October 26, 2025
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary
Time
Lectionary: 150
Reading
1
The LORD is a God
of justice,
who knows no favorites.
Though not unduly partial toward the weak,
yet he hears the cry of the oppressed.
The Lord is not deaf to the wail of the orphan,
nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint.
The one who serves God willingly is heard;
his petition reaches the heavens.
The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds;
it does not rest till it reaches its goal,
nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds,
judges justly and affirms the right,
and the Lord will not delay.
Responsorial
Psalm
R.
(7a) The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
The LORD redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Reading
2
Beloved:
I am already being poured out like a libation,
and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have competed well; I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith.
From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me,
which the Lord, the just judge,
will award to me on that day, and not only to me,
but to all who have longed for his appearance.
At my first defense no one appeared on my behalf,
but everyone deserted me.
May it not be held against them!
But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.
And I was rescued from the lion's mouth.
The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat
and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom.
To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
and entrusting to us the message of salvation.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus addressed
this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
"Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity --
greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.'
But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102625.cfm
Commentary on Sirach 35:12-14,16-19; 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18; Luke
18:9-14
One of the
lessons of today’s readings is that God listens especially to the sinner and to
the poor. The attitude of Jesus is well expressed in the First Reading,
from the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus):
[God] will
not show partiality to the poor,
but he will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged.
He will not ignore the supplication of the orphan
or the widow when she pours out her complaint.
The writer
continues (in a passage not in our reading):
The
prayer of the humble pierces the clouds….Indeed, the Lord will not delay… (Sir 35:21-22)
Perhaps we
find that rather strange. Should he not be listening more to the ‘good’
people who are trying to keep his laws? That was certainly the attitude
of the Pharisee in today’s Gospel. When someone offends us, how do we
feel? Often we are likely to feel angry and hurt. Do we want to take some
kind of revenge, to punish that person? At the very least, we want to
make sure that he or she does not behave towards us in that way again.
It is not
surprising, then, that many feel, after doing some wrong, God has been
‘offended’. His reaction should be like ours and with greater reason—he
is the Boss. After doing something we know is quite wrong, we might
wonder how God could continue to love us. Yet, if that is the way we think, we
are quite wrong.
But how
can God be said to love a sinner? It is precisely as a sinner that a
person most needs the love of God, most needs his help. God, unlike us,
does not see a sin as an ‘offence’ against himself. Rather, he sees the
sinner as a person who has made a bad mistake and needs to be healed and
restored. It is the sinner who is hurt, not God. This is the
meaning of the parables of the Good Shepherd and the Prodigal Son.
Strange
scene
So in today’s Gospel, we have the strange scene between a Pharisee and a tax
collector. The Pharisee—and he clearly believes he has evidence to prove
it—is the ‘good’ person. He carefully keeps the Law of the Jews and the
Commandments of God. He faithfully observes the obligations of a good
Jew: he prays, he fasts and he gives alms. And yet, God is not happy with
him. Why? Because he is a totally self-centred person. He
says, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people…like this tax
collector.”
What he
really is saying is: “God, you should be deeply grateful that you have someone
like me (and there are not many of us!), someone who is so faithful in
following your commands”.
When he
prays, fasts or give alms, it is not because he loves God (or the poor) and
wants to serve God. It is because he loves himself; he is the centre of
his whole existence. Even God is on the fringe. God should be so
happy to have such a rare example like him. Especially when so many are
like the tax collector.
Jesus
criticises the Pharisee for not being aware that all these good things he
claims to do have God as their source. Without God, he could do nothing,
he would be nothing.
Getting
his ‘come-uppance’
We can readily go along with the idea that the snob gets his ‘come-uppance’ and
the modest person is praised. That is valued in our society, and in
theory at least, generally accepted. Yet, if we were more honest, we
might find that there is a lot of the Pharisee in ourselves.
