November 6, 2025
Thursday of the Thirty-first
Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 488
Reading
1
Brothers and
sisters:
None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.
For if we live, we live for the Lord,
and if we die, we die for the Lord;
so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
For this is why Christ died and came to life,
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Why then do you judge your brother or sister?
Or you, why do you look down on your brother or sister?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God;
for it is written:
As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.
So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. ( 13) I
believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land
of the living.
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land
of the living.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land
of the living.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
The tax collectors
and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
"This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
So Jesus addressed this parable to them.
"What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.'
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
"Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house,
searching carefully until she finds it?
And when she does find it,
she calls together her friends and neighbors
and says to them,
'Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.'
In just the same way, I tell you,
there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who repents."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110625.cfm
Commentary on Romans 14:7-12
Chapter 14 of
Paul’s letter to the Romans is one of the most inspiring passages in the New
Testament. It is a hymn to tolerance and the acceptance of others.
Because the
Christian community consisted of both former Jews and Gentiles, there were
often disagreements still over certain ritualistic practices which had been
carried over from Judaism. To the Jews, the attitudes of the Gentiles seemed
very lax, if not downright wrong. To the Gentiles, some Jews seemed
over-scrupulous and legalistic. What Paul recommends is that each one be
tolerant and understanding of the weaknesses of others and not to cause
unnecessary offence.
In today’s
reading, Paul reminds us that there is only one Lord and that is Jesus
Christ. It balances yesterday’s reading about the primacy of love.
The real object of that love must always be God and Jesus, found in every
person.
And so he says:
…we do not live
to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord,
and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die,
we are the Lord’s.
None of us has an
independence of our own. In life and in death we belong totally to the
Lord. This, of course, is a fact which no believing person can deny, but
if it is also a genuine conviction, then it also needs to be acknowledged and
lived out in our lives.
And says Paul, it
is:
…to this end
Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the
living.
How then can an
individual abrogate to himself the right to sit in judgement over a brother or
sister? Or have the right to look down on a brother or sister? As
is clear from the overall context of the chapter, he is referring to some of
the weaker brothers and sisters who, for instance, will not eat food that has
been offered to idols for fear they will be seen as not true converts from
paganism. Paul regards them as still weak in their faith.
Paul himself, who
knows that idols mean nothing and are only man-made images, does not care where
food comes from, but in the presence of such people, he will not eat that food
rather than upset them:
…it is good not
to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister
stumble.(Rom 14:21)
Jesus had strong
words of warning for people who were stumbling blocks in the way of the “little
ones”, those still in the early stages of faith. It is something we need
to keep in mind.
Of course, Paul is
speaking of issues which do not touch the core of our faith. Among
Catholics today such an issue could be taking Communion in the hand or on the
tongue. People may have strong ideas about one or the other, but neither
side has the right to pass definitive judgement. It will not be on an
issue like this that we will be judged—nor should we judge others either.
We are not
isolated masters of what we do or say. We do not live in a moral vacuum,
where we only have to be answerable to ourselves. Everything we do has an
affect on others and we are responsible for the influences we exert for good
and for bad.
There can only be
one Judge and he is the One before whom all of us will have to stand some
day. Only one Person has all authority before which all must bow. Paul
then paraphrases from the prophet Isaiah (Is 45:23):
As I live, says
the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.
And Paul says in
conclusion:
So then, each
one of us will be held accountable.
So then, how can
we take it on ourselves to sit in judgment on others, as has obviously been
happening among some of the Christian communities with which Paul is
connected? It is not for any of us to judge the behaviour of brothers and
sisters. It is not for us to condemn them for their weaknesses which we
don’t happen to have. God will take care of that in his own time and way. Only
he knows what inner motives and the resources people have to do good. Our sole
concern should be to be ready to give an account of our own stewardship.
That does not
mean, of course, that we will not be called on to evaluate the conduct or the
behaviour of other people. For instance, a prospective employee will be
evaluated by an employer as to his or her suitability for a particular
post. For example, we do not just allow anyone who applies to become a
teacher, a policeman or a priest.
But evaluating a
person’s intellectual or other capacity is not the same thing as passing a
definitive judgement on the person. We may utterly condemn the work of a
terrorist in blowing up a building full of innocent people, but we cannot pass
a final judgement on such a person, whose inner motives and convictions are
hidden from us and who also can change and become a totally different person.
Perhaps today’s terrorist can be tomorrow’s highly respected prime minister. It
is a fact that many of the people we now regard as saints were guilty of
seriously immoral behaviour in their earlier lives.
