October 15, 2025
Memorial of Saint Teresa of
Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Lectionary: 469
Reading
I
You, O man, are
without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment.
For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself,
since you, the judge, do the very same things.
We know that the judgment of God on those who do such things is true.
Do you suppose, then, you who judge those who engage in such things
and yet do them yourself,
that you will escape the judgment of God?
Or do you hold his priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience
in low esteem, unaware that the kindness of God
would lead you to repentance?
By your stubbornness and impenitent heart,
you are storing up wrath for yourself
for the day of wrath and revelation
of the just judgment of God,
who will repay everyone according to his works,
eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality
through perseverance in good works,
but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth
and obey wickedness.
Yes, affliction and distress will come upon everyone
who does evil, Jew first and then Greek.
But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone
who does good, Jew first and then Greek.
There is no partiality with God.
Responsorial
Psalm
R.
(13b) Lord, you give back to everyone according to his works.
Only in God is my soul at rest;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed at all.
R. Lord, you give back to everyone according to his
works.
Only in God be at rest, my soul,
for from him comes my hope.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed.
R. Lord, you give back to everyone according to his
works.
Trust in him at all times, O my people!
Pour out your hearts before him;
God is our refuge!
R. Lord, you give back to everyone according to his
works.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
The Lord said:
“Woe to you Pharisees!
You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Woe to you Pharisees!
You love the seat of honor in synagogues
and greetings in marketplaces.
Woe to you!
You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”
Then one of the
scholars of the law said to him in reply,
“Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”
And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law!
You impose on people burdens hard to carry,
but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”
https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Commentary on Romans 2:1-11
Paul now
turns his attention to his fellow-Jews, although he does not mention them by
name. In this section, Paul sets forth principles that govern God’s judgment.
God judges:
- according to truth,
- according to deeds,
- according to the light a
person has.
Paul
writes:
…whoever
you are, when you judge others…in passing judgment on another you condemn
yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.
Paul
himself is aware, as he condemns others, that he is condemning himself if he
behaves in the way they do:
We know
that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.
Nothing
can take the place of personal virtue—not the Law, not circumcision, not even
the Scriptures. The Jew and the Gentile will be judged individually by
God, since all are equally liable to sin.
Paul’s
teaching about judging is the same as that of Jesus, who did not condemn
judging as such, but hypocritical judging or doing so behind people’s backs in
a condemnatory way. Paul’s warning had special relevance for Jews, who were
inclined to look down on Gentiles because of their ignorance of God’s
revelation in the Old Testament and because of their immoral lives.
In fact,
as we Christians need also to remember, greater knowledge brings greater
responsibility and liability:
Do you
imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet
do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?
Jesus also
had said:
Do not
judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be
condemned. (Luke
6:37)
He spoke
about seeing the speck of dust in a brother’s eye while ignoring the large
piece of wood in one’s own. (Isn’t it like that most of the time with us
too?) Instead, Paul asks:
…do you
despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not
realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Awareness
would lead them to ask forgiveness for their own sins. The Jews sometimes
had misconstrued God’s patience to be a lack of intent to pass judgement.
Their refusal to repent of their own sins is only piling up punishment for
themselves on the “Day of Retribution”, when God’s just verdict will be given.
For “he will repay everyone as their deeds deserve.”
On this
sentence the Jerusalem Bible expands:
“The
prophecy of ‘a day of Yahweh’ which will be a day of anger and salvation, will
be fulfilled eschatologically in the ‘day of the Lord’ when Christ returns in
glory. On this ‘day of judgment’ the dead man will rise again and the
whole human race will be judged in God’s court and in Christ’s. This
trial is inescapable and impartial; it is conducted by God. Through
Christ God will judge ‘the living and the dead’. He examines the heart
and his trial is by fire; he will treat everyone according to his works.
What has sown will be reaped. Angrily he will destroy evil powers and
evil people. But for the chosen, i.e. those who have been good, there
will be freedom, rest, reward, salvation, honour, praise, and glory.” (Text
references omitted.)
Therefore:
He will
repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek
for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life, while for those
who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but injustice, there will be
wrath and fury.
This
“doing good”, of course, presumes that all we do is done with the power of God
in us. There is nothing we can do by ourselves to ‘earn’ salvation.
Our good actions are the result of our saying ‘Yes’ to God in faith. On the
other hand:
There
will be affliction and distress for everyone who does evil, both the Jew first
and the Greek…
With spiritual
privilege and insight comes greater spiritual responsibility. Similarly:
…glory
and honor and peace for everyone who does good, both the Jew first and the
Greek.