Let us, by
way of experiment, update the prayer to that of a ‘good’ Catholic. It might go
something like this:
“Thank
you, God, that I am a Catholic and not like those deluded Protestants and
materialistic pagans. I go faithfully to Mass every Sunday and I usually
receive Communion and now and again I go to Confession. I am generous
with the church collections, my children are all baptised and they go to good
Catholic schools. I am faithful to my wife (well, maybe there is the odd
peccadillo) and, thank you, God, I am successful in my business. It is
not always easy, but I try to keep on the right side of the law. I want
to see all my children do as well as I have or even better. Once year I
do a retreat. I, of course, do not claim to be a saint, but I am an
average, maybe above average, church-going Catholic, which is more than can be
said of the many so-called Catholics and non-Catholics I know. Thank you,
God, that I have not become like any of them.”
We might
compare this attitude with what seems like boasting on Paul’s—another
Pharisee—part in today’s Second Reading. Paul says, with apparent
satisfaction:
I have
fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Yet his
attitude is so different from that of the Pharisee or ‘good’ Catholic.
First, all that he achieved he attributes to his Lord and, second, his whole
life had been lived as a “libation”, all his energies poured out, not for
himself, but so that others might come to know, as he did, the power of
Christ’s love in their lives.
A
sinner
On the other hand, the tax collector is certainly a sinner. He surely
does not observe the Jewish law. If he is like the average tax collector, he is
a swindler and extortionist. He collects tax money from his own oppressed
people and hands (some of) it to the hated Romans. He really is a
sinner. He really behaves abominably before God and neighbour. And
God loves him!
For Jesus
says that when the tax collector left the Temple, he did so as a friend of God,
while the Pharisee was rejected. How can this be? Is this God’s
justice? The reason is that, although the tax collector is undoubtedly a
sinner, he admits his sin. He knows that by himself he cannot do
anything, that he cannot change, unless God comes to his help. He implores:
God, be
merciful to me, a sinner!
God will
come immediately to the help of a sinner who, in humility and truth, recognises
his sin. On the other hand, how can God come to help a proud man, who
thinks he can take care of himself?
A
special gift
One of the greatest gifts is for us to know our sinfulness. In the First
Letter of John it says:
If we
say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie
and do not do what is true….If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1
John 1:6,8)
This was
the problem of the Pharisee. He thought he had fellowship with God, but he
walked in darkness; he was blind. But this is not so for the tax
collector. It would be true to say that, in recent years, while we have
gained much in our understanding of a Gospel-centred life, we have lost a
sensitivity about sin in our lives.
One
indication of this is that, while many, many more people go to Communion at
Mass now, far less are using the Sacrament of Reconciliation. No one
should regret the passing of the old “since this is Saturday, I must go to
confession” mentality, or worse, “I can’t go to Communion because I have not
been to confession” conviction. But in its place, many have not learnt the
place of the Sacrament of Reconciliation as an important element, not only in
our individual lives, but in our lives as community.
Sin can
too easily be seen as a personal failure to meet certain behavioural standards:
“I was impatient”, “I was jealous, I got angry”, “I was not at Sunday Mass” and
so forth. Sin is much more fundamentally a failure in relationships—with
God, with other people, with oneself. We can sin against ourselves,
with our family members, with our colleagues, with our friends, with total
strangers, with people we never see, but who have been affected by our love or
our selfishness.
Sin is a
failure to love, a failure to work for the well-being of others. Many of
our worst sins—seldom heard in the confessional—are the things we don’t do at
all. At the judgement the Lord will say, “I was hungry, thirsty, lonely,
struggling to get along, obviously in trouble—and you did not abuse me, attack
me, get angry at me or hurt me. No, you did absolutely nothing at
all! I was in desperate need and you walked by, away from me!”
Sin and
God
A deep awareness of sin does not separate us from God. On the contrary,
it is a sign that God is very much part of our lives and that we wish to
partake of that love he is reaching out to us. The most tragic people are
those who:
- think that they do not need
God in their lives (like the Pharisee or some ex-Catholics);
- when asked, cannot think of
anything sinful in their lives, present or past;
- think that God does not,
cannot love them because of some terrible or shameful things they may have
done.
The Easter
Vigil (Holy Saturday) liturgy speaks of the felix culpa, the “happy
fault” when we human beings crucified the Son of God. Many of our sins,
too, can be seen as a happy fault, if they help us to realise how weak we are,
how much we depend on God’s help and the help of other people.
