Gospel: October 3, 2025
October 3, 2025 (Friday)
26th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 2 / (Green)
Ps 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9
For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
1st Reading: Baruch 1:15-22
You will say: May everyone recognize the justice of our God but, on this day, shame and confusion befit the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem our kings and princes, our priests, our prophets, and our fathers, because we have sinned before the Lord. We have disobeyed him and have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God, nor have we followed the commandments which the Lord had put before us.
From the day that the Lord brought our ancestors out of the land of Egypt until this day, we have disobeyed the Lord our God and we have rebelled against him instead of listening to his voice. Because of this, from the day on which the Lord brought our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, so as to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, the evils and the curse which the Lord pronounced by Moses, his servant, have dogged our footsteps right down to the present day.
We did not listen to the voice of the Lord our God speaking through the words of the prophets whom he sent to us, but each one of us followed his perverted heart, serving false gods and doing what displeases the Lord our God.
Gospel: Luke 10:13-16
Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! So many miracles have been worked in you! If the same miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would already be sitting in ashes and wearing the sackcloth of repentance. Surely for Tyre and Sidon it will be better on the Day of Judgment than for you. And what of you, city of Capernaum? Will you be lifted up to heaven? You will be thrown down to the place of the dead. Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me.”
Reflection:
“The voice of the Lord.”
In the language of the prophets of old, Jesus pronounces words of woe to the towns that have rejected his message or responded in a lukewarm fashion. Chorazin and Bethsaida have refused to repent and so that are worse than pagan cities like Tyre and Sidon, who would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, just as the people of Nineveh did in response to the preaching of Jonah (Jonah 3:5). A particularly severe word is reserved for Capernaum, a central location of his ministry.
Despite the miracles performed there, as well as the enthusiasm of the crowds, Christ is still held in suspicion as a blasphemer (Mk 2:7; Lk 5:21), and as one who presents a teaching that is difficult to accept (Jn 6:60). So despite living with them and spending much time preaching and healing, many people have not listened to Jesus; they have not listened “to the voice of the Lord” (Bar 1:21) or doubted his words. How do I approach God’s word? How do I welcome the teaching of Christ? Do I find his call to conversion difficult to accept? Is my acceptance of Christ held back by doubt?