In short:
…God
shows no partiality.
These
words are both a consolation and a warning to us also. A warning because,
as Christians, we cannot expect to get special treatment when we
misbehave. On the contrary, given all the help we have received and
continue to receive, even more is expected of us. (We should remember what
happened to the man who hid his ‘talent’ in the ground.)
This is a
consolation because we know that God treats every single person with absolute
impartiality and justice. He reaches out exactly the same love to every
single person. We also know that he is a God rich in compassion and slow to
anger. As a first step, it is important then for us to have some of that
quality in ourselves and be less hasty in passing judgment on others,
especially ‘outsiders’.
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Commentary on Luke 11:42-46
Jesus
today continues to attack the attitudes of Pharisees. These remarks are not to
be thought of as applying to all Pharisees, many of whom were good people. Paul
himself was once a Pharisee as was Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, and
Gamaliel, who, in the Acts of the Apostles (5:34), urged caution in persecuting
the disciples of Jesus. Jesus is to be seen rather attacking a certain
mentality which can all too easily be among us Christians and, if we are
honest, sometimes in ourselves.
Here Jesus
attacks the Pharisees for their scrupulous observance of even the tiniest of
regulations, not because that is wrong, but because they by-pass the love of
God, which is what really matters. He attacks them for their status-seeking.
The Pharisees expect people to look up to them and give them special honours
because of their supposed higher level of religious observance. They expect to
be given front seats in the synagogue and for people to greet them obsequiously
in the streets.
Usually
graves were whitewashed so that people would not walk over them by mistake. The
Pharisees are like unmarked graves which people unwittingly come in contact
with and thus become tainted with ritual uncleanness. In other words, people
coming in contact with them are not aware that under the veneer of piety
inside, they are really containers of rottenness and corruption. Elsewhere,
Jesus also describes the Pharisees as whitewashed graves where the outer
cleanliness conceals inner corruption.
In the
past (and perhaps in some places it is still the case), the clergy have often
expected similar honours to be paid to them. Very often, people willingly did
so because they genuinely respected their bishop or their priest. Sometimes,
however, the honours were demanded or expected, rather than graciously and
humbly received. But as the saying goes, “the clerical habit does not make the
monk, nor the Roman collar the priest, nor the mitre the bishop”.
At this
point, “one of the experts in the law” (a scribe) objected because, in speaking
like that about the Pharisees, Jesus was attacking them too, as some of the
scribes were also Pharisees. But they are equally deserving of criticism
because their narrow-minded interpretations about insignificant details of the
law make it difficult for ordinary people to keep the law, while they
themselves do nothing to help. Moreover, they add rules and regulations to the
Mosaic Law, do nothing to support people in keeping them and find ways for
themselves to get around them.
The Church
itself over the centuries has not been above criticism in this area either. And
perhaps it is still true today. Bishops and priests have often laid heavy
burdens on the faithful and not given much help in carrying them. Sometimes
church leaders have been more anxious to preserve traditional practices than
lead people to a deeper love of Christ and each other.
But the
clergy have no monopoly on this. Parents too can be guilty when they follow
double standards, making one rule for themselves and another for their
children. Similarly teachers with students or employers with employees may
exhibit the approach: “Do as I say; don’t do as I do.” Pharisaism is indeed
alive and well in our society, but the first person I need to fix is me.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1284g/
Wednesday,
October 15, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Lord, our help and guide, make
your love the foundation of our lives.
May our love for you express itself in our eagerness
to do good for others. You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 11: 42-46
Jesus said: But alas for you
Pharisees, because you pay your tithe of mint and rue and all sorts of garden
herbs and neglect justice and the love of God! These you should have practiced,
without neglecting the others.
Alas for you Pharisees, because
you like to take the seats of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted
respectfully in the market squares!
Alas for you, because you are
like the unmarked tombs that people walk on without knowing it!'
A lawyer then spoke up. 'Master,' he said, 'when you speak
like this you insult us too.' But he said, 'Alas for you lawyers as well,
because you load on people burdens that are unendurable, burdens that you
yourselves do not touch with your fingertips.
Reflection
In today’s Gospel the conflictive
relation between Jesus and the religious authority of the time continues. Today
in the church we have the same conflict. In a determinate diocese, the bishop
convoked the poor to participate actively. They accepted the request and
numerous began to participate. A great conflict arose. The rich said that they
had been excluded and some priests began to say: “the bishop is doing politics
and forgets the Gospel.”