An
awareness of our sins, too, can help us in our lives to be far more
compassionate and understanding towards others in their sinfulness and
weakness. In the depths of our sinfulness we must never lose sight of the
God who is always standing by ready to come at our merest signal. Again,
as Sirach tells us:
The
prayer of the humble pierces the clouds,
and it will not rest until it reaches its goal….
Indeed, the Lord will not delay… (Sir
35:21-22)
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Sunday,
October 26, 2025
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures
with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In
the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the
presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the
cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life
and of resurrection. Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice
in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the
poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two
disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and
witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity,
justice and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us
the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.
Gospel Reading Luke 18: [1-8], 9-14
A Key to the Reading:
The Gospel of this Sunday places
us before the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector (Lk 18: 9-14). We
have added the parable of the widow and the judge (Lk 18: 1-8), because both of
these form a small unity, the purpose of which is to help us discover what our
prayerful attitude should be before God. The two parables show us that Jesus
had another way of seeing the things of life and prayer. He succeeded to
perceive a revelation of God there where others saw only the ruins. He sees
something positive in the tax collector, of whom everybody said: “He does not
know how to pray!” And in the poor widow, of whom society said: “She disturbs
and bothers even the judge!” Jesus lived so united to the Father through
prayer, that for him everything became an expression of prayer.
Today, the simple people of the
town who say that they do not know how to pray, know how to speak with Jesus, they
speak with God all the time. Do you know any such persons? The people have many
ways to express their devotion and their prayer.
During the reading let us try to pay attention to the two
following things: Which is the objective and who are the those to whom the two
parables are addressed? Which are the attitudes of the persons who are
mentioned in the parables? A Division of
the Text to Help in the Reading:
•
Luke 18: 1: The objective of the first parable
•
Luke 18: 2: Description of the attitude of the
judge
•
Luke 18: 3: Attitude of the widow before the
judge
•
Luke 18: 4-5: Reaction of the judge before the
widow
•
Luke 18: 6-8: Jesus applies the parable
•
Luke 18: 9: Those to whom the second parable is
addressed
•
Luke 18: 10: Introduction to the theme of the
parable
•
Luke 18: 11-12: It describes how the Pharisee
prays
•
Luke 18: 13: It describes how the Tax Collector
prays • Luke 18: 14: Jesus gives his opinion
on both Text:
1 Then he told them a parable about the need to pray
continually and never lose heart. 2 'There was a judge in a certain town,' he
said, 'who had neither fear of God nor respect for anyone. 3 In the same town
there was also a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, "I want justice
from you against my enemy!" 4 For a long time he refused, but at last he
said to himself, "Even though I have neither fear of God nor respect for
any human person, 5 I must give this widow her just rights since she keeps
pestering me, or she will come and slap me in the face." ' 6 And the Lord
said, 'You notice what the unjust judge has to say? 7 Now, will not God see
justice done to his elect if they keep calling to him day and night even though
he still delays to help them? 8 I promise you, he will see justice done to them
and done speedily. But when the Son of man comes, will he find any faith on
earth?' 9 He spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves
on being upright and despised everyone else, 10 'Two men went up to the Temple
to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood there
and said this prayer to himself, "I thank you, God, that I am not
grasping, unjust, adulterous like everyone else, and particularly that I am not
like this tax collector here. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I
get." 13 The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to
raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, "God, be
merciful to me, a sinner." 14 This man, I tell you, went home again justified;
the other did not. For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, but
anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.'
A Moment of Prayerful Silence
so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten
our life
Some Questions for Personal Reflection.
•
Which point pleased you the most in both of
these parables? Why?
•
Which is the attitude of the widow and of the
judge? What is it that strikes the most in the attitude of the each one of
them? Why?
•
Which are the attitudes of the Pharisee and of
the Tax Collector? What strikes us the most in the attitude of each one of
them? Why?
•
How does Jesus apply this parable?
•
What do these two parables teach us concerning
prayer?
