October 20, 2025
Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 473
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
Abraham did not doubt God's promise in unbelief;
rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God
and was fully convinced that what God had promised
he was also able to do.
That is why it was credited to him as righteousness.
But it was not for him alone that it was written
that it was credited to him;
it was also for us, to whom it will be credited,
who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was handed over for our transgressions
and was raised for our justification.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 68) Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people.
He has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are the poor in spirit;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
"Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me."
He replied to him,
"Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?"
Then he said to the crowd,
"Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one's life does not consist of possessions."
Then he told them a parable.
"There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, 'What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?'
And he said, 'This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, "Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!"'
But God said to him,
'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?'
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters to God."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102025.cfm
Commentary on Romans
4:20-25
Paul continues to give the example of Abraham’s faith as a
model for all of us. One might wonder why he devotes so much space to Abraham,
but we must remember that he was seen as the father of God’s people (including
us), and that he was looked up to as a model of good behaviour, which won God’s
favour:
No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God,
but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced
that God was able to do what he had promised.
Through his faith Abraham gave glory to God because all that
happens in his life is clearly the work of God and not of a human person. Faith
truly is all-powerful; it shares in the power of God himself.
When the father of the epileptic boy came to Jesus to heal
his son, Jesus told him:
All things can be done for the one who believes. (Mark
9:23)
Paul, too, could boast of his weaknesses because, as he
said:
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
(Phil 4:13)
And so, from today’s reading, this was the faith that:
…was reckoned to him as righteousness.
This kind of faith is the sign of real ‘uprightness’, real
goodness. It is not the self-generated ‘goodness’ which is no real goodness at
all. As Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper:
…apart from me, you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
It was this surrendering of himself, against all apparent
reason, into God’s hands which was Abraham’s “justice”, that is, his being made
right with God. This is not a moral rightness, but a total harmony of
relationships, a union of heart and mind. And the word ‘reckoned’ in Scripture
applies not only to him; it is there for our sake too—our faith, too, will be
‘reckoned’.
What is true of Abraham is true for every single person. Our
genuine goodness will be measured by the level of our faith and trust in the
God who gives us strength. And, as Abraham was made right with God because he
believed in a God who brought life from the dead, so we will be justified
because:
It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised
Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over for our trespasses and was
raised for our justification.
This is the source of our “justification”, our being ‘made
right’ with God—namely, that we totally give ourselves to Jesus Christ, as Lord
and Saviour, who died and was raised to life so that we might share that life
with him. In our case we go to God in faith through our intimate following of
Jesus, joining him in suffering, death and resurrection.
God may seem at times to be calling us to the impossible.
But our faith helps us to see that God works in everything and through
everything. Apart from Abraham, there are many other examples in the lives of
Christians, especially some of the great saints. Let us follow in their
footsteps.
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Commentary on Luke
12:13-21
We move on now in Luke to more immediate concerns of the
Christian life. Today’s topic is about the perennial question of money, or
rather, the love of money. A man in the crowd said to Jesus:
Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance
with me.
According to Mosaic Law, the general rule was that an elder
son received double that of a younger son. If there was a dispute, it was
usually settled by a rabbi, which is presumably why the man approached Jesus.
It was the kind of problem in which Jesus was not remotely interested, and he
refused to get involved. One wonders how interested Jesus is when we make novenas
to win lotteries or when we ask God to help us get our hands on the wealth of a
rich and elderly aunt!!
Jesus now takes the opportunity to make some general remarks
“against all kinds of greed”. A man may be wealthy, he says, but his
possessions do not guarantee him life. Life comes with freedom, peace and
happiness. Money cannot buy these things.
There is no evidence that rich people enjoy more freedom,
peace or happiness, although many of us are inclined to think they do and envy
them. Their marriages do not last any longer. They do not bring up better
children. They do not necessarily enjoy better health.
At this point Jesus speaks a telling parable. A farmer who
is already rich has a bumper harvest. It is so big that he has to pull down his
existing barns to build larger ones. When all that is done, he smugly says to
himself: “My boy, you have blessings in reserve for years to come. Relax! Put
your feet up. Eat heartily, drink well. Enjoy yourself.” But Jesus tells them,
that very night:
God said to him [i.e. the farmer], ‘You fool!
This very night your life is being demanded of you’.
What happens now to all his piled-up wealth? Yes, it is all
left behind. “You can’t take it with you.” “How much did he leave?” was asked
about a billionaire who died. “Every cent,” was the reply. When the farmer met
his God, what had he brought with him? Little or nothing. When St Teresa of
Calcutta (Mother Teresa) died, how much do you think she brought? One feels she
brought a great deal. And she certainly left behind a great deal to enrich the
lives of many.
What is my attitude to money and wealth? If I were to die
now, what could I bring with me to present to God? And what will I leave
behind, apart from cash and possessions? All of us can be rich in God’s sight,
and it does not require any money. Someone has said that the really rich are
not those who have the most, but those whose needs are the least (see Luke
12:22-34, where Jesus spells out a recipe for a life free from anxiety—the life
which he himself lived).
