October 5, 2026
Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 461
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking
the one who called you by the grace of Christ
for a different gospel (not that there is another).
But there are some who are disturbing you
and wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven
should preach to you a gospel
other than the one that we preached to you,
let that one be accursed!
As we have said before, and now I say again,
if anyone preaches to you a gospel
other than the one that you received,
let that one be accursed!
Am I now currying favor with human beings or God?
Or am I seeking to please people?
If I were still trying to please people,
I would not be a slave of Christ.
Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters,
that the Gospel preached by me is not of human origin.
For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it,
but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (5) The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart
in the company and assembly of the just.
Great are the works of the LORD,
exquisite in all their delights.
R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The works of his hands are faithful and just;
sure are all his precepts,
Reliable forever and ever,
wrought in truth and equity.
R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has sent deliverance to his people;
he has ratified his covenant forever;
holy and awesome is his name.
His praise endures forever.
R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I give you a new commandment:
love one another as I have loved you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus
and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?
How do you read it?”
He said in reply,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.”
He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live.”
But because he wished to justify himself, he said to
Jesus,
“And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied,
“A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.’
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100526.cfm
Commentary on
Galatians 1:6-12
We begin today reading Paul’s Letter to the Galatians and
will stay with it until Wednesday of next week. Galatia was a province of the
Roman Empire in what is now central Turkey. Its name implies that it was
originally settled by people of Celtic origin. There is some dispute as to
whether Paul is addressing Christians in the area that was, strictly speaking
Galatian (the north), or the whole of the Roman province of Galatia which, in
the south, included parts which were not strictly speaking Galatian. This is
not an important issue for us in our understanding of the contents of his
message.
The letter has been called the Magna Carta of Christian
liberty. It deals with the question of whether a Gentile has to become a Jew
before becoming a Christian. Some teachers had entered the Galatian Christian
communities and told them that, in addition to following Christ, they had to
observe the Law of Moses. Paul counters this by saying that it is through faith
in Jesus Christ that a person comes right with God and not by the observance of
external laws and ritual observances. The Letter of James will complement this
teaching by saying that works not inspired by faith are dead, but that a faith
which does not express itself in loving works for others is also dead.
As stated in the New American Bible:
“The importance of this brief letter is hard to
overestimate. Written perhaps about 55 AD during Paul’s third missionary
journey, it gives many autobiographical details of the Apostle’s earlier life
and evangelistic activity. Here are set forth, with impassioned eloquence, the
true function of the Mosaic law and its relation to God’s grace manifested in
Christ. The declaration of the principles reiterated in these six chapters made
Christianity a world religion instead of a Jewish sect.”
It is a very contentious letter in which Paul attacks
unknown missionaries who have been telling the baptised gentile Galatians that
they must adopt some of the traditional Jewish customs, especially that of
circumcision, as a mark of their Christian identity. Paul disagrees vigorously
with this teaching. In the process, he says many other things of great
significance for our Christian lives.
Today’s reading consists of a warning expressed in rather
strong language. It takes the place of the usual introductory thanksgiving for
the graces experienced by the local church with which Paul’s letters typically
begin. In fact, at no time in the letter does Paul have words of praise for the
Galatian Christians.
Paul is deeply concerned with what he regards as a rather
hasty and sudden change in the Galatians’ beliefs so soon after their
conversion. They have, in fact, turned away from the One who called them. He
accuses them of following a different gospel and, in so doing,
of basically turning away from the gospel that Jesus gave and from the
call they received from Jesus Christ.
This, Paul says, is the work of:
…some who are confusing you and want to pervert the
gospel of Christ.
In the course of the letter we will see that these
‘troublemakers’ are ‘Judaisers’. He is referring to Jews who had converted to
Christianity and who want even the gentile (non-Jewish) Christians to
incorporate Jewish customs, especially circumcision, as an integral part of
their Christian living.
Paul asserts that there is only one gospel of Christ and
that is the one they heard from him. And anyone who preaches a different gospel
is “anathema” (“accursed” in some translations), i.e. to be condemned. The
Greek word anathema originally referred to an offering made in a pagan
temple for a vow. Later it came to represent a curse.
In fact, says Paul, if anyone were to preach a different
gospel from the one originally proclaimed to them, whether it be an angel of
God or even Paul himself, that person is to be condemned and rejected.
It is clear that some of the Judaising people were accusing
Paul of “seeking human approval”, that is, trying to make conversion easier for
Gentiles by not insisting on Jewish customs, especially circumcision (which, in
those times, would have been quite a painful, and even dangerous operation, for
adult males). While, on other occasions, Paul showed himself sensitive to the
weaknesses of Gentiles, he strongly affirms that that is not the case here.
