Gospel: October 22, 2025
October 22, 2025 (Wednesday)
29th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 1 (Green/White)
St. John Paul II, pope
Ps 124:1b-3, 4-6, 7-8
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
1st Reading: Romans 6:12-18
Gospel: Luke 12:39-48
Pay attention to this: If the master of the house had known at what time the thief would come, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.” Peter said, “Lord, did you tell this parable only for us, or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Imagine, then, the wise and faithful steward, whom the master sets over his other servants, to give them wheat at the proper time. Fortunate is this servant if his master, on coming home, finds him doing his work.
Truly, I say to you, the master will put him in charge of all his property. But it may be that the steward thinks, ‘My Lord delays in coming,’ and he begins to abuse the male servants and the servant girls, eating and drinking and getting drunk. Then the master will come on a day he does not expect, and at an hour he doesn’t know. He will cut him off, and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.
Reflection:
“To imitate Christ’s loving service.”
Pope Saint John Paul II’s first encyclical “Redemptor Hominis” concludes with a reflection on service as the mature expression of the “kingly” nature bestowed upon us by Christ our Redeemer. Christ, the King of heaven and earth, gave us the example of loving service, even to the point of his saving death for us on the cross. Therefore, if we are to live up to the dignity we have received, we are to imitate Christ’s loving service.
We do this in a variety of ways, since all members of the Church have a complementary capacity for service that is to be used to the benefit of the whole Church in her mission of proclaiming Christ as Savior and of bearing Christ to the world. Saint John Paul called all people to live their vocation of “kingly service” with fidelity. Both faithful and unfaithful servants appear in today’s Gospel parable and Jesus describes the heavenly reward of the faithful.
Although for now the Lord is beyond our sight, we are to serve Christ with love and dedication thinking that he is always at hand, for indeed, so he is (cf. Mk 1:15). The servant who knew his master’s will, but did not prepare and do what his master wanted, will be soundly beaten; but the one who does unconsciously what deserves punishment, shall receive fewer blows. Much will be required of the one who has been given much, and more will be asked of the one who has been entrusted with more.
