had seen the miracles which
Jesus worked in Capernaum (Mt 11: 23-24). Today, the same paradox continues to
exist. Many of us, Catholics since we were children, have such consolidated
convictions that nobody is capable to convert us. And in some places,
Christianity, instead of being a source of change and of conversion, has become
the refuge of the most reactionary forces of politics of the country.
• Luke 10: 16: "Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects
me. And those who reject me reject the one who has sent me." This
phrase places the accent on the identification of the disciples with Jesus, in
so far as he is despised by the authority. In Matthew the same phrase of Jesus,
placed in another context, underlines the identification of the disciples with
Jesus accepted by the people (Mt 10: 40). In both cases, the disciples identify
themselves with Jesus in the total gift and in this gift is realized their
encounter with God, and God allows himself to be found by those who seek him.
Personal Questions
• Does my city and my country deserve the
warning of Jesus against Capernaum, Corazin and Bethsaida?
• How do I identify myself with Jesus?
Concluding Prayer
Protect me, O God,
in you is my refuge. To Yahweh I say,
'You are my Lord,
my happiness is in none.' My birthright, my cup is Yahweh; you, you alone, hold
my lot secure. (Ps 16: 1-2, 5)
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