October 9, 2025
Thursday of the
Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 464
Reading
1
You have defied me
in word, says the LORD,
yet you ask, "What have we spoken against you?"
You have said, "It is vain to serve God,
and what do we profit by keeping his command,
And going about in penitential dress
in awe of the LORD of hosts?
Rather must we call the proud blessed;
for indeed evildoers prosper,
and even tempt God with impunity."
Then they who fear the LORD spoke with one another,
and the LORD listened attentively;
And a record book was written before him
of those who fear the LORD and trust in his name.
And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts,
my own special possession, on the day I take action.
And I will have compassion on them,
as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.
Then you will again see the distinction
between the just and the wicked;
Between the one who serves God,
and the one who does not serve him.
For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
And the day that is coming will set them on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the LORD of hosts.
But for you who fear my name, there will arise
the sun of justice with its healing rays.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (Ps
40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Open our hearts, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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?"
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100925.cfm
Commentary on
Malachi 3:13-20
We just have one reading from this book and it comes from
the final verses of the last chapter. The Jerusalem Bible entitles
the passage: “The triumph of the upright on the Day of Yahweh”. Yahweh is
complaining that some of his people are saying harsh things about him. They are
complaining:
What do we profit by keeping his command or by going
about as mourners before the Lord of hosts?
The salvation they have been longing for is not being
realised. They feel depressed like mourners in sackcloth and ashes.
On the contrary, it is the proud and arrogant who seem to be
the happy ones; those who practise immorality are the ones who prosper and do
well out of life. They constantly challenge God’s laws with their behaviour,
but nothing ever happens to them. What is the point, then, in trying to live a
good life?
However, there were some God-fearing people, those who did
not give way to doubt and cynicism, who got together in fellowship and gave
each other mutual encouragement. They drew up a “book of remembrance” in the
Lord’s presence in which were recorded the good deeds “of those who revered the
Lord and thought on his name”. This book was analogous to the records of
notable deeds kept by earthly rulers. In this way, they kept their faith and
confidence in Yahweh.
By doing this they could clearly see the difference between
the genuinely good person and the wicked one, between the one who served God
and the one who did not.
Then comes the prophet’s warning from Yahweh:
See, the day is coming, burning like an oven…
Fire, smoke and cloud were traditionally a feature of the
coming of the Lord. We saw it when Moses and the Israelites were at Sinai. And
Isaiah says, for example:
See, the name of the Lord comes from far away,
his anger burning and his burden heavy;
his lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire. (Is 30:27)
That will be the day when the proud and the arrogant and
those who do evil will be set afire and destroyed root and branch. Speaking
about the work of Jesus, John the Baptist told the crowds who came to the
Jordan:
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his
threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he
will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matt 3:12)
On the other hand, for those who have remained faithful,
even through those days when evil seemed to prosper, for those who feared the
Lord’s name:
But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness
shall rise, with healing in its wings.
The “sun of righteousness” implies power and triumph. Isaiah
compared God and his glory with the sun (see Is 60:1,19).
The title “Sun of Righteousness”, applied to Christ, has had
its influence on the liturgy of Christmas and the Epiphany. Luke speaks of
Christ as the “rising sun” from heaven in Zechariah’s hymn known to us as
the Benedictus, which is recited every day in the Church’s Divine
Office. Zechariah’s son, John the Baptist, will prepare the way as:
…the dawn from on high will break upon us, to shine upon
those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into
the way of peace. (Luke 1:78-79)
Yes, the Light that is Christ has brought healing and
wholeness into so many lives. Let us open ourselves to that healing and
wholeness also.
However, times and people do not change very much and what
Malachi says is still true in our own time. We, too, can be so easily tempted
to go the way of those who seek the good life and get carried away by the
materialism, consumerism and hedonism that washes over us day after day. We,
too, can pay lip service to the call of our faith and just go through the
motions of ‘religious observance’. Let us eat, drink and be merry for as long
as we can and then, when the end seems to be on the horizon, we can straighten
things out with God.
It is not a very wise way of dealing with a God who can come
“like a thief in the night”. It is not a very enlightened choice. On the other
hand, once we really enter into the Way of Christ we will find that it is there
we find our deepest needs satisfied. Let us ask God to open our eyes to the
true spirit of Jesus’ gospel and make it the driving force of our lives.
Comments Off
Commentary on Luke
11:5-13
Jesus continues his instructions to his disciples about
prayer. Today the lesson is one of perseverance.
Jesus gives the parable of a man coming to a neighbour in
the middle of the night looking for some food to provide hospitality to an
unexpected visitor. The neighbour is not willing to get up and disturb his wife
and children who are sleeping with him (which would be very common in a
one-room house). But says Jesus, if the man persists, the neighbour, simply to
get some peace, will eventually get up and give the man all he needs. If a
grumpy neighbour will listen to an inconvenient request, how much more will a
loving God pay heed to the needs of his children?
In another example, Jesus asks if a father would give his
child a snake instead of a fish, or a scorpion instead of an egg. If even a
very ordinary father would not think of treating his children so callously:
If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts
to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him!
Of course, a very pertinent question comes to mind: if God
is such a loving and caring parent who will only give good things to us, why do
we have to persist in asking? Why do we have to ask at all? The reason is not
because God needs persuading (like the sleepy neighbour). Persistence in prayer
is for our benefit.
There are a number of ways of praying persistently. One is
to keep begging God to give us something we want or that we think we need.
Another is to think that somehow we can manipulate God or put him under some
kind of obligation by asking him repeatedly. So, if I do a nine-day novena and
say certain prayers each day, I may expect that God or some saint somehow is
under an obligation to give me what I am asking for. In some kinds of novenas
or other devotional exercises, there are people who would tell us that
“satisfaction is guaranteed”. This, in fact, is very close to superstition—if
not heresy.