Paul rejects that accusation. If he really wanted these
customs to be preserved, he would have remained what he formerly was—a devout
Pharisee. But now he is a “servant of Christ” and he follows the Way of Christ
whether that wins people’s approval or not, because only there does he find
salvation and true liberation.
Finally, he emphasises that the gospel he preaches is not a
human invention, but that he “received it through a revelation of Jesus
Christ.” In so saying, he is not asserting that everything he knows about the
gospel of Christ comes through direct revelation. Much of what he believed came
through the disciples of Jesus who instructed him. And the key to salvation is
faith and trust in the message of Jesus, and not in external observance of a
Law. That will be a central point in this whole letter.
For us, too, the same is true. It is possible for the
Christian to get hung up on various external acts and obligations which are
identified with Christianity (or Catholicism). We may never miss Sunday Mass,
we may even keep observing abstinence on Fridays and yet many things in our
lives may be far removed from the spirit of the gospel. We need to reflect on
just what makes a ‘good Catholic’.
Commentary on Luke
10:25-37
As we accompany Jesus firmly on his way to Jerusalem we come
across this beautiful incident which is only to be found in Luke. Imagine our
loss if this Gospel had not been handed down to us. What other treasures of
Jesus have we in fact lost over the centuries?
We are told that a scribe approached Jesus with the
intention of putting him on the defensive and perhaps making him contradict the
teaching of the Law. It is not clear whether this was just a single attack or
part of a conspiracy. The question sounded simple, the kind that anyone would
put to a religious teacher:
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
As so often happens, Jesus throws the question back at his
interrogator. In fact, as a scribe, the man should already know the answer and
Jesus asks him his opinion.
He replies as a scribe might be expected to, not in his own
words, but quoting two passages from the Pentateuch, from the books of
Deuteronomy and Leviticus which say we are to love God with all our heart and
soul and our neighbour as ourselves. Jesus says in response:
You have given the right answer; do this, and you will
live.
However, the man is not satisfied:
…wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who
is my neighbor”?
For him “neighbor” meant, of course, only other Jews like
himself, but did it include every Jew, even those who did not follow the Law?
Was he supposed to love them also?
The answer Jesus gave must have come as a surprise, not to
say a shock. And it came in the form of a kind of parable. It is the story we
know as the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the eyes of most Jews of the
time, such a term would be a contradiction because it was about someone from
Samaria. It would be like saying someone is a ‘good terrorist’.
It is most likely (for the story to have meaning) that the
man who was set upon by robbers and left half dead on his way from Jerusalem to
Jericho was a Jew. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was a distance of about
30 km and involved a drop from about 800 metres above sea level to about 150
metres below sea level. It ran through rocky and desert country providing ample
opportunity for hidden robbers to waylay unwitting travellers.
In the story, three people saw the injured man there. Two of
them were religious people, people expected to be lovers of God and neighbour.
Yet both carefully passed by on the other side. It is most likely that they
were going in the opposite direction, that is, they were on their way from
Jericho to Jerusalem and the Temple. The injured man would have been covered in
blood. No one intending to go to pray in the Temple would dare to become
contaminated and made ritually unclean by coming in contact with blood. In
other words, they ignored the man for religious reasons.
But then a Samaritan came by. He was, in the eyes of the
Jews, an alien and a heretic. There was strong hostility between the two
neighbouring peoples on historical, geographical, racial and religious grounds.
The Samaritan was regarded as a ‘half-breed’ both physically and spiritually.
They were ethnically related and shared some of the Jewish beliefs, but were
seen as heretics, ‘half-Jews’. We remember how surprised the Samaritan woman by
the well of Jacob was when she was spoken to by Jesus, who would have been
expected to ignore her.
This despised outsider, presumed to have nothing of the
spirit of God’s mercy and compassion, gives the Jew lying on the ground the
attention that the two other religious-minded men refuse to give. In fact, the
Samaritan went to extraordinary lengths to take care of the injured man,
sparing no expense. Two silver coins may not seem very much, but it represented
two days’ wages and would have been enough to keep someone for up to two months
in a wayside inn.
It is difficult for us, now in our time, to understand the
impact that such a story would have had on the traditional Jewish listener, not
to mention a scribe. In our world today, it would be something like a
Palestinian fighter coming to the help of an Israeli soldier or vice versa.
