October 23, 2025
Thursday of the Twenty-ninth
Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 476
Reading
1
Brothers and sisters:
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature.
For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity
and to lawlessness for lawlessness,
so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.
But what profit did you get then
from the things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God,
the benefit that you have leads to sanctification,
and its end is eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (Ps 40:5) Blessed
are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
I consider all things so much rubbish
that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his
disciples:
"I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102325.cfm
Commentary on Romans 6:19-23
Today’s reading is
an immediate continuation of yesterday’s and more or less repeats what was said
then. Paul continues today with the imagery of slavery and urges the Romans to
switch from one kind to another. He knows how morally weak they are, so he
expresses himself in human terms which he knows are not a perfect analogy:
For just as you
once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to
even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness,
leading to sanctification.
They will become
more holy, more in the image of their God and Saviour. He realises there is
some difficulty using the word ‘slave’ of Christians who are essentially free
in Christ. Nor is he implying that in becoming slaves of immorality, they are
not responsible for the choices they make, any more than in submitting
themselves totally to goodness in Christ. When they lived a life of sin, what
did they really gain? All they got were experiences of which they are now
deeply ashamed because, with Christ in their lives, they know that kind of
sinful behaviour only brings death, spiritual death. He now switches the image
somewhat.
From being
enslaved to sin and liberated in Christ, he speaks of their being now liberated
from sin and enslaved to the service of God. But this enslavement, which is a
commitment to the good, will bring about their sanctification and will
terminate in life without end (another paradox). Slavery to God produces
holiness, and the end of the process is life without end. There is no eternal
life without holiness. Those who have been ‘justified’ will surely give
evidence of that fact by the presence of holiness in their life.
As has been said
already, anyone who is truly ‘graced’ by the love of God must reveal that in
the way they lead their lives. Jesus taught just that when he said that only a
good tree can bear good fruit and vice versa. And again, that any branch on the
Vine, which Christ is, will produce an abundance of fruit. The fruit-less
branch will be cut off and thrown away.
Then in a
much-quoted phrase, Paul again repeats his thesis:
…the wages of
sin is death…
But of course:
…the free gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Two kinds of
‘slavery’ are contrasted. The slavery of sin brings death as its wage; sin
creates a debt to death. The slavery in faith to Christ as Lord brings life as
an unearned, unmerited gift—the gift of life without end.
To our modern way
of thinking, slavery of any kind is not to be even considered. But slavery to
God and goodness has totally different effects. It is only possible where there
is total freedom—the freedom to be able to surrender oneself totally and
unconditionally in the arms of the true, loving and beautiful God. No one is
more alive than the one who gives himself or herself completely to God and
makes God’s will entirely their own.
And, of course,
Paul is perfectly right. The wages of sin is indeed to slide inexorably into a
deteriorating quality, and ultimately loss, of life. The gift, the unearned and
totally gratuitous gift that God offers us by his love leads to a life that
knows no end. This is the true freedom which brings happiness and perfect
peace. It is for us to make the choice: to be sin’s slave or God’s.
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Commentary on Luke 12:49-53
We have some
passionate and disturbing words from Jesus today. First, he expresses his deep
desire to cast fire on the earth. In the imagery of the Old Testament, fire is
a symbol of God’s powerful presence. We remember Moses at the burning bush, the
pillar of fire that accompanied the Israelites by night as they wandered
through the desert to the promised land, as well as the tongues of fire that
hovered over the disciples at Pentecost.
It is this
Pentecostal fire that burns men’s hearts and draws them to change the direction
of their lives. For Jesus’ wish to be fulfilled, we have to play our part in
helping to spread some of that fire of God’s love everywhere.
Second, Jesus
expresses a longing for his ‘baptism’ to be accomplished. Baptism here refers
to his immersion in the terrible suffering and death by which we will be
liberated. In fact, the ritual of baptism, where the person to be baptised was
immersed in the baptismal pool, was seen as a parallel to Jesus’ going down
into death and emerging to the new life of the resurrection. It is about this
that Paul speaks.
Third, Jesus says
he has come not to bring peace, but division on the earth. At first sight, this
is a hard saying and it does not make any sense. Is Jesus not the Prince of
Peace? Did Jesus not say at the Last Supper that he was giving his peace to his
disciples, a peace that the world could not give and that no one could take away?
Did he not say:
Come to me, all
you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (Matt 11:28)
Was not the final
greeting of the Risen Christ to his disciples in the upper room:
Peace be with
you. (John 20:21)
Yes, but he also warned
his disciples that, after he was gone, they could expect a rough ride. They
would be hauled before rulers and governors; they would be beaten and jailed
and put to death. People would think they were doing well in ridding the world
of them. In that sense, Jesus was certainly not going to bring peace. And, by
the time this Gospel was written, Jesus’ prophecy had been well borne out—and
there was a lot more to come.
The break-up of
families, father against mother, parents against children, in-laws against
in-laws, was unfortunately only too common as one or more members in a family
decided to follow Christ and be baptised. These must have been very painful
experiences which no one wanted. Anyone who has studied the history of the
Church, all the way back to its beginning and in many places throughout the
world, knows how many families were torn apart by their accepting Christianity.
