September 12, 2026
Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 442
Reading 1
My beloved ones, avoid idolatry.
I am speaking as to sensible people;
judge for yourselves what I am saying.
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one Body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.
Look at Israel according to the flesh;
are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
So what am I saying?
That meat sacrificed to idols is anything?
Or that an idol is anything?
No, I mean that what they sacrifice,
they sacrifice to demons, not to God,
and I do not want you to become participants with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons.
You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.
Or are we provoking the Lord to jealous anger?
Are we stronger than him?
Responsorial Psalm
R. (17) To
you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. To you,
Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. To you,
Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I
command?
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,
listens to my words, and acts on them.
That one is like a man building a house,
who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;
when the flood came, the river burst against that house
but could not shake it because it had been well built.
But the one who listens and does not act
is like a person who built a house on the ground
without a foundation.
When the river burst against it,
it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091226.cfm
Commentary on 1
Corinthians 10:14-22
Paul today returns to the problem of Christians eating food
offered to idols, while also participating in the Christian Eucharist.
He first warns them to stay away from all forms of idolatry.
This is no empty warning. Most of the Corinthian Christians were recent
converts from paganism and their old customs, coupled as they likely were with
superstitions, could still attract them. In their daily lives they were
surrounded by reminders of the paganism they had left: temples to Apollo,
Asclepius, Demeter, Aphrodite and other gods and goddesses. The worship of
Aphrodite, with its huge numbers of sacred prostitutes, would still have been a
strong temptation.
But he points out that the Christians have not been left
with nothing to replace these former practices. They now have what we call the
Eucharist.
There is the “cup of blessing” from which all the gathered
community drinks and which is “a sharing in the blood of Christ”, the blood
poured out on the cross and something far more meaningful than the blood of
sacrificed animals.
The original blessing cup was drunk at the Jewish Passover.
At the Passover meal which was the Last Supper, Jesus had said over this cup as
he gave it to his table companions:
Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the
covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
(Matt 26:27-28)
And he had told his disciples to continue doing this in
memory of his suffering, death and resurrection.
There is the bread that is broken, which is a communion with
the body of Christ. Again, at the Last Supper, Jesus had taken a loaf of bread
from the table, had said a blessing over it and, as he broke and distributed it
to his disciples, had said:
Take, eat; this is my body. (Matt 26:26)
Paul emphasises the significance of the one loaf which is
broken and shared out among the celebrating community saying:
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body,
for we all partake of the one bread.
It is again a communion in the Body of Christ, of which this
community is now a part. It is a sacramental act of total identity of the
community with Christ and of the members of the community with Christ and with
each other. This is the source of their nourishment and Life.
This eating together of the Body and Blood of Christ under
the forms of bread and wine is the Christian sacrifice which more than replaces
what the Corinthians have left behind in the pagan temples.
Paul indicates that what the Christians do is in many ways
not unlike the Jews who also ate the meat of the animals offered in the
Jerusalem Temple to God. It was also a form of communion with the Lord in the
old covenant. The sacrificial rites in the pagan temples were also a form of
‘communion’ with the deity, but meant little because those deities were no more
than the wood or stone images from which their images were made.
Paul is warning the Christians that if they do eat meat
sacrificed to idols, they should not eat it as part of the pagan worship. He
tells them:
You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table
of demons.
His words imply that some of the Christians who shared the
Eucharistic table were also visiting the temples and even involving themselves
in immoral behaviour there.
Comparing his words earlier, he makes a clear distinction
between eating food offered to idols as a sharing or ‘communion’ with the
imagined god and eating that food when separated from the act of worship. He
forbids the first because it involves idolatry, and he allows the second
because the food has no sacred value whatever—given that the object of worship
is non-existent.
Paul’s warnings against involvement in idol worship might
seem fairly irrelevant to many Catholic communities in the West, but it can
still be a real problem in parts of Africa, Asia, and even the Caribbean.
However, in the West too there have been several movements,
loosely labeled ‘New Age’ and the like, which attract many Christians, especially
those on the fringes of church life, and which do not seem compatible with the
gospel and participation in the Eucharist. Discernment is needed to judge which
ones can be grafted into Christianity and which are opposed to it.
Paul’s words about the sharing of the cup and the one loaf
also highlights an aspect of the Eucharist which is often lost by many, where
‘going to Mass’ and ‘receiving Communion’ are seen all too often as the private
and devotional acts of an individual.
The Eucharist has no meaning except as a community and
sharing celebration. It is not just a ‘receiving’ of Jesus into ‘my soul’. It
is a “partak[ing] of the one bread” and a shared eating which emphasises the
real presence of Christ not only in the bread and wine, but even more importantly,
in the celebrating community. In the passage subsequent to today’s reading, we
will see that to neglect the community during the celebration of the Eucharist
is a kind of sacrilege.
Commentary on Luke 6:43-49
In our final reading from Luke’s version of the Sermon on
the Plain, Jesus speaks of the qualities of a genuine disciple. The goodness of
every disciple comes from within and is not to be measured merely by one’s
external behaviour:
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree
bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit.
At the same time, consistently good behaviour is a sign of a
healthy interior:
The good person out of the good treasure of the heart
produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil, for it
is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
We need to focus our energies on our interior spirit. If
that is good, the rest will take care of itself.
Another measure of the good disciple is how he or she
listens and acts on the words of the Master. To ‘listen’ includes hearing,
understanding, accepting, and assimilating into one’s self the Master’s
teaching and vision. The behaviour then follows naturally, spontaneously and,
to a large extent, effortlessly.