Perhaps you can think of examples closer to home.
The question of Jesus is interesting:
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the
man who fell into the hands of the robbers?
The answer of the scribe is equally interesting:
The one who showed him mercy.
The answer then to the question, “Who is my neighbour?” is
not, as we learnt in our catechism, “Everybody”, though that is true. The
answer of Jesus is: A neighbour is someone who shows compassion to another in
need—irrespective of who the helper or the person in need may be. It is less a
question of seeing every other person as my neighbour, but much more
importantly, of my being actively a neighbour to others, not on the basis of
their race, nationality, occupation, gender, skin colour, or beliefs, but on
the basis of need. And who does not need love and compassion?
Finally, in answer to an academic, theological question,
“Who is my neighbour?” Jesus tells the scribe not what or who is
his neighbour, but to:
Go and do likewise.
In other words, to go and be a neighbour.
The story has a secondary lesson for us about stereotyping.
For the Jews there was the negative stereotype of the Samaritan (which was
probably reciprocated). Our world today is full of stereotypes. We have
stereotypes of practically every race and ethnic group and skin colour, every
gender and political persuasion, and they can influence our attitudes deeply
and often unconsciously.
With regard to race, certainly each race can have
recognisable characteristics—Jews, Italians, Irish, Germans, French, Chinese,
Indians, Japanese, Africans—arising from language and traditions, but it is an
irrational jump to attribute to every member of a group generalised
characteristics. We can never say that “Irish are…”, or “Chinese are…”, or
“Africans are…” There are too many exceptions.
Every single person has to be approached individually and
there are good, bad and indifferent people to be found in every group,
including our own. But they all have one thing in common: they should be
confident of being helped by good neighbours in their time of need.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Monday, October 5, 2026
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 10: 25-37
A lawyer stood up and, to test
Jesus, asked, 'Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him,
'What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?' He replied, 'You must
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.' Jesus said to
him, 'You have answered right, do this and life is yours.' But the man was
anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' In
answer Jesus said, 'A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho
and fell into the hands of bandits; they stripped him, beat him and then made
off, leaving him half dead. Now a priest happened to be travelling down the
same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
In the same way a Levite who
came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan traveler who
came on him was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up to him and
bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him onto his
own mount and took him to an inn and looked after him.
Next day, he took out two
denarii and handed them to the innkeeper and said, "Look after him, and on
my way back I will make good any extra expense you have."
Which of these three, do you
think, proved himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the bandits' hands?'
He replied, 'The one who showed
pity towards him.' Jesus said to him, 'Go, and do the same yourself.'
Reflection
The Gospel today presents the
parable of the Good Samaritan. To mediate on a parable is the same thing as to
look deeper into our life to discover in it the call of God. In describing the
long journey of Jesus to Jerusalem (Lk 9: 51 to 19: 28), Luke helps the
communities to better understand what the Good News of the
Kingdom consists of. He does it by presenting persons who
come to speak with Jesus and ask Him questions. These are real questions from
the people of the time of Jesus and they are also real questions asked by the
communities of the time of Luke. Thus, today in the Gospel, a doctor of the law
asks: "What should I do to inherit
eternal life?" The response, both of the doctor and that of Jesus,
helps us to better understand the objective of the Law of God.
•
Luke 10: 25-26: "What should I do to inherit eternal life?" A doctor, who
knew the law wants to test Jesus and asks him: "What should I do to inherit eternal life?" The doctor
thinks that he has to do something in order to be able to inherit. He wants to
obtain the inheritance through his own personal effort. But an inheritance is
not merited. We receive an inheritance by the simple fact of being son or daughter. "Therefore, you are no
longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir by God's own act." (Ga
4: 7). As sons and daughters we can do nothing to merit the inheritance. We can
lose it however!
•
Luke 10: 27-28: The answer of the doctor. Jesus responds asking a new question:
"What is written in the Law? The doctor responds correctly. Uniting
two phrases of the Law, He says: "You
must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." This
phrase comes from Deuteronomy (Dt 6: 5) and from Leviticus (Lv 19: 18). Jesus
approves of the response and says: "Do
this and life is yours!" What is important, the principal thing, is to
love God! But God comes to me in my neighbor. The neighbor is the revelation of
God for me. And because of this, I have to love my neighbor also with all my
heart, with all my soul and with all my strength and with all my mind!
