October 27, 2026
Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 480
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the Church,
he himself the savior of the Body.
As the Church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ loved the Church
and handed himself over for her to sanctify her,
cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the Church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish.
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no one hates his own flesh
but rather nourishes and cherishes it,
even as Christ does the Church,
because we are members of his Body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his
mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church.
In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself,
and the wife should respect her husband.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1a) Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
You have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”
Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102726.cfm
Commentary on
Ephesians 5:21-33
In today’s reading Paul begins speaking about family
relationships and, specifically, about the relationship between husband and
wife. As we go through the first part of the reading we will feel a
certain level of discomfort as it, in part, certainly conflicts with attitudes
which prevail in our contemporary society. Two points must be made.
First, the reading reflects the prevailing attitudes of
Paul’s day, and it could not be otherwise. We certainly do not have to accept
all of these attitudes now. Second, the reading must be taken in its entirety
and, under the cultural overlay, we have to discern the very deeply Christian
ideal which Paul proposes and which, in many respects, represents a major step
forward in the concept of married life.
Paul’s central message is right there in the opening
sentence. He writes:
…[be] subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Marriage is built on a deep, mutual respect of each partner
for the other. Paul will show how, in each relationship, each partner can have
a conciliatory attitude that will help that relationship. The phrase “be
subject to one another” was probably not originally part of the traditional
material that follows, but derives from the author.
It is debated whether the exhortation is applicable only to
the section on wives and husbands, or also includes the passages on the mutual
relationship between parents and children, or masters and slaves from
Colossians (Col 3:18-23).
The opening statement, (“[be] subject to one another out of
reverence for Christ”) at first seems to be contradicted by the way Paul
immediately speaks of the way the wife should respect her husband. She is to
look on her husband as the head of the household similar to the way that Jesus
is Head and Lord of the Church. And the wife should “be subject” (‘submit’ or
‘be subordinate’ in some translations) to her husband in the same way that
Church is subject to Jesus her Lord (in Paul’s time, wives sometimes addressed
their spouse as “lord”).
To ‘be subject’ means giving up some of one’s own rights to
another. If the relationship called for it, as in the military, the term could
connote obedience, but that meaning is not what’s called for here. In fact, the
word ‘obey’ does not appear in Scripture with respect to wives, though it does
with respect to children and slaves. In context too, this subjection
(submission) is seen as primarily given to God through the husband, just as we
say that we love God by loving those around us, or for the Religious, obeying
God by obeying their superiors.
Certainly this way of speaking reflects the prevailing ethos
of Paul’s time (and we should not forget that it still prevails in many
societies in our own day), but it has increasingly become unacceptable in
Western society. As it is presented here, it appears that the wife is in an
inferior position to her husband. More contemporary views see the roles of
husband and wife in marriage as being different and complementary, but not
unequal.
In a sense, too, while Paul seems to use the relationship of
Jesus with the Church as an example of the relationship of the husband to the
wife, in fact, it is the love of Christ for his Body, the Church, which is the
very model of Christian marriage. And Paul’s emphasis is not on obedience and
subjection, but rather on a mutual, self-giving love.
Paul then turns to the husband and what is expected of him.
The total picture probably goes far beyond what the average gentile husband of
the time would have found acceptable. Paul begins by saying that:
…the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is
the head of the church, and is himself its Savior…
The Church does recognise Jesus Christ as Lord, but it also
knows that that Lord gave his life in love and service for each one of us.
There is a very nuanced concept of ‘head’ here. As the husband is seen having a
kind of authority over his wife just as Jesus has over his Church, there is
also a sense of responsibility for the well-being of the partner. Wives should
be subordinate to their husbands as the Church is to Christ. But the Christ we
submit to is one who forgives and loves and nurtures, and who takes care of our
needs through his Body, the community.
By drawing a parallel between a human marriage and the
marriage of Christ to his Church, these two concepts are made to illumine each
other. Christ is the spouse of the Church because he is her head and because he
loves the Church just as a man loves his own body when he loves his wife. The
model of the husband’s love for his wife is the love that Christ showed for the
Church by giving his life for it to make it holy. The wife has certainly not
been asked to love her husband to that degree. The analogy between the
relationship of Christ to the Church and that of the husband to the wife is
basic to the entire passage.
Speaking of the Church as the bride of Christ, Paul says
that he (Christ) made:
…her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by
the word…
This would seem to point to the sacrament of Baptism. So
that when Christ took the Church to himself it was:
…without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, so
that she may be holy and without blemish.
