Gospel: October 18, 2025
October 18, 2025 (Saturday)
Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist
Psalter: Proper / (Red)
Ps 145:10-11, 12-13, 17-18
Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
1st Reading: 2 Timothy 4:10-17b
Gospel: Luke 10:1-9
After this, the Lord appointed 72 other disciples, and sent them, two by two, ahead of him, to every town and place, where he himself was to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So you must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to his harvest. Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse or bag or sandals; and do not stop at the homes of those you know. Whatever house you enter, first bless them, saying, ‘Peace to this house!’ If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house. When they welcome you to any town, eat what they offer you. Heal the sick who are there, and say to them: ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.’
Reflection:
“The harvest is plentiful.”
“Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.” Today we celebrate one such friend of God, Saint Luke, who made known the wonder and reality of God’s kingdom through his Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles. From the literary style of his Gospel, we can tell that Luke was a very educated man. Tradition holds that he was a physician from Antioch and Acts declares that he was a companion of Saint Paul on his missions. Holy Scripture presents to us the words of God in human language, just as the Word of God became flesh to reveal the unseen God and communicate his will (Dei Verbum 13). The Evangelists, therefore, had a special role in perpetuating that memory of the words and deeds of Christ, so that the message of salvation through him might spread. The words of the Gospel are read prayerfully in private meditation. But they are also proclaimed in the public liturgies of the Church and are used as a source of ongoing evangelization, since “the harvest is plentiful” in every age. Let’s pray for more laborers for the mission of proclaiming Christ’s message of love, life and hope.