And what we need most is the ability to reach out in love,
the love that builds and makes life better for others. Think of what good
parents leave behind in children whose lives are dedicated to making this world
a better place—or teachers who have helped young people to devote themselves to
service of the community. What we need is to live in communities where people
look after each other. That would be a situation where, because everyone gives,
everyone gets.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1292g/
Monday,
October 20, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God,
our source of power and inspiration, give us strength
and joy in serving you as followers of Christ, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 12: 13-21
A man in the crowd said to him,
'Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.' He said to
him, 'My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your
claims?' Then he said to them, 'Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of
any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more
than he needs.'
Then he told them a parable, 'There was once a rich man who,
having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, "What am I to
do? I have not enough room to store my crops." Then he said, "This is
what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all
my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have
plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat,
drink, have a good time." But God said to him, "Fool! This very night
the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it
be then?" So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself instead of
becoming rich in the sight of God.'
Reflection
The episode in today’s reading is
found only in the Gospel of Luke and does not have a parallel in the other
Gospels. It forms part of the long description of Jesus’ trip from Galilee to
Jerusalem (Lk 9: 51 to 19: 28), in which Luke places most of the information
which he succeeded to collect concerning Jesus and which is not found in the
other three Gospels (cf. Lk 1: 2-3). The Gospel today gives the response of
Jesus to the person who asked him to be the mediator in the distribution of an
inheritance.
•
Luke 12: 13 - A request to distribute an
inheritance. “One from the crowd told Jesus: Master, tell my brother to give me
a share of our inheritance.” Up until today, the distribution of an inheritance
among the living relatives is always a delicate question and, many times, it is
the occasion of disputes and of tensions without end. At that time, the
inheritance also had something to do with the identity of the person (1 K 21:
1-3) and with the survival (Num 27: 1-11; 36: 1-12). The greatest problem was
the distribution of the land among the sons of the deceased father. If the
family was numerous, there was the danger that the inheritance would be divided
into small pieces of land which would not have guaranteed survival of all. For
this reason, in order to avoid the breaking up or disintegration of the
inheritance and to maintain alive the name of the family, the firstborn or
eldest received double of what the other sons received
(Dt 21: 17 cf. 2Rs 2: 11).
•
Luke 12: 14-15 - Response of Jesus: attention to
greed, to cupidity. “Jesus answers: My friend, who appointed me your judge or
the arbitrator of your claims?” In the response of Jesus appears the knowledge
which he has of the mission. Jesus does not feel sent by God to respond to the
request to be arbitrator between the relatives who argue or quarrel among
themselves concerning the distribution of the inheritance. But the request of
this man leads him to the mission to orientate persons, because “Watch, and be
on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in
possessions, even when someone has more than he needs.” It was part of his
mission to clarify persons concerning the sense of life. The value of life does
not consist in having many things, rather in being rich for God (Lk 12: 21).
Because when gain occupies the heart, it does not know how to distribute the
inheritance in an equitable way and with peace.
•
Luke 12: 16-19 - The parable that makes one
think on the sense of life. Then Jesus told a parable to help persons to
reflect on the sense of life: “There was a rich man who having had a good
harvest from his land, thought to himself: What am I to do? I have not enough
room to store my crops.” The rich man was very obsessed by the concern of his
goods which had increased in an unforeseen way because of an abundant harvest.
He thinks only of accumulating in order to guarantee a life without worries. He
says: This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones,
and store all my grain and my goods in them and I will say to my soul: My soul,
now you have plenty of good things laid for many years to come, take things
easy, eat, drink, have a good time.”
•
Luke 12: 20 - The first conclusion of the
parable. “But God said to him: ‘Fool! This very night the demand will be made
for your soul, and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?” So it is when
someone stores up treasures for himself instead of becoming rich in the sight
of God.” Death is an important key to discover the true sense of life. It makes
all things relative, because it shows what perishes and that which remains.
Anyone who only seeks to have and forgets to be, loses everything at the hour
of death. Here we have a thought which appears very frequently in the Books of
wisdom: Why accumulate great quantities of goods in this life if you do not
know what will become of them, if you do not know what the heirs will do with
what you will leave them.
(Qo 2: 12, 18-19, 21).
•
Luke 12: 21 - second conclusion of the parable.
“So it is with someone who stores up treasures for himself instead of becoming
rich in the sight of God.” How can one become rich for God? Jesus gives several
suggestions and advice: Anyone who wants to be first, let him be last (Mt 20:
27; Mk 9: 35; 10: 44); it is better to give than to receive (Ac 20: 35); the
greatest is the smallest (Mt 18: 4; 23: 11; Lk 9: 48) he/she who loses his/her
life will save it (Mt 10: 39; 16: 25; Mk 8: 35; Lk 9: 24).
Personal Questions
•
The man asked Jesus to help him in the
distribution of his inheritance. And you, what do you ask Jesus in your prayer?
•
Consumerism creates needs and awakens in us the
desire of gaining. What do you do so as not to be a victim of gain brought
about by consumerism?
Concluding Prayer
Acclaim Yahweh, all the earth, serve Yahweh with
gladness, come into his presence with songs of joy! (Ps 100: 1-2)
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