It was customary in the Middle East, at the time this letter
was written, for the ‘sons of the wedding’ to escort the bride to her husband
after she had bathed and dressed. As applied mystically to the Church, Christ
washes his bride himself in the bath of baptism, and makes her immaculate (note
the mention of a baptismal formula) and introduces her to himself.
Husbands, then, are to love their wives in exactly the same
way, with the same degree of care and tenderness. They are to give the same
love to their wives as they do to their own bodies. And, in fact, in loving
their wives in this way, they are also loving themselves. And just as healthy
men care for their own bodies, Christ loves his Body, the Church, of which we
are its ‘living parts’.
Finally, Paul, quoting from the book of Genesis, sums up the
reality that is a true marriage: where a man leaves his parents, becomes joined
to his wife and the two “become one flesh”. It is clear that, in spite of the
impression given in the first part, Paul sees marriage as a totally reciprocal
relationship. The basis for such expressions of self-giving love is the
quotation from Genesis. If the husband and wife “become one flesh”, then for
the man to love his wife is to love one who has become part of himself. Paul
also makes this Genesis text a prophecy of the marriage of Christ and the
Church: a mystery, like that of the salvation of the pagans, that has been
hidden, but is now revealed.
All of this, it would seem, proposes a degree of love and
intimacy and care for the wife which went far beyond the customary demands of
the time. There would be little problem in a wife’s ‘subjecting’ of herself to
such a tender and caring husband. It is, in fact, a call for a total giving of
the one to the other. Both give and receive all the love that each can give and
receive.
Paul calls it a “great mystery” and indeed it is a reality
which we can never fully understand. The profound truth of the union of Christ
and his ‘Bride’, the Church, is beyond unaided human understanding. It is not
that the relationship of husband and wife provides an illustration of the union
of Christ and the Church, but that the basic reality is the latter, with
marriage a human echo of the relationship.
A Christian marriage, then, is a living out of the union of
Christ with his bride, the Church. And nowhere else in our human experience do
we see the love of Christ for his Bride more clearly exemplified.
Paul then concludes the passage by summing up that the
husband:
…should love his wife as himself, and a wife should
respect her husband.
The reciprocal is also true—the husband is to respect his
wife and she is to love him as she loves herself. More than two thousand years
after this was written, we could hardly express it better.
Commentary on Luke
13:18-21
At this point Luke inserts two short parables about the
Kingdom of God which Jesus is inaugurating. Let us remind ourselves briefly
what we mean by the ‘Kingdom of God’. The Greek word for ‘kingdom’ is basileia,
which is more accurately translated ‘kingship’ or ‘reign’. So it is a network
of relationships, rather than a place, that we are talking about. The basileia
of God occurs wherever people are submitting themselves to that loving power of
God in their lives and in their mutual relationships, working together to bring
God’s love and justice to the world.
Jesus is the symbol, the very embodiment, of the Kingdom as,
through him, God’s loving power breaks into people’s lives. And, insofar as
they accept him and his message, the Kingdom is being realised. In the Lord’s
Prayer, we ask God that the whole world may, in this sense, come under the
reign of God when we say:
…your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth as
in heaven.
So today, Jesus gives two parables or images of the Kingdom.
First, he compares it to a mustard seed which a man planted in his garden. The
tiny seed eventually grew into a bush, large enough that birds were able to
make their nests in it.
When these words were written, the Church, the agent of
Jesus’ mission, was still tiny, but it had already begun to grow considerably
from its beginnings with a handful of Jesus’ disciples. There is an air of hope
and confidence that it will continue to grow in spite of the persecutions and
setbacks it is facing and will continue to face. How amazed would those
Christians be to know that the seed has since grown, not into a shrub, but into
a huge tree!
In our own time, we need to keep fresh the hope and
confidence of this parable. In so far as we are dedicated to truth and love, we
have nothing to fear; ultimately they will and must prevail.
The second parable compares the reign of God to a small
measure of yeast that a woman kneads into a batch of dough as she makes bread.
In time, under the influence of the small amount of yeast, the whole batch will
begin to swell and rise. In Scripture, yeast, because it is a fermenting agent,
usually symbolises what is evil and corrupt, but here the emphasis is on the
goodness of its growth effect.
This is an image of how the reign of God spreads through the
world. It does so by being totally inserted into that world. Externally it is
not seen, but its influence is felt everywhere, bringing about gradual change.
As Christians, we are called to be agents (though not the only agents) of the
Kingdom. We can only do this by ourselves being fully inserted in our
societies, not by separating ourselves from them.1
At the same time, we must keep our distinctively Christian vision just as the
yeast, though invisible, remains distinct from the dough it is transforming.
