17 October 2025 (Friday)
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop, Martyr on Friday of week 28 in Ordinary Time.
Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr.
Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:
First Reading: Romans 4: 1-8
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 32: 1b-2, 5, 11
Alleluia: Psalms 33: 22
Gospel: Luke 12: 1-7
First Reading : Romans 4:1‐8
What shall we say about Abraham, the ancestor from whom we are all descended? If Abraham was justified as a reward for doing something, he would really have had something to boast about, though not in God’s sight because scripture says: Abraham put his faith in God, and this faith was considered as justifying him. If a man has work to show, his wages are not considered as a favour but as his due; but when a man has nothing to show except faith in the one who justifies sinners, then his faith is considered as justifying him. And David says the same: a man is happy if God considers him righteous, irrespective of good deeds: Happy those whose crimes are forgiven, whose sins are blotted out; happy the man whom the Lord considers sinless.
Responsive Psalm : Psalm 31(32):1‐2,5,11
You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Happy the man whose offence is forgiven, whose sin is remitted. O happy the man to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, in whose spirit is no guile.
You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.
But now I have acknowledged my sins; my guilt I did not hide. I said: ‘I will confess my offence to the Lord.’ And you, Lord, have forgiven the guilt of my sin.
You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Rejoice, rejoice in the Lord, exult, you just! O come, ring out your joy, all you upright of heart.
You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Alleluia: Psalms 33: 22
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
22 May your love to be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.
(1. Shout for joy, you upright; praise comes well from the honest.
2. Give thanks to Yahweh on the lyre, play for him on the ten-stringed lyre.
3. Sing to him a new song, make sweet music for your cry of victory.
4. The word of Yahweh is straightforward, all he does springs from his constancy.
5. He loves uprightness and justice; the faithful love of Yahweh fills the earth.
6. By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, by the breath of his mouth all their array.
7. He collects the waters of the sea like a dam, he stores away the abyss in his treasure-house.
8. Let the whole earth fear Yahweh, let all who dwell in the world revere him;
9. for, the moment he spoke, it was so, no sooner had he commanded, than there it stood!
10. Yahweh thwarts the plans of nations, frustrates the counsels of peoples;
11. but Yahweh's own plan stands firm for ever, his heart's counsel from age to age.
12. How blessed the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen as his heritage.
13. From heaven Yahweh looks down, he sees all the children of Adam,
14. from the place where he sits he watches all who dwell on the earth;
15. he alone moulds their hearts, he understands all they do.
16. A large army will not keep a king safe, nor his strength save a warrior's life;
17. it is delusion to rely on a horse for safety, for all its power it cannot save.
18. But see how Yahweh watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his faithful love,
19. to rescue them from death and keep them alive in famine.
20. We are waiting for Yahweh; he is our help and our shield,
21. for in him our heart rejoices, in his holy name we trust.
22. Yahweh, let your faithful love rest on us, as our hope has rested in you).
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel : Luke 12:1‐7
The people had gathered in their thousands so that they were treading on one another. And Jesus began to speak, first of all to his disciples. ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees – that is, their hypocrisy. Everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed on the housetops. ‘To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. I will tell you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God’s sight. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.
For our reflection today:
The only strength Christians have is the Gospel. In difficult times, one must believe that Jesus is before us and does not cease to accompany his disciples. Persecution is not in contradiction to the Gospel but rather is part of it. If they persecuted our Teacher, how can we hope to be spared the fight? However, in the midst of the storm, Christians must not lose hope, thinking that they have been abandoned. Jesus assures his disciples: “even the hairs on your head are all numbered” (Mt 10:30); as if to say that none of man’s suffering, not even that which is most minute and hidden, is invisible to the eyes of God. God sees and certainly protects; and he will give his redemption. There is in fact in our midst Someone who is stronger than evil, stronger than the mafia, than the obscure conspiracies of those who profit at the expense of desperate people, than those who crush others with disdain. Someone who has always listened to the cry of Abel’s blood from the earth. Christians therefore, must always be found on the “opposite side” of the world, that chosen by God: not persecutors but persecuted; not arrogant but meek; not charlatans but submissive to the truth; not imposters but honest men and women. This fidelity to Jesus’ style — which is a style of hope — until death, was to be called a beautiful name by the first Christians: “martyrdom”, meaning “witness”. (Pope Francis, General Audience, 28 June 2017)
No comments:
Post a Comment