•
Luke 11: 42: Alas for you who do not think of
justice and love. “Alas for you, Pharisees, because your pay your tithe of mint
and rue and all sorts of garden herbs and neglect justice and the love of God.
These you should have practiced without neglecting the others.” This criticism
of Jesus against the religious heads of the time can be repeated against many
religious heads of the following centuries, even up until now. Many times, in
the name of God, we insist on details and we forget justice and love. For
example, Jansenism rendered arid the living out of faith, insisting on
observance and penance and leading people away from the path of love. Saint
Theresa of Lisieux, the Carmelite Sister grew in a Jansenistic environment
which marked France at the end of the XIX century. After a painful personal
experience, she knew how to recover the gratuity of the Love of God with the
force which has to animate the observance of the norms from within; because,
without the experience of love, observance makes an idol of God.
•
The final observation of Jesus said: “You should
practice this, without neglecting the others.” This observation recalls another
observation of Jesus which serves as a comment: “Do not imagine that I have
come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to
complete them. In truth I tell you, till heaven and earth disappear, not one
dot, not one little stroke, is to disappear from the Law until all its purpose
is achieved. Therefore, anyone who infringes even one of the least of these
commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in
the Kingdom of Heaven; but the person who keeps them and teaches them will be
considered great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you, if your uprightness
does not surpass that of the Scribes and Pharisees you will never get into the
Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 5: 17-20).
•
Luke 11: 43: Alas for you, because you like to
take the seats of honor. “Alas for you, Pharisees, because you like to take the
seats of honor in the Synagogues and to be greeted respectfully in the market
squares.” Jesus calls the attention of the disciples on the hypocritical
behavior of some Pharisees. They like to go around the squares with long
tunics, and receive the greetings of the people, to occupy the first seats in
the synagogues and the seats of honor in the banquets (cf. Mt 6: 5; 23: 5-7).
Mark says that they lied to enter into the houses of the widows to recite long
prayers in exchange for some money. Such persons will be judged very severely
(Mk 12: 38-40). This also happens today in the Church.
•
Luke 11: 44: Alas for you, unmarked tombs. “Alas
for you, Scribes and Pharisees, because you are like whitewashed tombs that
look handsome on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and
every kind of corruption” (Mt 23: 27-28). The image of “whitewashed tombs”
speaks of itself and does not need any comments. Through this image, Jesus
condemns a fictitious appearance of persons who are correct, but interiorly
there is the complete negation of what they want to appear to be on the outside.
Luke speaks about unmarked tombs: Alas for you, because you are like those
unmarked tombs that people walked on without knowing it. “Anyone who walks on
or touches a tomb becomes impure, even if the tomb is hidden under the ground.
This image is very strong: on the outside the Pharisee seems to be just and
good, but this aspect is deceitful because inside there is a hidden tomb, that
without people being aware spreads a poison that kills, communicates a
mentality that leads people away from God, suggests an erroneous understanding
of the Good News of the Kingdom. It is an ideology which makes of God a dead
idol.
•
Luke 11: 45-46: Criticism of the Doctors of the
Law and response of Jesus: A lawyer then spoke up and said: “Master, when you
speak like this you insult
us too!" In his response Jesus does not turn back,
rather he shows clearly that the same criticism is also for the Scribes: “Alas
for you lawyers as well, because you load on people burdens that are
unbearable, burdens that you yourselves do not touch with your fingertips!” In
the Sermon on the Mountain, Jesus expresses the same criticism which serves as
a comment: “The Scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses. You must
therefore, do and observe what they tell you, but do not be guided by what they
do, since they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy burdens and
lay them on people’s shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them?” (Mt
23: 2-4).
Personal Questions
•
Hypocrisy maintains an appearance which
deceives. Up to what point does my hypocrisy reach? How far does the hypocrisy
of our Church go?
•
Jesus criticized the Scribes who insisted in the
disciplinary observance of the minute points of the law, as for example the to
pay the tithe of mint and rue and all forts of garden herbs and forget the
objective of the Law which is the practice of justice and the love. Can this
criticism also apply to me?
Concluding Prayer
How blessed is anyone who rejects the advice of the wicked
and does not take a stand in the path that sinners tread, nor a seat in company
with cynics, but who delights in the law of Yahweh and murmurs his law, day and
night. (Ps 1: 1-2)
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