4 October 2025 (Saturday)
Saint Francis of Assisi on Saturday of week 26 in Ordinary Time.
Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi, Religious Founder.
Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:
First Reading: Baruch 4: 5-12, 27-29
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 69: 33-37
Alleluia: Matthew 11: 25
Gospel: Luke 10: 17-24
First Reading : Baruch 4:5‐12,27‐29
Take courage, my people, constant reminder of Israel. You were sold to the nations, but not for extermination. You provoked God; and so were delivered to your enemies, since you had angered your creator by offering sacrifices to demons, not to God. You had forgotten the eternal God who reared you. You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you, for when she saw the anger fall on you from God, she said: Listen, you neighbours of Zion: God has sent me great sorrow. I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity, to which they have been sentenced by the Eternal. I had reared them joyfully; in tears, in sorrow, I watched them go away. Do not, any of you, exult over me, a widow, deserted by so many; I suffer loneliness because of the sins of my own children, who turned away from the Law of God. Take courage, my children, call on God: he who brought disaster on you will remember you. As by your will you first strayed away from God, so now turn back and search for him ten times as hard; for as he brought down those disasters on you, so will he rescue you and give you eternal joy.
Responsive Psalm : Psalm 68(69):33‐37
The Lord listens to the needy.
The poor when they see it will be glad and God‐seeking hearts will revive; for the Lord listens to the needy and does not spurn his servants in their chains. Let the heavens and the earth give him praise,the sea and all its living creatures.
The Lord listens to the needy.
For God will bring help to Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah and men shall dwell there in possession. The sons of his servants shall inherit it; those who love his name shall dwell there.
The Lord listens to the needy.
Alleluia: Matthew 11: 25
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
25 Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
(25. At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children.
26. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.
27. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him).
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel : Luke 10:17‐24
The seventy‐two came back rejoicing. ‘Lord,’ they said ‘even the devils submit to us when we use your name.’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.’ It was then that, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said: ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’ Then turning to his disciples he spoke to them in private, ‘Happy the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.’
For our reflection today:
To meet the Lord “who is and will be”, we must have “big hearts”, humility and a “childlike" attitude. In his homily during Mass at Santa Marta on Tuesday, 29 November, Pope Francis continued his reflection from the previous day recalling the way of life to which Christians are called. During the Advent season, he observed, Christians should be mindful of three things: vigilance “in prayer, carrying out works of brotherly charity and rejoicing and giving praise”.
The Pope focused on the Gospel image of Jesus (Luke 10: 21-24) who “rejoiced in praise of the Father”. What is the reason for Jesus’ joy? “For the Lord revealed to the little ones the mysteries of salvation, the mystery of himself”, Francis, emphasized — “to the little ones, not to the wise and the learned: to little children”. For the Lord cherishes children, he said, “to sow in the hearts of children the mystery of salvation”, because “the little ones are able to understand this mystery”.
This is confirmed in the day’s first reading, from the book of the prophet Isaiah (11: 1-10), which, the Pope noted, contains many “little things”, many “little details that make us see God’s promise of peace to his people” the promise “of redemption, the promise to always save them”. The text, Francis noted, points out that “on that day, a shoot will spring from the stump of Jesse”: the prophet “does not say: ‘An army will come to liberate you’, but refers to “a small bud, a little thing”. And, the Pontiff added, “at Christmas we see this smallness, this little thing: a baby, a stable, a mother, a father” , and thus the importance of having “big hearts but the attitude of a child”.
For “upon this bud will rest the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit”. And this bud, explained Francis, will have “that virtue” which is typical of little ones: “fear of the Lord”. He “will walk in fear of the Lord”. But, the Pope immediately clarified that fear of the Lord does not mean “dread”. It means testifying in our own lives to “the commandment that God gave to our father Abraham: ‘Live in my presence and be blameless’. And all this means humility. The fear of the Lord is humility”. That’s why “only the little ones are able to understand fully the meaning of humility, a sense of fear of the Lord, because they walk in the presence of the Lord, for ever”: they, in fact, “feel watched by the Lord, guarded by the Lord; they feel that the Lord is with them, which gives them the strength to go on”. The little ones, continued the Pope, understand they are “a little sprout of a very large trunk", a shoot upon which alights “the Holy Spirit”. They therefore embody the “Christian humility” that leads them to recognize: “You are God; I am a person, I journey forward in this way with the little things of life, but walking in Your presence and trying to be above reproach”.
This is “true humility” not of course, a “‘theatrical’ humility” as ostentatious as he who said: ‘I am humble, but proud of it’. The humility of the childlike, the Pope stressed, is that of someone who “walks in the presence of the Lord, does not speak ill of others, looks only at service, and feels that he or she is the smallest.... That’s where their strength lies”. A clear example, he added, can be seen in Nazareth: “God, in sending his Son, casts his eye upon a humble maiden — very humble — who immediately afterwards hastens to help a cousin in need and she tells her nothing of what had happened”. This is humility: “to walk in the presence of the Lord, happily, joyfully, because this is the joy of the humble: to be seen by the Lord”. Therefore, with the humility of which the Gospel reading speaks, we must always remember that “humility is a gift, a gift of the Holy Spirit”. It is what we call “the gift of the fear of God”. A gift, the Pope concluded, which we must seek from the Lord: “Looking at Jesus who rejoiced because God reveals his mystery to the humble, we can ask for the grace of humility for all of us, the grace of the fear of God, of walking in his presence, trying to be beyond reproach”. A gift that will help us to “be vigilant in prayer, carrying out works of brotherly charity and rejoicing and giving praise”. (Pope Francis, morning meditation in the Chapel of Thedomus Sanctae Marthae - The strength of the little ones
Tuesday, 29 November 2016).
There is a case where the evangelist explicitly attributes to the Holy Spirit the prayer of Jesus, not without hinting at the habitual state of contemplation from which it sprang. It is when, on His journey toward Jerusalem, He converses with the disciples, among whom He has chosen seventy-two to send out, after having properly instructed them, to evangelize the people in the places He is about to visit (cf. Luke 10). Upon their return from that mission, the seventy-two recount to Jesus what they have accomplished, including the “submission” of demons in His Name. And Jesus, after telling them that He had seen “Satan fall from heaven like lightning,” rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.” This text from Luke, alongside the one from John that relates the farewell discourse in the upper room (cf. Jn 13-14), is particularly significant and eloquent regarding the revelation of the Holy Spirit in Christ's messianic mission. In the entirety of the preaching and actions of Jesus Christ, which flow from His union with the Holy Spirit-Love, there is contained an immense richness of the heart: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,” He urges, “and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:29), but at the same time, there is the firmness of the truth regarding the kingdom of God, and therefore the persistent invitation to open the heart, under the action of the Holy Spirit, to be admitted to it and not excluded. In all of this, the “power of the Holy Spirit” is revealed – and indeed, the Holy Spirit Himself is manifested with His presence and action as the Paraclete, the comforter of man, the confirmer of divine truth, and the one who defeats the “ruler of this world.” (St. John Paul II, General Audience, 25 July 1990)
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