To Deepen More into the Theme
The Context of Yesterday and of Today
The context of the time of Jesus and of Luke is expressed in
the two phrases of introduction which speak about the ‘need to pray continually
and not lose heart” (Lk 18: 1) and of ‘some who boasted of being just and despised
others’ (Lk 18: 9). The context of today continues to be the same as before,
because also today it is necessary to pray always and today also there are
persons who boast of being just and who despise others. Comment on the Text:
•
Luke 18: 1: The objective of the first parable
Luke introduces this parable with
the phrase: “on the need to pray continually and never lose heart.” In other
passages he insists in the same way on perseverance in prayer and on the need
to believe that God hears our prayer and responds to our petitions. Faith in
God which responds to our petitions is the red thread which pervades the whole
Bible, where, from Exodus it is ceaselessly repeated that “Go hears the cry of
His people” (Ex 2:
24; 3: 7).
•
Luke 18: 2: Description of the attitude of the
Judge
Jesus wishes to clarify for those who
listen to him, which is the attitude of God before our prayer. For this, in
speaking of the judge, he thinks of God the Father who is the end of the
comparison which he is making. If it were not Jesus, we would not have the
courage to compare God with a judge “who neither has fear of God nor respect
for anyone.” This audacious comparison, made by Jesus himself, strengthens, on
the one hand, the importance of perseverance in prayer and, on the other, the
certainty of being heard by God the Father.
•
Luke 18: 3: The attitude of the widow before the
judge
In the attitude of the widow
before the judge we have the situation of the poor in society at the time of
Jesus. Widows and orphans had no one to defend them and their rights were not
respected. The fact that Jesus compares our attitude with that of the poor
widow, without anyone to defend her, who seeks to claim her rights before a
judge who has no human sensibility, shows Jesus’ sympathy for poor persons who
insistently struggle to claim their rights.
•
Luke 18: 4-5: The reaction of the judge before
the widow
The judge ends by giving in
before the insistence of the widow. He does justice not out of love for
justice, but in order to free himself from the widow who continually pesters
him.
•
Luke 18: 6-8: Jesus applies the parable
Jesus draws the conclusion: If an
atheistic and dishonest judge pays attention to a widow who insists on her
petition, how much more will God, the Father, listen to those who pray to him
night and day, even if he makes them wait. This is the central point of the
parable, confirmed by the final question of Jesus: “When the Son of man comes,
will he find any faith on earth? That is, will our faith be so persistent as
that of the widow, who resists without losing heart, until she obtains God’s
answer? Because as the Ecclesiasticus says: “It is difficult to resist the
expectation of God!”
•
Luke 18: 9: Those to whom the second parable is
addressed
This second parable of the
Pharisee and the Tax collector is introduced in the second phrase: “He spoke
the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being upright and
despised everyone else!” The phrase of Luke refers simultaneously, to the time
of Jesus and to the time of Luke. Then, in the communities of the years 80’s,
to whom Luke addressed his Gospel, there were some holding fast to the ancient
tradition of Judaism which despised those who lived in Paganism (cf. Acts 15:
1, 5).
•
Luke 18: 10: This introduces the theme of the
parable
Two men went up to the Temple to
pray: one was a Pharisee and the other a Tax collector. There could be no
greater contrast between these two. In the opinion of the people of that time,
a tax collector was worth nothing and could not address himself to God, because
he was an impure person, in so far as a tax collector, while the Pharisee was
an honored person and a very religious one.
•
Luke 18: 11-12: It describes how the Pharisee
prays
The Pharisee prays standing up and
thanks God because he is not like others: thieves, dishonest, adulterous. His
prayer is nothing else than praising himself and the things he does: he fasts
and pays tithes on all he gets. It is an exaltation of his good qualities and
the contempt of others, whom he despises, especially the tax collector who is
together with him in the same place. He does not consider him as his brother.
•
Luke 18: 13: It describes how the tax collector
prays
The tax collector does not dare
even to raise his eyes, but he beats his heart and says: “My God, be merciful
to me, a sinner!” He takes his place before God.
•
Luke 18: 14: Jesus gives his opinion on both
parables
If Jesus had asked the people, who
returned home justified, all would have answered: “The Pharisee!” But Jesus
thinks differently. The one who returns justified (in a good relationship with
God) is not the Pharisee, but rather the tax collector. Once again, Jesus turns
everything the other way round. Perhaps this application made by Jesus of the
parable did not please many persons.
•
Broadening the Information:
•
The first Christians present us with an image of
Jesus praying, who lived in permanent union with the Father. The breathing of
the life of Jesus was to do God’s Will (Jn 5: 19). Jesus prayed very much and
insisted so that the people and his disciples also pray. Because it is in our
relation with God that truth emerges and that the person finds herself in all
reality and humility.