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Commentary on Luke 15:1-10
The previous
Gospel passage seemed to show Jesus at his most radical:
Whoever comes
to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and
sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.
Today we see
Jesus’ compassionate and understanding side. These two views are not
contradictory.
The Gospel says
that tax collectors and sinners were gathering round to listen to Jesus. To
some of the Pharisees and scribes this was quite scandalous. They say: “This fellow
[Greek, houtos; and one can hear the contempt in the phrase]
welcomes sinners and eats with them.” As far as they were concerned, any
God-fearing person, not to mention a rabbi (teacher), would have absolutely
nothing to do with such people.
It was bad enough
socialising with them, but to share their food was unthinkable. They were
unclean, and one became unclean by sitting at the same table with them. To eat
with people was a sign of recognition and acceptance. As far as the Pharisees
were concerned, these were contemptible, unclean sinners. It only confirmed the
opinion of the Pharisees and scribes that Jesus was a person to be removed.
In reply, Luke
gives us three separate parables, each touching on the same theme. We have two
of them today. The third and most famous—the Prodigal Son—appears elsewhere in
the liturgical readings (24th Sunday in Year C). Each one is a picture of God’s
attitude towards the sinner, and it is very different from that of the
Pharisee.
The first is of a
shepherd who has lost one of 100 sheep entrusted to his care. The theme of the
sheep and the shepherd is common in the Old Testament. We think of the famous
Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd…”) and a beautiful passage in Ezekiel
(34:11-16). Without hesitation, the good shepherd leaves the 99 ‘good’ sheep
and goes off looking for the stray. When he finds it, he puts it on his
shoulders and comes back in jubilation, inviting all his friends and neighbours
to celebrate:
Rejoice with
me, for I have found my lost sheep.
Similarly,
concludes Jesus, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who
sincerely repents and comes back to God than over many (self-) ‘righteous’
people who have no need to repent, or who think they have no need to repent.
There seems to be an ironic and sarcastic tone here. Who does not need to
repent of something at some time? Jesus presents a totally different attitude
to the repentant sinner, and he gives it as God’s own attitude.
The second parable
is similar. A housewife who has “10 silver coins” (drachmas)—probably the sum
total of her wealth—has lost one of them. Will she not turn the whole house
upside down looking for it? A house like this would typically have no windows
and rough earthen floors (and, of course, no electricity!), making a search
quite difficult. But when she does eventually find it, she will call in all her
friends and neighbours to share her joy:
Rejoice with
me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.
Jesus concludes:
…there is joy
in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
“In the presence
of angels”, of course, means ‘with God’.
We need to
remember that these stories were told as Jesus’ response to the criticism of
some scribes and Pharisees. He had absolutely no reason to apologise for his
mixing with tax collectors, sinners and other social and religious outcasts. He
was like the shepherd or the housewife in the parables. He was looking for
people who were lost so that he could bring them back.
He spent time in
their company, not because he did not mind what they did; on the contrary, his
whole purpose was to change them. But he could not do that at a distance.
The mind of the
Pharisee was different. These people with whom Jesus was associating were
sinful and unclean, and the ‘good’ person had to have no contact with them of
any kind or they too would become unclean.
Notice the
different motivation. The Pharisee was only thinking of his own spiritual and
ritual purity. Jesus was thinking of the person who was lost and needed to be
brought back to a world of truth and love. And so he reached out. He went to
where the sinner was. A Pharisee thought he was spiritually and morally strong,
yet his avoiding the sinner showed he was afraid of contamination. Jesus was
not afraid of such contamination—he was the really strong one. He could be with
the sinners without becoming one of them.
Much of this is
highly relevant for our Christian life today. There is probably a lot more of
the Pharisee in our Christian hearts than we are prepared to admit. ‘Good’ Catholics
tend to keep away from ‘immoral’ situations and the people who are there.
‘Good’ Catholics do not like to be seen in certain places which do not have a
‘good’ reputation. They even call them “occasions of sin”.
We tend to live in
enclosed enclaves (we may hardly be able to call them ‘communities’), taking
care of our own spiritual welfare. But that is not the Church that Christ
founded. We are called to proclaim the Gospel. We are called to reach out to
the sinner. To do so, we have to welcome them and eat with them. Instead of
living in sanitised suburbs, we should be down in the poor sections of our
cities, in our pubs and clubs, in our ‘red light’ districts reaching out and
listening and, where possible, bringing back a sheep that is lost and does not
know where it is going.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2315g/
Thursday,
November 6, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening prayer
God of power and
mercy, only with Your help can we offer You fitting service and praise. May we
live the faith we profess and trust Your promise of eternal life.
