November
5, 2025
Wednesday of the Thirty-first
Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 487
Reading
1
Romans 13:8-10
Brothers and
sisters:
Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another;
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
The commandments, You shall not commit adultery;
you shall not kill;
you shall not steal;
you shall not covet,
and whatever other commandment there may be,
are summed up in this saying, namely,
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Love does no evil to the neighbor;
hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.
Responsorial
Psalm
Psalm 112:1b-2, 4-5, 9
R. ( 5a) Blessed
the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed the man who fears the LORD,
who greatly delights in his commands.
His posterity shall be mighty upon the earth;
the upright generation shall be blessed.
R. Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He dawns through the darkness, a light for the upright;
he is gracious and merciful and just.
Well for the man who is gracious and lends,
who conducts his affairs with justice.
R. Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Lavishly he gives to the poor;
his generosity shall endure forever;
his horn shall be exalted in glory.
R. Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
1 Peter 4:14
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of God rests upon you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Luke 14:25-33
Great crowds were
traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
"If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
'This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.'
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110525.cfm
Commentary on
Romans 13:8-10
Paul continues his practical advice to the Romans. The
reading may be very short, but its message should be engraved deeply on the
heart of every person—Christians and non-Christians alike. What is
striking in this passage is that God or Jesus is not mentioned at all, but both
are clearly understood to underlie the statements.
Paul says that the only debt we should incur with others is
the debt of love. Because in loving another person, we are fulfilling all the
requirements of the law.
The love owed to others is the one debt that can never be
paid off. No matter how much we have loved, we are still under an
obligation to keep on loving. And this love is not only extended to
fellow Christians, but must include every other person—including those who wish
us harm. And in doing so, we are not only fulfilling the requirements of
the Mosaic Law, but of all law. If in upholding a particular law, I would
violate the law of love, then that law cannot be obeyed.
So, says Paul:
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you
shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other
commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.”
In the original quotation from Leviticus, ‘neighbour’ meant
a fellow-Israelite, but here it is extended to include every other human
person, as we see in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus
actually pushed that commandment even further. At the Last Supper he gave
his disciples what he called a ‘new commandment’ when he said:
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I
have loved you. (John 15:12)
Here the level of love is extended to match the love of
Jesus which led him to “empty himself” and sacrifice his life for every single
one of us.
The commandment also presumes that we love ourselves.
Probably, most of us feel that we do, and even feel guilty about being selfish
and self-centred. But that is not real self-love. Real self-love
means the total recognition and acknowledgement of ourselves as we are,
including both strengths and weaknesses. Most of us try to hide our real
selves by hiding behind masks and creating an image that will impress
others. That is not a sign of real love of self. But without a
healthy self-love, there is a lack of inner security making it difficult to
reach out in love to others.
Paul says that that “love is the fulfilling of the law”
because genuine loving can cause no harm to brothers and sisters. Keeping
the law in a legalistic fashion can do a lot of harm. This is what Jesus
had against the Pharisees—they put the Law before love.
Paul’s teaching reminds one of St Augustine’s famous dictum:
“Love and do what you like” or St Paul’s own saying, “Love covers a multitude
of sins”. If one’s actions are motivated by a genuine love and concern
for the well-being of others, then we cannot go wrong. A truly loving
person is not going to commit adultery, is not going to kill or hurt, is not
going to steal, or to cast covetous glances at what belongs to another.
The word for ‘love’ used by Paul is agape—a special
kind of love. It can be defined as “a passionate desire for the
well-being of the other”. It is a unilateral love in the sense that it is
given and continues to be given even when there is no response, or even if it
is rejected. It is the love that God extends to all created things and
God’s agape is the source of all love in us. And
wherever there is agape, there is God, because God is agape.
That is why Paul can say that all the requirements of our faith are fulfilled,
if all our words and actions are motivated by that agape.
Even in our church life, people can become very legalistic
and set a lot of store by laws and regulations with very little love being
shown. Many put the Ten Commandments ahead of the law of love. Yet
as Jesus showed with the Pharisees, it is possible to keep the Law without a
shred of love. One can keep many of the Commandments—especially those
expressed negatively—by doing absolutely nothing!
But it is only through the love which we show for all those
around us that the quality of our Christian life is measured. It is only
by that love that our union with God is manifested. Observing laws,
however exalted, is not enough. And doing nothing is of no help either.
Love involves a constant and unconditional reaching out to all, friends and
enemies, young and old, Christian and non-Christian, educated and illiterate,
fellow country people and foreigners, close relatives and perfect strangers.