If this looks like infiltration, it is! But not all
infiltration is bad, not if it is driven by God’s truth, goodness and beauty.
Such infiltration does not undermine but builds up and transforms.
___________________________________
- Notwithstanding
this, there are cloistered and contemplative communities who, while
physically separated from the ‘world’, devote their time and energy to
pray for our world. ↩︎
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Tuesday,
October 27, 2026
Ordinary
Time
Opening Prayer
Almighty and ever-living God, strengthen our faith, hope and
love.
May we do with loving hearts what you
ask of us and come to share the life you promise.
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 13: 18-21
Jesus went on to say, 'What is the kingdom of God
like? What shall I compare it with? It is like a mustard seed which a man took
and threw into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air
sheltered in its branches.' Again He said, 'What shall I compare the kingdom of
God with? It is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of
flour till it was leavened all through.'
Reflection
•
Context. Along the road that leads Him to
Jerusalem, Jesus is surrounded by “thousands” of persons (11: 29) who crowd
around him. The reason for such attraction from the crowds is the Word of
Jesus. In chapter 12 one can notice how the people who listen to his Word
alternate: the disciples (12: 1-12), the crowd (vv.13-21), the disciples (vv.22-53),
the crowds (vv.54-59). The scandal of death is the dominating theme of Luke 13:
1-35. In the first part it is spoken about as the death of all (vv.1-9), in the
second part, the death of Jesus (vv.3135) and then to the death avoided by
sinners because their conversion is expected. But there is another theme
together with the dominant one: the salvation given to men. The cure of the
woman who was bent, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had held during eighteen
years, is liberated by Jesus. And in the center of this chapter 13 we find two
parables that constitute the overall theme: the Kingdom of God as compared to
the “mustard seed” and to the “leaven or yeast.”
•
The Kingdom of God is similar to a mustard seed.
Such a seed is very common in Palestine and particularly close to the Lake of
Galilee. It is especially known because it is particularly small. In Luke 17:
6, Jesus uses such an image to express the hope that He has for the disciples
that they have a at least a small seed of faith: “If you had faith like a
mustard seed...” This parable, which is very simple, confronts two diverse
moments in the story of the seed: the moment when it is sown in the earth (the
modest beginnings) and when it becomes a tree (the final miracle). Therefore,
the purpose of this account is to narrate the extraordinary growth of a seed
that is thrown in one’s own garden, and to this follows an amazing growth as it
becomes a tree. Like this seed, the Kingdom of God also has its story. The
Kingdom of God is the seed thrown into the garden, the place that in the New
Testament is the place of the agony and the burial of Jesus (Jn 18: 1, 26; 19:
41). Then it follows the moment of growth and concludes with becoming a tree
open to all.
•
The Kingdom of God is similar to yeast. Yeast is
put into three measures of flour. In the Hebrew culture yeast was considered a
factor of corruption so much so that it was eliminated from their houses, in
order not to contaminate the feast at Passover which begins with the week of
the unleavened dough. In the ears of the Jews the use of this negative element,
to describe the Kingdom of God, was a reason to be disturbed. But the reader is
able to discover the convincing force: it is sufficient to put a very small
quantity of yeast in three measures of flour in order to get a big amount of
dough. Jesus announces that this yeast, hidden or that has disappeared in three
measures of flour, after a certain amount of time, leavens the whole dough.
•
The effects of the text on the reader. What do
these two parables communicate to us? The Kingdom of God, compared by Jesus to
a seed that becomes a tree, is close to the story of God as a story of his
Word: it is hidden in human history and it is growing; Luke thinks of the Word
of God (the Kingdom of God in our midst) is already developing but it has not
as yet become a tree. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are supporting this growth of
the Word. The image of yeast completes the frame of the seed. The yeast is the
Gospel that is working in the world, as in the ecclesial communities and in the
individual believers.
Personal Questions
•
Are you aware that the Kingdom of God is present
in our midst and that it grows mysteriously and extends itself in the history
of every person, and in the Church?
•
The Kingdom is a humble reality, hidden, poor
and silent, immersed between the competition and pleasures of life. Have you
understood from the two parables, that you will not be able to get a glimpse of
the Kingdom if you do not have an attitude of humble and silent listening?
Concluding Prayer
How blessed are all who fear Yahweh, who walk in his ways!
Your own labors will yield you a living, happy and
prosperous will you be. (Ps 128: 1-2)