•
Luke 10: 29: "And
who is my neighbor?" Wanting to justify himself, the doctor asks: "And who is my neighbor?" He
wants to know: "In which neighbor God comes to me?" That is, which is
the person close to me who is the revelation of God for me? For the Jews the
expression "neighbor" was
linked to the clan, it was not a neighbor. Anyone who did not belong to the
clan was not a neighbor. According to Deuteronomy, they could exploit the
"foreigner", but not the "neighbor" (Dt 15: 1-3). Proximity was based on bonds of race and of
blood. Jesus has a different way of seeing which He expresses in the parable of
the Good Samaritan.
•
Luke 10: 30-36: The parable:
•
Luke 10: 30: The attack along the road of
Jerusalem toward Jericho. The Desert of Judah is between Jerusalem and Jericho,
which is a refuge of rebels, marginalized, and where one could be attacked.
Jesus tells a real fact which had happened many times. "A man was on his
way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of bandits; they
stripped him, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead."
•
Luke 10: 31-32: A priest passed by travelling on
the same road, then a Levite passed by. By chance a priest passed by, and
immediately after, a Levite passed. They are officials of the Temple of the
official religion. Both saw the man who had been attacked, but passed by and
did nothing. Why did they do nothing? Jesus does not say. He allows one to
guess with whom one identifies oneself. This must have happened many times, in
the time of Jesus as well as in the time of Luke. This also happens today: a
person from the Church goes by close to a poor person without helping him. It
could also be that the priest and the Levite had a justification: "He is
not my neighbor!" or, "he is impure and if I touch him, I will also
be impure.” And today: "If I help him, I will miss Sunday Mass and will
commit a mortal sin!"
•
Luke 10: 33-35: A Samaritan passed by.
Immediately after, a Samaritan who was travelling passed by. He saw the man and
moved with compassion, he got close, bandaged his wounds, lifted him onto his
own mount and took him to an inn and looked after him during the night. The
following day he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. That
was the salary of ten days and he tells him: "Look after him and on my way
back I will make good any extra expenses you have!" This is the concrete
and effective action. It is the progressive action: to arrive, to see, to be
moved with compassion, to get close and to act. The parable says "A
Samaritan who was travelling." Jesus was also travelling up to Jerusalem.
Jesus is the Good Samaritan. The communities should be the Good Samaritan.
•
Luke 10: 36-37: Which of these three do you
think proved himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the bandits'
hands?" At the beginning the doctor had asked: "Who is my
neighbor?" Behind the question was the concern for him. He wanted to know:
God orders me to love whom, in a way to be able to have my conscience in peace
and be able to say, “I have done everything that God has asked me to do."
Jesus asks another question: "Which of these three do you think proved
himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the bandits?" The
condition of neighbor does not depend on the race, on the fact that they are
relatives, on sympathy, on closeness or on religion. Humanity is not divided
into neighbor and not neighbor. To know who our neighbor is depends on us: to
arrive, to see, to be moved with compassion and to get close. If you get close,
the other becomes your neighbor! It depends on you and not on the other! Jesus
overturns everything and takes away from the doctor the security which could
come to him from the Law.
•
The Samaritans. The word Samaritan comes from
Samaria, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel in the North. After the death of
Solomon, in the year 1931 before Christ, the ten tribes of the North separated
themselves from the kingdom of Judea in the South and formed an independent
kingdom (1K 12: 1-33). The Kingdom of the North survived approximately for 200
years. In 722, its territory was invaded by Assyria. A large part of its
population was deported (2K 17: 5-6) and people from other places went to
Samaria (2K 17: 24). There was a mixture of races and of religions (2K 17:
25-33), and the Samaritans were born from these. The Jews of the South despised
the Samaritans considering them unfaithful and adorers of false gods (2K 17:
34-41). Many prejudices existed against the Samaritans. They were not well
accepted. It was said of them that they had an erroneous doctrine and did not form
part of the People of God. Some even went so far as to say that to be a
Samaritan was something of the Devil (Jn 8: 48). Most likely, the cause of this
hatred was not only a question of race and of religion, but also a
political-economic problem, linked to the possession of the land. This rivalry
even existed in the time of Jesus. But Jesus places the Samaritans as a model
for others.
Personal Questions
•
The Samaritan of the parable was not of the
Jewish people, but he did what Jesus asks. Does this happen today? Do you know
people who do not go to Church but live what the Gospel asks? Today, who are
the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan?
•
The doctor asks: "Who is my neighbor?"
Jesus asks: "Who was the neighbor of the man who was the victim of the bandits"?
There are two different points of view: the doctor asks starting from himself.
Jesus asks starting from the needs of the other. Which is my perspective or
point of view?
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)
