31 October 2025 (Friday) / Ordinary Weekday/ Friday of week 30 in Ordinary Time

31 October 2025 (Friday)

Ordinary Weekday/ Friday of week 30 in Ordinary Time.

Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Romans 9: 1-5
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 147: 12-15, 19-20
Alleluia: John 10: 27
Gospel: Luke 14: 1-6

Friday of week 30 in Ordinary Time.

First Reading : Romans 9:1‐5

What I want to say now is no pretence; I say it in union with Christ – it is the truth – my conscience in union with the Holy Spirit assures me of it too. What I want to say is this: my sorrow is so great, my mental anguish so endless, I would willingly be condemned and be cut off from Christ if it could help my brothers of Israel, my own flesh and blood. They were adopted as sons, they were given the glory and the covenants; the Law and the ritual were drawn up for them, and the promises were made to them. They are descended from the patriarchs and from their flesh and blood came Christ who is above all, God for ever blessed! Amen.

Responsive Psalm : Psalm 147:12‐15,19‐20

O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!

O praise the Lord, Jerusalem! Zion, praise your God! He has strengthened the bars of your gates he has blessed the children within you.

O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!

He established peace on your borders, he feeds you with finest wheat. He sends out his word to the earth and swiftly runs his command.

O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!

He makes his word known to Jacob, to Israel his laws and decrees. He has not dealt thus with other nations; he has not taught them his decrees.

O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!

Alleluia: John 10: 27
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
27 The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice, says the Lord, I know them and they follow me.
(24. The Jews gathered round him and said, 'How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us openly.'
25. Jesus replied: I have told you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name are my witness;
26. but you do not believe, because you are no sheep of mine.
27. The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.
28. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from my hand.
29. The Father, for what he has given me, is greater than anyone, and no one can steal anything from the Father's hand.
30. The Father and I are one)
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel : Luke 14:1‐6

Now on a sabbath day Jesus had gone for a meal to the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely. There in front of him was a man with dropsy, and Jesus addressed the lawyers and Pharisees. ‘Is it against the law’ he asked ‘to cure a man on the sabbath, or not?’ But they remained silent, so he took the man and cured him and sent him away. Then he said to them, ‘Which of you here, if his son falls into a well, or his ox, will not pull him out on a sabbath day without hesitation?’ And to this they could find no answer.

For our reflection today:

This very way “of living, attached to the law, distanced them from love and from justice: they were attentive to the law, they disregarded justice; they were attentive to the law, they overlooked love”. The Lord found these were “closed men, men too attached to the law”, or rather, too attached “to the letter of the law”, because “the law is love”. These men “always closed the doors of hope, of love, of salvation”. This is precisely “the path that Jesus teaches us, the exact opposite of that of the doctors of the law”. And “this path, from love to justice, leads to God”. Only “the path that goes from love to knowledge and to discernment, to complete fulfillment, leads to holiness, to salvation, to the encounter with Jesus”. “The other path”, however, “that of sticking only to the law, to the letter of the law, leads to closure, leads to selfishness”. And it leads “to the arrogance of considering ourselves just”, to that so-called “‘holiness’ of appearances”. Such that “Jesus says to these people: you like people to see you as men of prayer, of fasting”. This is only for appearances. And “this is why Jesus said to the people: do what they say, not what they do”, because “that mustn’t be done”. Jesus draws near: closeness is the very proof that we are “on the true path”. Because that is “the path that God has chosen in order to save us: closeness. He drew close to us, he made himself man”. And indeed, “God’s flesh is the sign; God’s flesh is the sign of true justice. God who made himself a man like one of us, and we who must make ourselves like the others, like the needy, like those who need our help”. (Pope Francis, Santa Marta, 31 October 2014)

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed  and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)