October 14, 2026
Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 469
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness,
dissensions, factions, occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh
with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see Jn 8:12) Those who follow you, Lord, will have
the light of life.
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. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
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. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
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. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
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/bible/readings/101426.cfm
Commentary on
Galatians 5:18-25
In our final reading from Galatians today we have a
magnificent passage where Paul once again touches on the Spirit-given freedom
which is the characteristic of the true Christian.
He begins with a statement which we Catholics should have
engraved on our hearts:
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to
the law.
In the Letter to the Romans Paul had also said:
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of
God.
(Rom 8:14)
And just prior to these verses, he had said to the
Galatians:
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires
of the flesh. (Gal 5:16)
By putting oneself under the Spirit, one is not under the
bondage of trying to please God by minute observance of the law for salvation
or sanctification.
The sign of the Spirit’s presence is love (agape). If
we are genuinely filled with the Spirit of truth and love, then we really have
no need of law. As we read in the First Letter of John:
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God,
and God abides in them. (1 John 4:16)
And as St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) once said:
Where there is (agape) love, there is God.
St Augustine put it:
Love and do what you like.
If we were able to be truly loving, we could not commit sin,
even though in certain circumstances we might violate the letter of a
particular law. On the other hand, a person who meticulously carries out the
smallest detail of a law may be a very unloving person, an intolerant bigot or
a person full of hate.
In practice, of course, every institution or organisation
needs some kinds of rules which help members to live according to the spirit of
the group. Ignatius of Loyola realised this when he wrote his detailed
Constitutions for the Society of Jesus. But the principle enunciated by Paul
here must remain paramount. The rules are to help advance the spirit and goals
of the group; any rule or any application of a rule that frustrates that spirit
or goal is to be set aside.
Paul illustrates the difference between a life which is
purely self-directed (lived according to the “flesh”) and one lived in the
Spirit by describing two kinds of people. These are diametrically opposed to
each other and mutually exclusive.
One kind consists of those who act in a spirit of total
self-indulgence, those who do what they like whenever they feel like it. It is
a description of the self-centred hedonistic, individualistic, person.
He gives a partial list of 15 kinds of behaviour:
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual
immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,
jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing,
and things like these.
These emerge from our lower instincts and are destructive
both of others and oneself. Such lists of vices and virtues were common in the
ancient world, and others can be found in the New Testament. This type of
behaviour is clearly at odds with what one expects in a world where God’s way
is paramount.
On the other hand, those who live in the Spirit of the
Father and Christ behave in a very different way. The presence and power of the
Spirit in such people results in very different characteristics. Paul says:
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
There is no law against such things.
Christian character is produced by the Holy Spirit, not by
the mere moral discipline of trying to live by following the laws. Paul makes
it clear that justification by faith does not result in a law-less life. The
indwelling Holy Spirit produces Christian virtues in the believer’s life. These
are not just ‘virtues’ which I can acquire by constant practice. Much more they
are the natural outcome of a life lived in close relationship with Jesus
through his Spirit, i.e. allowing the Way of Jesus to guide one’s life. It is
not a question of self-discipline or self-control, but rather of having a
vision of where the good life really is and following that path.
We might notice that Paul contrasts “works of the flesh”
with the “fruit” (not ‘works’) of the Spirit. It is the Spirit, not the
following of laws, which lead to such qualities in a person. And, as Paul
points out, there is no law covering such characteristics. They are above and
beyond any law and, when they are operative, the keeping of the law is more
than adequately looked after.
The only way, then, to belong to Christ is by letting go of
all—for us to:
…have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The Spirit of Jesus directs such lives. As stated in the NIV
Bible:
“Christian character is produced by the Holy Spirit, not by
the mere moral discipline of trying to live by law.”
On the other hand, absence of law does not mean lawlessness
or spiritual anarchy. On the contrary, our deepening relationship with Jesus,
our prayerful reflection on his teaching and our acceptance of that teaching,
points us firmly in the direction of truth, love and freedom.
The Letter to the Galatians, although it seems to be dealing
with a very specific problem of a very specific group of people, in fact has a
great deal of relevance for Christians of every age and every place. The lesson
about the freedom of the Christian is of the greatest importance. It is very
sad if we see our being Christian as a restricted form of being human, with
limitations set as a condition for ‘salvation’ in a future existence. It is not
a means of ‘numbing’ the lower classes to accepting an unjust existence as the
price for a future happiness.
To the contrary, it is the person who is a world unto
himself, with no thought of the needs of others, who becomes the slave of his
own passions and fantasies. And when society is full of such people, then we
see the kind of behaviour that Paul deplores in today’s passage. Paradoxically,
it is the loving person, the one who lives for the genuine well-being of
others, who becomes the most enriched. The best society is one where, when everyone
gives, then everyone gets.
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.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Wednesday, October 14,
2026
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
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."
Reflection
In today’s Gospel the conflicting
relationship between Jesus and the religious authority of the time continues.
Today in the church we have the same conflict. In a certain 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.” Jesus’ criticism
of the religious leaders of the time can be repeated against many religious
leaders 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 Therese of Lisieux
grew up 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: “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
marketplaces.” Jesus calls the attention of the disciples to the hypocritical
behavior of some Pharisees. They like to go around the streets with long
tunics, and receive the greetings of the people, to occupy the first seats in
the synagogues and the seats of honor at banquets (cf. Mt 6: 5; 23: 5-7). Mark
says that they liked to enter the houses of widows to recite long prayers in
exchange for some money. Such people 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 for 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 how 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 God a dead idol.
•
Luke 11: 45-46: Criticism of the doctors of the
Law and Jesus’ response. 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 Mount, 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. In what ways am I hypocritical? How far does the hypocrisy of our
Church go?
•
How can I address this hypocrisy? How have
others in history addressed it? Is there guidance in their example for me?
•
Jesus criticized the scribes who insisted on the
disciplinary observance of the minute points of the law, as, for example,
paying the tithe of mint and rue and all sorts of garden herbs and forgetting
the objective of the Law, which is the practice of justice and love. How does
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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