Gospel: September 30, 2025
September 30, 2025 (Tuesday)
26th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 2 / (White)
St. Jerome, priest and doctor
Ps 87:1b-3, 4-5, 6-7
All you nations, praise the Lord!
1st Reading: Zechariah 8:20-23
Gospel: Luke 9:51-56
As the time drew near when Jesus would be taken up to heaven, he made up his mind to go to Jerusalem. He sent ahead of him some messengers, who entered a Samaritan village to prepare a lodging for him. But the people would not receive him, because he was on his way to Jerusalem.
Seeing this, James and John, his disciples, said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to reduce them to ashes?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.
Reflection:
“Imitate Christ in his forgiveness and compassion.”
Saint Jerome taught that “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ,” so the first place we should go to get to know Jesus is the Bible. We should meditate regularly on God’s Word and listen to what he is saying to us through the Scriptures. We will recognize the foretelling of Christ in the Old Testament and see the fulfillment of God’s saving promises in the New Testament, as he sends his Son to save us. Isaiah describes the Messiah as the one who will not break the crushed reed (Isaiah 42:3). Jesus doesn’t condemn people for their faults, but pardons them and calls them to conversion and new life. The people of the Samaritan village do not wish to receive Jesus. They are not open to his message, but he doesn’t respond to the rejection with anger, as his disciples do. James and John are outraged by the refusal and want to call down fire from heaven to burn up the town, but Jesus challenges their anger and moves on to another town. As disciples of Christ, we are to imitate him in his forgiveness and compassion, rather than storing up hurt or retaliating against others in fury.