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 15:1-10
The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to
listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
"This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." So Jesus addressed
this parable to them. "What man among you having a hundred sheep and
losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after
the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his
shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his
friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found
my lost sheep.' I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in
heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who
have no need of repentance. "Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds
it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and
says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.' In
just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who repents."
Reflection
•
The Gospel today presents the first one of three
parables united by the same word. It is a question of three things which were
lost: the lost sheep (Lk 15:3-7), the lost drachma (Lk 15:8-10), and the lost
son (Lk 15:11-32). The three parables are addressed to the Pharisees and to the
doctors of the law who criticized Jesus (Lk 15:1-3). That is, they are
addressed to the Pharisee and to the scribe or doctor of the law which is in
each one of us.
•
Luke 15:1-3: Those to whom the parables are
addressed. The first three verses describe the context in which the three
parables were pronounced: “At that time, the tax collectors and sinners were
all crowding round to listen to Him. The Pharisees and scribes complained”. On
one side there were the tax collectors and the sinners; on the other the Pharisees
and the doctors of the law. Luke speaks, exaggerating somewhat: “The tax
collectors and the sinners were all crowding round to listen to Jesus”. There
was something in Jesus which attracted them. It is the word of Jesus which
attracts them (cf. Isa 50:4). They want to listen to Him. This is a sign that
they do not feel condemned, but rather
they feel accepted by Him. The criticism of the Pharisees and the scribes is
the following: "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!” When
sending out the seventy-two disciples (Lk 10:1-9), Jesus had ordered them to
accept the excluded, the sick, the possessed (Mt 10:8; Lk 10:9) and to gather
them for the banquet (Lk 10:8).
•
Luke 15:4: The Parable of the lost sheep. The
parable of the lost sheep begins with a question: “Which one of you, with a
hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the ninety-nine and go after
the missing one until he found it?” Before giving a response, Jesus must have
looked around to see who was listening to Him to see how they would have
answered. The question is formulated in such a way that the response can only
be a positive one: “Yes, he will go after the lost sheep!” And you, how would
you answer? Would you leave the ninety-nine in the field to go and look for the
only one which got lost? Who would do this? Probably, the majority would have
answered, “Jesus, who among us? Nobody would do such an absurd thing. The
proverb says: “Better one bird in the hand than one hundred flying around!”
•
Luke 15:5-7: Jesus interprets the parable of the
lost sheep. Now, in the parable, the shepherd does what nobody would do: to
leave everything and to go and look for the lost sheep. God alone can assume
such an attitude! Jesus wants us to become aware, conscious of the Pharisee or
the scribe which is in each one of us. The Pharisees and the scribes abandoned
the sinners and excluded them. They would have never gone to look for the lost
sheep. They would have allowed it to get lost in the desert. They preferred the
ninety-nine. But Jesus places Himself in the place of the sheep which got lost,
which in the context of the official religion, would fall into despair without
the hope of being accepted. Jesus makes them and us know: “If you feel that you
are a lost sinner, remember that for God you are worth more than the other
ninety-nine sheep. And in the case that you are converted, know that there will
be “greater joy in heaven for a sinner who is converted, than for ninety-nine
just who do not need conversion.”
•
Luke 15:8-10: Parable of the lost drachma. The
second Parable: "Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she
lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly until she
found it? Then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbors
saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, I have found the drachma I lost. In the same
way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant
sinner’”. God rejoices with us. The angels rejoice with us. The parable serves
to communicate hope to those who were threatened with despair because of the
official religion. This message recalls what God tells us in the book of the
prophet Isaiah: "Look, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands!” (Isa
49: 16). “Since, I regard you as precious, since you are honored and I love
you!” (Isa 43: 4).
Personal questions
•
Would you go out to look for the lost sheep?
•
Do you think that today the Church is faithful
to this parable of Jesus?
•
Who are the lost sheep today? Are they sinners?
Are they non-believers? Are they those who are misled in their beliefs?
•
Is there a person responsibility in looking for
and finding lost sheep, or is it just an institutional one – just for the
Church and bishops and pastors?
Concluding prayer
Seek Yahweh and His strength, tirelessly seek His presence!
Remember the marvels He has done,
His wonders, the judgments He has spoken. (Ps 105:4-5)
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