Such a person is compared to a man who has built his house
on a strong foundation. When floods came, the house stood firm. On the other
hand, the one who listens, but does not take in and so does not act on what has
been heard is like a man who built his house on a poor foundation. When the
floods came, it collapsed.
This parable needs to be read in the context of the early
Church where, in time of persecution, some stood firm because their faith was
deeply rooted, while others fell away at the first sign of pressure.
Even if there is no overt persecution of the Christian faith
where we live, we live in times which are very threatening to a genuinely
Christ-centred life. Without a sure foundation, it is very easy to be enticed
away to a life of materialism, consumerism, hedonism, and individualism.
Because of their superficial attractiveness and their being indulged in by so
many around us, these things are often far more insidious than outright attacks
on our faith.
In fact, experience shows again and again that nothing
strengthens people’s faith more than open persecution. Most of us live in a
much more dangerous environment, an environment not of torture and imprisonment,
but of advertising and media hype promising untold happiness and pleasure,
where the vision of the gospel is ignored, irrelevant or actively rejected. We
need to have very sure foundations to live in such a world.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Saturday,
September 12, 2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
God our Father,
You redeem us and make us Your
children in Christ. Look upon us, give us true freedom and bring us to the
inheritance You promised.
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 6: 43-49
Jesus said to His disciples, ‘There
is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that
produces sound fruit. Every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not
pick figs from thorns nor gather grapes from brambles. Good people draw what is
good from the store of goodness in their hearts; bad people draw what is bad
from the store of badness. For the words of the mouth flow out of what fills
the heart. ‘Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord” and not do what I say?
‘Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and
acts on them—I will show you what such a person is like. Such a person is like
the man who, when he built a house, dug, and dug deep, and laid the foundations
on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not
shake it, it was so well built. But someone who listens and does nothing is
like the man who built a house on soil, with no foundations; as soon as the
river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!’
Reflection
In today’s Gospel we have the last part of the Discourse on
the Plain, that is, the version which Luke presents in the Sermon on the Mount
of the Gospel of Matthew. And Luke puts together what follows:
•
Luke 6: 43-45: The parable of the tree that
bears good fruit. “There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again
a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. Every tree can be known by its own
fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, or gather grapes from brambles.”
The letter of James the Apostle serves as a commentary to this parable of
Jesus: “Does any water supply give
a flow of fresh water and salt water
out of the same pipe? Can a fig tree yield olives, my brothers, or a vine yield
figs? No more can sea water yield fresh water” (James 3: 11-12). A person who
is well formed in the tradition of living together in community develops within
self a good nature which leads him/her to do good. “The good of the treasure of
his/her heart is brought out”, but the person who does not pay attention to
his/her formation will have difficulty in producing good deeds. Rather, “from
his/her evil treasure evil will come out evil, because the mouth speaks of the
fullness of the heart.” Concerning the “good treasure of the heart” it is
worthwhile to remember what the Book of Ecclesiasticus says on the heart, the
source of good counsel: “Stick to the advice your own heart gives you, no one
can be truer to you than that; since a person’s soul often gives a clearer
warning than seven watchmen perched on a watchtower. And besides all this beg
the Most High to guide your steps into the truth” (Sir 37: 13-15).
•
Luke 6: 46: It is not sufficient to say, Lord,
Lord. What is important is not to say beautiful things about God, but rather to
do the will of the Father and in this way be a revelation of His face and of
His presence in the world.
•
Luke 6: 47-49: To construct the house on rock.
To listen and to put into practice, this is the conclusion of the Sermon on the
Mount. Many people sought security and religious power in the extraordinary
heads (gifts) or in the observance. But true security does not come from power;
it does not come from any of those things. It comes from God! And God becomes
the source of security, when we seek to do His will. And in this way, He will
be the rock which will support us, in the difficult hours and in the storms.
God is the rock of our life. In the Book of Psalms, we
frequently find the expression: “God is my rock, my fortress... My God, my
Rock, my refuge, my shield, the force which saves me...” (Ps 18: 3). He is the
defense and the force of those who believe in Him and who seek justice (Ps 18:
21-24). The people who trust in this God become, in turn, a rock for others.
Thus, the prophet Isaiah invites the people who were in exile: “Listen to me,
you who pursue saving justice, you who seek Yahweh. Consider the rock from
which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were dug. Consider Abraham your
father and Sarah who gave you birth” (Isa 51: 1-2). The prophet asks the people
not to forget the past and to remember Abraham and Sarah who, because of their
faith in God, became a rock, the beginning of the People of God. Looking toward
this rock, the people should draw courage to fight and get out of the exile.
And thus Matthew exhorts the communities to have as an incentive or encouragement
this same rock (Mt 7: 24-25) and in this way be themselves rocks to strengthen
their brothers in the faith. This is also the significance which Jesus gives to
Peter: “You are Peter and on this Rock I will build my Church” (Mt 16: 18).
This is the vocation of the first communities called to unite themselves to
Jesus, the living Rock, so as to become themselves living rocks, listening and
putting into practice the Word (Ps 2: 4-10; 2: 5; Eph 2: 19-22).
Personal Questions
•
What is the quality of my heart?
•
Is my house built on rock?
Concluding Prayer
Lord, You created my inmost self, knit me together in
my mother’s womb. For so many marvels I thank You; a wonder am I, and all Your
works are wonders. (Ps 139: 13-14)