In the Gospel, we see it in the story of the blind man who attached himself to
Jesus and whose parents, terrified of the authorities, wanted to have nothing
to do with it. It is surely an image which was quite familiar to converts in
the early, not to mention the later, Church.
Jesus had warned
that those who wanted to follow him had to be ready, if necessary, to leave
home and family and enter into a new family of brothers and sisters. To follow
the way of truth and love, of freedom and justice is always going to arouse the
hostility of those who feel threatened by goodness.
But is it right to
break up one’s family? We might counter by asking which is the more loving
thing to do: to be true to one’s convictions and one’s integrity, or to
compromise them for the sake of a merely external peace?
The one who leaves
a family for the sake of Christ and the Gospel shows a greater love for one’s
family and will never cease to love them, no matter how viciously they may
react to the choice the Christian has felt it necessary to make. In the long
run, truth and love will prevail—they must.
Finally,
hostility, division and persecution, provided the Christian is not directly
responsible, does not take away the peace that Jesus spoke about. On the
contrary, it is only by being true to one’s convictions and one’s integrity,
whatever the price that has to be paid, that peace can be experienced.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1295g/
LECTIO DIVINA
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: 49-53
Jesus said to his
disciples: 'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were
blazing already!
There is a baptism
I must still receive, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 'Do
you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division. For from now on, a household of five will be divided: three against
two and two against three; father opposed to son, son to father, mother to
daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law
to mother-in-law.'
Reflection
The Gospel today
gives us some phrases of Jesus. The first one on the fire on earth is only in
Luke’s Gospel. The others have more or less parallel phrases in Matthew. This
leads us to the problem of the origin of the composition of these two Gospels
for which much ink has already been used throughout these two past centuries
and this problem will only be solved fully when we will be able to speak with
Matthew and Luke, after our resurrection.
•
Luke
12: 49-50 - Jesus has come to bring fire on earth. “I have come to bring fire
to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must
still receive, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” The image
of fire frequently is mentioned in the Bible and does not have only one
meaning. It could be the image of devastation and of punishment, and it can
also be the image of purification and illumination (Is 1: 25; Zc 13: 9). It can
also express protection as it appears in Isaiah: “Should you pass through fire,
you will not suffer” (Is 43: 2). John the Baptist baptized with water, but
after him Jesus baptized with fire (Lk 3: 16). Here the image of fire is
associated to the action of the Holy Spirit who descends every Pentecost on the
image of the tongues of fire (Ac 2: 2-4). Images and symbols never have an
obligatory sense, totally defined, which does not allow any divergence. In this
case it would neither be image nor symbol. It is proper to the symbol to arouse
the imagination of the auditors and spectators. Leaving freedom to the
auditors, the image of fire combined with the image of baptism indicates the
direction toward which Jesus wants people to turn their imagination. Baptism is
associated with the water and it is always the expression of a commitment. In
another point, Baptism appears like the symbol of the commitment of Jesus with
his Passion: “Can you be baptized with the baptism with which I will be
baptized?” (Mc 10: 38-39).
•
Luke
12: 51-53 - Jesus has come to bring division. Jesus always speaks of peace (Mt
5: 9; Mk 9: 79; 10: 5; 19: 38; 24: 36; Jn 14: 27; 16: 33; 20: 21, 26). And so
how can we understand the phrase in today’s Gospel which seems to say the
contrary: “Do you think that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you,
but rather division.” This affirmation does not mean that Jesus himself is in
favor of division. No! Jesus did not want division. But the announcement of
truth that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah becomes a reason for much division
among the Jews. In the same family or community, some were in favor and others
were radically contrary. In this sense, the Good News of Jesus was really a
source of division, a “sign of contradiction” (Lk 2: 34) or as Jesus said: “for
from now on a household will be divided, father opposed to son, son to father,
mother to daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law,
daughter-in- law to mother-in-law.” That is what was happening, in fact in the
families and in the communities: much division, much discussion, as a
consequence of the Good News among the Jews of that time, some accepting,
others denying. The same thing could be applied to the announcement of
fraternity as a supreme value of human living together. Not all agreed with
this announcement, because they preferred to maintain their privileges. And for
this reason, they were not afraid to persecute those who announced sharing and
fraternity. This was the division which arose and which and which was at the
origin of the Passion and death of Jesus. This is what was happening. Jesus
wants the union of all in truth (cf. Jn 17: 17-23). Even now it is like this.
Many times, there where the Church is renewed, the call of the Good News
becomes a “sign of contradiction” and of division. Persons who during years had
lived very comfortably in the routine of their Christian life, they do not want
to be disturbed or bothered by the “innovations” of Vatican Council II.
Disturbed by changes, they use all their intelligence to find arguments to
defend their own opinions and to condemn the changes considering them contrary
to what they think is their true faith.
Personal Questions
•
Seeking
union Jesus was the cause of division. Does this happen with you today?
•
How do
I react before the changes in the Church?
Concluding Prayer
Shout for joy, you
upright; praise comes well from the honest.
Give thanks to
Yahweh on the lyre, play for him on the ten-stringed lyre. (Ps 33: 12)
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