And as has been said, it is striking that God or Jesus are
not mentioned in the whole passage. But the message is clear—I cannot
love God and bypass my brothers and sisters, including those most
obnoxious. It is no use spending hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament
if I am not also constantly reaching out to find and serve Jesus in those
around me. It is not difficult to talk to Jesus in the tabernacle.
It can be much more difficult with some—an unreasonable boss or a rebellious
teenage son or an aggressive drug addict.
Finding Christ there and responding to him in such
situations is the real test. At the same time, we thank God for the
presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament as it is a wonderful environment for
prayer and contemplation, and to reflect on the degree of loving others in our
daily lives.
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Commentary on Luke
14:25-33
Luke’s Gospel is noteworthy for its extremes. On the one
hand, it shows the radical and uncompromising demands that Jesus makes on those
who would be his followers and, at the same time, emphasises as none of the
other Gospels do, the gentleness and compassion of Jesus for the sinful and the
weak. Both pictures have always to be kept simultaneously in view and they are
in no way contradictory. Today and tomorrow we will see both of these
images of Jesus back to back.
In today’s passage we see Jesus, as was often the case,
surrounded by a huge crowd of people. They are full of enthusiasm and
expectation, but Jesus very quickly pulls them up short. He says:
Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be
my disciple.
This is a very shocking demand, especially for a society
where people’s whole lives were centred on their families. Luke is alone
in asking that even the wife, too, be abandoned, but this is just an example of
the totality of our commitment to following Jesus.
However, we have to make two qualifications. First,
the word ‘hate’ is a Semitic expression not to be taken literally. It
could not be so taken, as the whole of Jesus’ teaching is based on love, not
only of blood relatives, but of strangers and even enemies. It is rather
a dramatic way of saying that anyone who puts any person, even those closest to
them, before total commitment to Christ and his mission is not ready to be a
disciple. There can be no compromise here—it is all or nothing.
Second, we also have to say that Jesus is not recommending a
literal abandonment of one’s family. That would be highly irresponsible
and a violation of that commandment of universal love. But it is clear that,
for those who want to be part of Jesus’ work, they have to give themselves
completely and unconditionally. And where there is a choice between the
clear call of the gospel and personal attachments, they have to let go of the
latter.
It is important for the crowd to hear this. Following Christ
is not just like football fans stalking their favourite player or ‘groupies’
following a pop star from city to city. There is a price to be paid, and
they need to know that there is one, and what it is. That price is the cross, a
level of sacrifice and suffering—perhaps even of one’s life—that each one must
be prepared to undergo for the sake of the gospel and the building of the
Kingdom.
So, to illustrate this Jesus gives two examples. The first
is of a man who had a plan to build a tower. Before he started, he made
sure that he had all the necessary resources. Otherwise he might find
that, after laying the foundations, he could not finish the work and he would
become the laughing stock of others. “Ha! Ha! He began to build what he could
not finish.”
In the second example Jesus speaks of a king with 10,000
soldiers who finds he is going to war with another king who has 20,000. If he
thinks there is no way he can win, he will send an emissary to negotiate the
best peace terms he can get. Similarly, says Jesus, no one can be a disciple of
his who is not ready to let go of everything he has.
Following him has to be absolute and unconditional. How many
of the crowd listening were ready for that? How many of us are ready for
that? Am I ready? What are the things I am clinging to? What
are the things I cannot let go of? And why is that?
To be a disciple of Jesus means being absolutely free.
It reminds one of Francis of Assisi leaving his family and taking off all his
rich and fancy clothes to replace them with a beggar’s rags, and being filled
with a tremendous sense of joy and liberation. Do I want to be a disciple
of Jesus? To what extent? Am I ready to pay the price he asks?
The paradox, of course, is that once I pay the price, I will
get so much in return. Just ask St Francis or St Teresa of Calcutta
(Mother Teresa) about this.
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Ordinary Time
Opening prayer
God of power and
mercy, only with Your help can we offer you fitting service and praise. May we
live the faith we profess and trust Your promise of eternal life.
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 14:25-33
Great crowds accompanied Jesus on
His way and He turned and spoke to them. "Anyone who comes to Me without
hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and yes, his own
life, too, cannot be My disciple. No one who does not carry his cross and come
after Me can be My disciple.
And indeed, which of you here,
intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to
see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and
then found himself unable to finish the work, anyone who saw it would start
making fun of him, saying, ‘Here is someone who started to build and was unable
to finish.’
Or again, what king marching to war against another king
would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could
stand up to the other who was advancing against him with twenty thousand? If
not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys
to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple without
giving up all that he owns.”