The kind of prayer that Jesus is talking about is really
something quite different. He seems to presume that what we are asking for is
the gift of God’s Spirit:
…how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask him!
Is that what we normally ask for? To ask for the Spirit is
to ask to have the same Spirit that inspired Jesus in his life and work. It is
a Spirit which is totally at one with the will of the Father. In the parallel
text in Matthew (7:11), it is “good gifts” which the Father will give. What
could be more of a “good” thing than the very Spirit of God?
The other types of asking can be a subtle way of asking God
to do our will, instead of submitting our will to God as Jesus does:
Father…not my will but yours be done. (Luke
22:42)
Whatever form our prayer takes, ultimately it must be to be
like Jesus, so that we may grow in the likeness of the Father:
To know him more clearly, love him more dearly, follow
him more nearly.
One way of moving in this direction is to make this the
constant theme of our prayer. The more we pray for this, the more likely it
will become a reality in our lives. And it is inconceivable that God should
refuse to hear this prayer.
Comments Off
https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1275g/
Thursday,
October 9, 2025
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: 5-13
Jesus said to his disciples,
'Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to
say, "My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine on his
travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him;" and
the man answers from inside the house, "Do not bother me. The door is bolted
now, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up to give it to
you." I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it to him for
friendship's sake, persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he
wants.
'So I say to you: Ask, and it
will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be
opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds;
everyone who knocks will have the door opened.
What father among you, if his son
asked for a fish, would hand him a snake? Or if he asked for an egg, hand him a
scorpion?
If you then, evil as you are, know how to give your children
what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask him!'
Reflection
The Gospel today continues to speak about the theme
of prayer, which began with the teaching of the Our Father (Lk 11: 1-4). Today
Jesus teaches that we should pray with faith and insistence, without giving up.
For this he uses a provocative parable.
•
Luke 11: 5-7: the parable that provokes. As always when Jesus has an important
thing to teach, he has recourse to a comparison, to a parable. Today, he tells
us a strange story which ends with a question, and he addresses the question to
the people who listened to him and also to us who today read or listen to the
story. "Suppose one of you has a
friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say: My friend, lend me
three loaves because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my
house and I have nothing to offer him; and the man answers from inside the
house: Do not bother me. The door is bolted now and my children are with me in
bed: I cannot get up to give it to you." Before Jesus himself gives
the answer, he wants our opinion. What would you answer: yes or no?
•
Luke 11: 8: Jesus
responds to the provocation. Jesus gives his response: "I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it to him for
friendship's sake, persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he
wants." If it were not Jesus, would you have had the courage to invent
a story in which it is suggested that God expects our prayers to see himself
free from blows. The response of Jesus strengthens the message on prayer, that
is: God always expects our prayer. This parable reminds us of another one, also
found in Luke's Gospel, the parable of the widow who insists to obtain her
rights before the judge who respects neither God nor justice and who pays
attention to the widow only because he wants to free himself from the
insistence of the woman (Lk 18: 3-5). Then Jesus draws the conclusion to apply
the message of the parable to life.
•
Luke 11: 9-10: the first application of the Parable. "So I say to you: Ask, and
it will be given to you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be
opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, everyone who searches finds,
everyone who knocks will have the door opened." To ask, to search, to
knock at the door. If you ask, you will receive. If you search, you will find,
if you knock the door will be opened for you. Jesus does not say how much time
the request should last, knock at the door, search, but the result is certain.
•
Luke 11: 11-12: the second application of the parable. "What father among you, if
his son asked for a fish, would hand him a snake? Or if he asked for an egg,
hand him a scorpion?" This second application makes us see the type of
public listening to the words of Jesus and also his way of teaching under the
form of dialogue. He asks: "You who are a father, when your son asks you
for a fish, would you give him a snake?" The people answer:
"No!" "And if he asks you for an egg, would you give him a
scorpion?" -"No!" Through
dialogue, Jesus involves the people in the comparison and, from the responses
he receives from them, the commitment with the message of the parable.
•
Luke 11: 13: The
message: to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. "If you then evil as you are, know how to give your children what is
good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who
ask him!” The greatest gift that God has for us is the gift of the Holy
Spirit. When we were created, he breathed his spirit into our nose and we
became living beings (Gen 2: 7). In the second creation through Faith in Jesus,
he gives us the Holy Spirit again, the same Spirit who made the Word become
incarnate in Mary (Lk 1: 35). With the help of the Holy Spirit, the process of
the Incarnation of the Word continues up to the hour of his death on the Cross.
At the end, at the hour of death, Jesus commits the spirit to the Father:
"Into your hands I commit my
Spirit" (Lk 23: 46). Jesus promises us this Spirit as the source of
truth and of understanding (Jn 14: 14-17; 16: 13), and a help in the
persecutions (Mt 10: 20; Ac 4: 31). This Spirit cannot be bought with money at
the Supermarket. The only way of obtaining it is through prayer. After nine
days of prayer the abundant gift of the Spirit is obtained on the day of
Pentecost (Ac 1: 14; 2: 1-4).
Personal Questions
•
How do I respond to the provocation of the
parable? A person who lives in a small apartment in a large city, how will she
answer? Would she open the door?
•
When you pray, do you pray convinced that you
will obtain what you ask for?
Concluding Prayer
I give thanks to Yahweh with all my heart,
in the meeting-place of honest
people, in the assembly. Great are the deeds of Yahweh,
to be pondered by all who delight
in them. (Ps 111: 1-2)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét