September 26, 2025
Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 453
Reading I
In the second year of King Darius,
on the twenty-first day of the seventh month,
the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:
Tell this to the governor of Judah,
Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel,
and to the high priest Joshua, son of Jehozadak,
and to the remnant of the people:
Who is left among you
that saw this house in its former glory?
And how do you see it now?
Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes?
But now take courage, Zerubbabel, says the LORD,
and take courage, Joshua, high priest, son of Jehozadak,
And take courage, all you people of the land,
says the LORD, and work!
For I am with you, says the LORD of hosts.
This is the pact that I made with you
when you came out of Egypt,
And my spirit continues in your midst;
do not fear!
For thus says the LORD of hosts:
One moment yet, a little while,
and I will shake the heavens and the earth,
the sea and the dry land.
I will shake all the nations,
and the treasures of all the nations will come in,
And I will fill this house with glory,
says the LORD of hosts.
Mine is the silver and mine the gold,
says the LORD of hosts.
Greater will be the future glory of this house
than the former, says the LORD of hosts;
And in this place I will give you peace,
says the LORD of hosts!
Responsorial Psalm
R. (5) Hope in God; I will praise
him, my savior and my God.
Do me justice, O God, and fight my fight
against a faithless people;
from the deceitful and impious man rescue me.
R. Hope in God; I will praise him, my savior and my
God.
For you, O God, are my strength.
Why do you keep me so far away?
Why must I go about in mourning,
with the enemy oppressing me?
R. Hope in God; I will praise him, my savior and my God.
Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwellingplace.
R. Hope in God; I will praise him, my savior and my God.
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God!
R. Hope in God; I will praise him, my savior and my
God.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Son of Man came to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Once when Jesus was praying in solitude,
and the disciples were with him,
he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah;
still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’”
Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”
He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone.
He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092625.cfm
Commentary on
Haggai 1:15—2:9
In today’s reading, we have another exhortation from the
prophet to the returned exiles in Jerusalem. It is a message from God through
the mouth of the prophet and directed especially to Zerubbabel, the governor of
the city, and Joshua, the high priest. It begins:
In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month,
on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet
Haggai…
It is more than a year after the first prophecy—October 17,
520 BC (which we read about yesterday) and the last day of the feast of
Tabernacles. It was on this feast that Solomon had dedicated the original
Temple (1 Kings 8:1-2). It was also a time to celebrate the summer harvest,
though for the returned exiles the crops have been meagre (a sign of God’s displeasure
at the people’s reluctance to get to work on the rebuilding of the Temple).
In speaking to Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high
priest, and the Remnant of Israel, Haggai is to ask them:
Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory?
How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?
It was possible that some of the older exiles, even
including Haggai himself, had actually seen Solomon’s magnificent Temple, which
had been destroyed by the Babylonians some 66 years earlier. In any case,
others would have heard parents or elders talk nostalgically about its glories.
Haggai had asked if any of them had seen “this house” (i.e. the Temple) in its
former glory. He was referring to the new building which was seen as a continuation
of Solomon’s Temple. And what did they see in the new building? Almost nothing.
That is because after the foundations had been laid, no further work had been
done
But now Yahweh, through his prophet, urges Zerubbabel,
Joshua and all the returned exiles to have courage and get to work on
completing the Temple building because Yahweh is with them. David had given his
son Solomon similar words of encouragement in the building of his Temple.
Haggai is to tell them:
…take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord;
work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that
I made you when you came out of Egypt.
The same God who helped Solomon build his Temple will
empower Zerubbabel and the people. Similarly, the Spirit of God had rested on
Moses and the 70 elders as they led the people out of Egypt and through the
desert.
Then comes a prophecy proper:
For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little
while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land…
For Haggai, God is the sole master of history. While the
prophet is foretelling the disaster which is to introduce the new era, the
world is temporarily at peace under the rule of Darius. The imminent worldwide
catastrophe and the rebuilding of the Temple will herald the messianic age.
From the later period of Ezekiel’s preaching onward, the Temple became, as
here, a dominant messianic theme.
The prophet’s words are an announcement of the coming of
God’s judgement on the nations—which the fall of Persia to Alexander the Great
(333-330 BC) will foreshadow. The Letter to the Hebrews (12:26-27) links this
verse to the judgment of the nations at the second coming of Christ. The
background for the shaking of the nations here and in subsequent verses is the judgment
on Egypt at the Red Sea:
I am about to shake the heavens and the earth and to
overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the
kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the
horses and their riders shall fall, every one by the sword of a comrade. (Hag
2:21-22)
The prophet continues with the word of Yahweh:
I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all
nations will come, and I will fill this house with splendor…The silver is mine,
and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts.
“Splendor” can refer to material splendor, or to the glory
and presence of God. The latter connects the glory of the Lord with the cloud
that filled the sanctuary. When Christ came to the earthly Temple, God’s presence
was evident as never before. When Jesus was brought to the Temple for the first
time as an infant to be presented to his Father, he was met by the holy man
Simeon who spoke of the Child as:
…a light for revelation to the gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:32)
Haggai’s speaking of the future filling of the Temple with
glory points ultimately to Christ who will enter it several times during his
life—each time making a significant statement about himself and his mission for
his Father. Ultimately, though, as he dies on the Cross, the glory will leave
the Temple, the veil of the Holy of Holies will be thrown open to reveal an
emptiness. From now on, God has a special presence in his new Temple, the Body
of his Risen Son.
“The Lord of hosts” says:
The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than
the former…in this place I will give prosperity…
The Temple now has become a focal point of messianic hope, a
hope realised in Jesus. It is in this same second Temple of Zerubbabel, though
restorations had been made by King Herod, that Jesus will teach. And that is
why this temple will enjoy greater glory than Solomon’s Temple because the
longed-for Messiah would be present there.
In our own Catholic faith, we have magnificent churches, some
of them among the greatest artistic achievements of the human race. And yet,
when it comes to glory, they are no whit greater than the straw-roofed hut in
some mission station. For the glory comes not from the building, but from the
Presence in the tabernacle and from the community, which as the Body of Christ
celebrates its Eucharist there. The church building is holy because God’s
people make it so and not the other way round. It is only as holy as they are.
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Commentary on
Luke 9:18-22
After the incident concerning Herod, which as we saw is a
pointer to things yet to happen, the disciples return from their mission. What
follows is omitted from our readings. In fact, Jesus took them to a quiet place
where they could rest and reflect on what they had been doing. However, they
were pursued by the ever-hungry crowds and Jesus fed them with the Word of God,
with his healing and finally, through his disciples (“You give them something
to eat”) with bread and fish. The story is another step in the Twelve’s
involvement in the mission of Jesus, and it leads into today’s reading.
In this reading, we find Jesus praying alone. As we have
already seen, it is something that Luke mentions a number of times about Jesus,
especially before significant events in his public life. Some people might
wonder what Jesus would have to pray about. Such a question may reveal a rather
limited idea of prayer, e.g. as something you do when you want to get something
from God or when you are depressed or in trouble of some kind.
But prayer is ultimately getting in touch with God and that
is something that Jesus would surely want to do quite a lot. Prayer is also a
way of discovering just where God’s will enters one’s life, and that is
something that was always of supreme importance to Jesus because:
The Father and I are one. (John 10:30)
Jesus, we are told, was not altogether alone. His disciples
were with him. Were they praying too? Later, they will ask Jesus to teach them
how to pray.
All of this is Luke’s introduction to a high point in all
the Synoptics: the revelation of Jesus’ true identity. From the other Synoptics
we know that it took place at Caesarea Philippi, a mixed Jewish-Gentile region
outside Herod’s territory.
Jesus asks them:
Who do the crowds say that I am?
They give various answers: John the Baptist (resurrected) or
Elijah, expected to return to announce the imminent coming of the Messiah, or
some other of the earlier great prophets.