Reflection
•
The Gospel today speaks about discipleship and
presents the conditions for being a disciple of Jesus. Jesus is on the way to
Jerusalem where He will soon die on the Cross. This is the context in which
Jesus speaks about discipleship.
•
Luke 14:25: An example of catechesis. The Gospel
today is a beautiful example of how Luke transforms the words of Jesus into
catechesis for the people in the communities. He says, “Great crowds
accompanied Him. He turned and spoke to them”. Jesus speaks to the great crowd,
that is, He speaks to all, to the persons of the communities at the time of
Luke, and today He speaks to us. In the teaching which follows, Jesus gives the
conditions for those who want to be His disciples.
•
Luke 14:25-26: First condition: to hate father
and mother. Some reduce the force of the word to hate and translate it as “to
prefer Jesus to one’s own parents”. The original text uses the expression “to
hate one’s parents”. In another place, Jesus says one must love and respect
one’s parents (Lk 18:20). How can this contradiction be explained? Is it a
contradiction? The force of the word is typically Semitic. Matthew uses the
terms “loves father or mother more”, which shows the meaning of hate is rather
to love less. At the time of Jesus, social and economic conditions led families
to become self- contained. This prevented them from fulfilling the law of
ransom or liberation (goel) which calls one to help one’s brothers and sisters
in community (clan) who were in danger of losing their land or becoming slaves
(cf. Deut 15:1-18; Lev 25:23-43). Closed in upon themselves, the families
weakened life in the community. Jesus wants to reconstruct life in community.
This is why He asks to put an end to the restricted vision of the small family.
He asks the family to open itself and be united to the larger family of
community. This is the sense of hating father and mother, and wife, sons,
sisters and brothers. When His family wants to take Him back to Nazareth, Jesus
does not symapthize with their request. He ignores or hates their petition and
extends His family, saying, “Behold, my mother and my brothers! Anyone who does
the will of God, is my brother, sister and mother” (Mk 3:20-21, 31-35). The
familial bonds of union cannot stand in the way of the formation of the
Community. This is the first condition.
• Luke
14:27: Second condition: to carry the cross. “No one who does not carry his
cross and come after me can be My disciple”. In order to understand the
importance of this second requirement we have to look at the context in which
Luke places this saying of Jesus. Jesus is going toward Jerusalem to be
crucified and to die. To follow Jesus and to carry the cross means to go with
Him up to Jerusalem to be crucified with Him. This recalls the attitude of the
women who “followed and served Him when He was still in Galilee and many others
who went up to Jerusalem with Him” (Mk 15: 41). This also reminds us of Paul’s
statement in the Letter to the Galatians: “But as for me, it is out of the
question that I should boast at all, except of the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”
(Gal
6:14)
•
Luke 14:28-32: Two parables. Both of these
parables have the same objective: that people may think hard before making a
decision. In the first parable, He says, “which of you here, intending to build
a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough
to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself
unable to finish the work, anyone who saw it would start making fun of him,
saying, ‘Here is someone who started to build and was unable to finish!’” This
parable needs no explanation. It speaks for itself. Let each one reflect well
on his/her way of following Jesus and ask him/herself if he/she values the
conditions before making the decision to become a disciple of Jesus.
•
The second parable: Or again, “which king
marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider
whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who was advancing
against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a
long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace”. This parable has the same
purpose of the one before. Some ask, “How is it that Jesus uses an example of
war?” The question is a pertinent one for us who today know wars. The Second
World War (19391945) caused the death of about 54 million people! At that time
of Jesus, though, wars were similar to commercial competition between
enterprises, which nowadays struggle among themselves to obtain the greatest
profit or gain at the expense of the other.
•
Luke 14:33: Conclusion for discipleship. The
conclusion is only one: to be Christian, to follow Jesus, is something serious.
For many people today, to be Christian is not a personal choice, and neither is
it a decision for life, but a simple cultural phenomenon. They do not even
think of making a choice. Anyone who is born a Brazilian is a Brazilian. He who
is born Japanese is Japanese. He does not have to choose. He is born like that
and will die like that. Many people are Christians because they were born so,
without ever choosing their faith.
Personal questions
•
To be a Christian is something serious. I have
to think out well my way of following Jesus. How does this take place in my
life?
•
“To hate one’s parents”, community or family!
How do I put these two things together? Am I capable of harmonizing them?
Concluding prayer
Yahweh is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear?
Yahweh is the fortress of my life, whom should I dread? (Ps 27:1)
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