•
The two parables reveal something of the
prayerful attitude of Jesus before the Father. They reveal that even for Him it
was not always easy. Like the widow you must insist very much, as it is also
seen in the prayer made in the Garden of Olives (Lk 22: 41-42). He insisted up
until death, He did not lose heart and he was heard (Hb 5: 7). The two parables
also reveal his experience and intimacy with God as Father who accepts all and
whose love has gratuity as a central mark. God’s love for us does not depend on
what we do for Him. He has loved us first. He accepts the tax collector.
•
Luke is the Evangelist who gives us more
information about the life of prayer of Jesus. He presents Jesus in constant
prayer. The following are some moments in which Jesus appears in prayer in the
Gospel of Luke:
•
When he is twelve years old, he goes to the
Temple, to the house of the Father (Lk 2: 46-50).
•
At the moment of being baptized and of assuming
his mission, he prays
(Lk 3: 21).
•
When he begins his mission, he spends forty days
in the desert (Lk 4: 1-2).
•
In the hour of temptation, he faces the Devil
with the texts from Scripture (Lk 4: 3- 12).
•
Jesus usually participates in the celebrations
in the Synagogue on
Saturday (Lk 4: 16).
•
He seeks solitude in the desert to pray (Lk 5:
16; 9: 18).
•
Before choosing the twelve apostles, he spends
the night in prayer (Lk 6:
12)
•
He prays before meals (Lk 9: 16; 24: 30).
•
Before speaking about reality and of his
passion, he prays (Lk 9: 18)
•
In time of crisis, on the Mountain to pray and
he is transfigured while he prays (Lk 9: 28)
•
In revealing the Gospel to the little ones, he
says: “Father, I thank you!” (Lk
10: 21)
•
In praying, he awakens the will to pray in the
Apostles (Lk 11: 1).
•
He prays for Peter so that he may be strong in
faith (Lk 22: 32).
•
He celebrates the Passover Supper with his
disciples (Lk 22: 7-14).
•
In the Garden of Olives, he prays, and sweat
becomes drops of blood (Lk 22: 41-42).
•
In the anguish of agony, he asks his friends to
pray with him (Lk 22: 40.46).
•
At the hour of being nailed on the cross, he
asks pardon for those who do not know what they are doing (Lk 23: 34).
•
In the hour of death, he says: “Into your hands
I commend my spirit!” (Lk 23: 46; Ps 31: 6).
•
This long list indicates everything which
follows. For Jesus, prayer was intimately united to life, to concrete facts, to
the decisions which he had to take. In order to be faithful to the Father’s
project, he tried to remain alone with him. He listened to him. In the
difficult and decisive moments of his life, Jesus prayed the Psalms. Just like
any pious Jew, he knew them by heart. But
the recitation of the Psalms does not take away his
creativity. Rather, Jesus composed himself a Psalm which he has transmitted to
us. It is the Our Father. His life was a permanent prayer: “I always seek the
will of the Father!” (Jn 5: 19, 30). To him is applied what the Psalm says “I
am in prayer!” (Ps 109: 4).
Prayer of a Psalm
Psalm 146 (145): A Picture of Our God
Alleluia! Praise Yahweh, My Soul!
I will praise Yahweh all my life,
I will make music to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in any child of Adam, who has no power to save. When his spirit goes forth he
returns to the earth, on that very day all his plans come to nothing.
How blessed is he who has Jacob's
God to help him, his hope is in Yahweh his God,
who made heaven and earth, the
sea and all that is in them. He keeps faith for ever,
gives justice to the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry; Yahweh sets prisoners free.
Yahweh gives sight to the blind,
lifts up those who are bowed down. Yahweh protects the stranger,
he sustains the orphan and the
widow. Yahweh loves the upright, but he frustrates the wicked.
Yahweh reigns forever, your God, Zion, from age to age.
Final Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank for the word that has enabled us to
understand better the will of the Father. May your Spirit enlighten our actions
and grant us the strength to practice that which your Word has revealed to us.
May we, like Mary, your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word.
You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever
and ever. Amen.
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