But then he asks:
But who do you say that I am?
Peter, answering for all of them, replies simply:
The Messiah of God.
Some translations of the Bible use the Greek word Christos,
Christ. ‘Christ’ is not a name, but a title meaning ‘annointed one’. It is the
equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah. The anointing refers to
someone who is king and, in this case, the One who is anointed the Saviour King
of Israel.
In short, Peter is saying that the man standing before him
is the long-awaited Saviour of the Jewish people. It is a dramatic development
in Jesus’ relationship with his disciples.
Jesus’ next words at first sight seem unexpected and
contradictory. He strictly orders his disciples not to say anything of this to
anyone. Surely they should be doing the exact opposite? But the people are not
yet ready for this revelation. They have a very limited and preconceived idea
of what the coming of the Messiah will mean. They see him in very political
terms as a kind of national liberator who will drive out and destroy the Romans
and all enemies of the Jewish people, and restore the past glories of Israel.
Even after the Resurrection, Luke has Jesus’ own disciples
asking him:
Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom
to Israel? (Acts 1:6)
Their ideas, even at this late date, are no different from
the ordinary people’s. At this point in the Gospel, they must be secretly proud
that they, of all people, are the first to be privileged with this information.
If that was the case, they were very quickly to be
disillusioned. Almost immediately Jesus goes on to say that:
The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be
rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes and be killed and on the
third day be raised.
This is the first time in Luke that Jesus refers to himself
as “the Son of Man”. It occurs eighty-one times in the four Gospels and is only
used by Jesus of himself. In the book of Daniel (7:13-14) we see the ‘Son of
Man’ pictured as a heavenly figure who is entrusted by God with authority,
glory and sovereign power. Jesus’ use of the title in a Messianic sense is made
clear by its close proximity to Peter’s declaration of Jesus as the Christ or
Messiah.
We know from Matthew and Mark that the disciples—in
particular Peter—were dumbfounded when they heard Jesus’ words and wanted to
reject them entirely. It was totally against all their expectations of the
Messiah, apart from the fact that they could not bear to have those things
happen to their Master.
To them, it simply did not make any sense. First, Jesus as
Messiah was going to be rejected and handed over by the leaders of their own
people. Second, he was going to go through a terrible and humiliating death.
His being “raised” on the third day—whatever that meant—did little to alleviate
their confusion.
But as Mark indicates, this was a further step in their
relationship with Jesus. They now recognised him as the Messiah, but next they
had to learn just what kind of Messiah he was going to be, and how he was going
to liberate not only his own people, but people all over the world.
We, too, of course, have to keep going through the same
process. We, too, have to deepen our understanding of the true identity of
Jesus. We have to be able to understand how the suffering and dying Messiah is
not only the way he needed to go to reconcile us with God, but that we too have
to be ready to go the same way. We have to learn to see the redemptive and
healing power in the pains, sufferings, disappointments and failures of our
lives.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1256g/
Friday,
September 26, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father, guide us, as you guide creation
according to your law of love. May we love one another and come to perfection
in the eternal life prepared for us.
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 9: 18-22
Now it happened that Jesus was
praying alone, and his disciples came to him and he put this question to them,
‘Who do the crowds say I am?’
And they answered, ‘Some say John
the Baptist; others Elijah; others again one of the ancient prophets come back
to life.’
‘But you,’ he said to them, ‘who
do you say I am?’ It was Peter who spoke up.
‘The Christ of God,’ he said.
But he gave them strict orders and charged them not to say
this to anyone. He said, ‘The Son of man is destined to suffer grievously, to
be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death,
and to be raised up on the third day.’
Reflection
The Gospel today follows the same theme as
that of Yesterday: the opinion of the people on Jesus. Yesterday, beginning
with Herod, today it is Jesus who asks what do people think, the public opinion
and the Apostles respond giving the same opinion which was given yesterday.
Immediately follows the first announcement of the Passion, death, and
Resurrection of Jesus.
•
Luke 9: 18: The question of Jesus after his
prayer. “One day, while Jesus was praying alone, his disciples came to him and
he put this question to them: “Who do the crowds say I am?” In Luke’s Gospel,
on several important and decisive occasions, Jesus is presented in prayer: in
his Baptism when he assumes his mission (Lk 3: 21); in the 40 days in the
desert, when, he overcame the temptations presented by the devil Lk 4: 1-13);
the night before choosing the twelve apostles (Lk 6: 12); in the
Transfiguration, when, with Moses and Elijah he spoke about his passion in
Jerusalem (Lc 9: 29); in the Garden when he suffers his agony (Lk 22: 39-46);
on the Cross, when he asks pardon for the soldier (Lk 23: 34) and when he
commits his spirit to God (Lk 23: 46).
•
Luke 9: 19: The opinion of the people on Jesus.
“They answered: “For some John the Baptist; others Elijah, but others think
that you are one of the ancient prophets who has risen from the dead.” Like
Herod, many thought that John the Baptist had risen in Jesus. It was a common
belief that the prophet Elijah had to return (Mt 17: 10-13; Mk 9: 11-12; Ml 3: 23-24;
Eclo 48: 10). And all nourished the hope of the coming of the Prophet promised
by Moses (Dt 18: 15). This was an insufficient response.
•
Luke 9: 20: The question of Jesus to the
disciples. After having heard the opinion of others, Jesus asks: “And you, who
do you say I am?” Peter answers: “The Messiah of God!” Peter recognizes that
Jesus is the one whom the people are waiting for and that he comes to fulfil
the promise. Luke omits the reaction of Peter who tries to dissuade Jesus to
follow the way of the cross and omits also the harsh criticism of Jesus to
Peter (Mk 8: 32-33; Mt 16: 22-23).
•
Luke 9: 21: The prohibition to reveal that Jesus
is the Messiah of God. “Then Jesus gave them strict orders and charged them not
to say this to anyone.” It was forbidden to them to reveal to the people that
Jesus is the Messiah of God. Why does Jesus prohibit this? At that time, as we
have already seen, everybody was expecting the coming of the Messiah, but each
one in his own way: some expected a king, others a priest, others a doctor, a
warrior, a judge or a prophet! Nobody seemed to expect the Messiah Servant,
announced by Isaiah (Is 42: 1-9). Anyone who insists in maintaining Peter’s
idea, that is, of a glorious Messiah, without the cross, understands nothing and
will never be able to assume the attitude of a true disciple. He will continue
to be blind, exchanging people for trees (cf. Mk 8: 24). Because without the
cross it is impossible to understand who Jesus is and what it means to follow
Jesus. Because of this, Jesus insists again on the Cross and makes the second
announcement of his passion, death and resurrection.
•
Luke 9: 22: The second announcement of the
Passion. And Jesus adds: “The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to
be rejected by the elders and chief priests and Scribes and to be put to death,
and to be raised up on the third day.” The full understanding of the following
of Jesus is not obtained through theoretical instruction, but through practical
commitment, walking together with him along the road of service, from Galilee
up to Jerusalem. The road of the following is the road of the gift of self, of
abandonment, of service, of availability, of acceptance of conflict, knowing
that there will be a resurrection. The cross is not an accident on the way; it
forms part of our way. This because in the organized world starting from
egoism, love and service can exist only if they are crucified! Anyone who makes
of his life a service to others disturbs those who live attached to privileges,
and suffers.
Personal Questions
•
We all believe in Jesus. But there are some who
understand him in one way and others in another way. Today, which is the more
common Jesus in the way of thinking of people?
•
How does propaganda interfere in my way of
seeing Jesus? What do I do so as not to allow myself to be drawn by the
propaganda? What prevents us today from recognizing and assuming the project of
Jesus?
Concluding Prayer
Blessed be Yahweh, my rock,
who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle, my
faithful love, my bastion, my citadel, my Savior; I shelter behind him. (Ps
144: 1-2)
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