"Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?"

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel we see another confrontation between the Pharisees and Jesus. There he was having dinner in one of their homes, and yet they were looking for ways to jump on him and accuse him of breaking the Jewish laws. We hear in the gospel, “…the people were observing him carefully.”  (Luke 14:1) It’s as if Jesus is being put on the spot.

For the Jewish people, the most important thing in their relationship with God is to make sure they meticulously keep the laws out of fear of being condemned by God. They failed to see that the laws did not prevent them from doing good on the Sabbath. They fell silent when Jesus asked them, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?” (Luke 14:3) The Pharisees' silence reveals their unwillingness to answer, as they know their own beliefs are flawed. They value their traditions more than the man's suffering.

Jesus goes on to heal the man with dropsy and then teaches that helping those in need doesn’t break the Sabbath laws but instead fulfills the laws of Love that comes from God. Further, the Lord is teaching us that we are to move beyond being legalistic and to remember that, while it’s important to keep the commandments of God, we should not ignore the needs of those around us as we attempt to keep God’s laws. 

This gospel is a call to prioritize mercy over legalism. It challenges us to examine our own lives and see where we might be putting rules and regulations ahead of people. 

This gospel is another example of what the Lord teaches us elsewhere in the gospels: we are to not only love God with our whole mind, heart and soul, but we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. This includes even giving them help when it might not be convenient. It’s not always easy, but we need to see the Lord in all people we meet and reach out to them in their need, as the Lord reached out to this man with dropsy. In this way, the Lord can work through us to bring healing to those we encounter each day. In doing so, we will be bringing the Love of God to those in most need of receiving God’s love and healing.

For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our first reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul is talking about the challenges of attempting to live a life as a follower of Jesus Christ. He acknowledges all the temptations that come about because of just being human.

We all know the commandments of love of God and love of neighbor. Further we know we need to avoid looking lustfully at other people we may find attractive. All these things take us away from living a God centered life.

These are all struggles we face daily. For instance, it is good and right to love all people in our lives, but what about those people that get on our nerves? Do we love them as we should? Or do we harbor hatred or resentment towards them? That goes back to what Paul is saying, “For I do not do the good I want but I do the evil I do not want.”

Paul is pointing out the ongoing struggle we have is teaching us that, in all humility, we need to rely on the presence of Christ in our lives to help us to respond to these temptations that take us away from Him.

While the struggle with sin will continue until we are fully free in heaven, we are not left alone to fight alone. The same Holy Spirit that resurrected Jesus can give our mortal bodies new life, empowering us to choose the good and overcome in.

During these struggles it’s important to turn to the Lord in prayer to ask for strength to respond to temptation in a way pleasing God. Further, through the sacrament of Confession, we can receive the gift of forgiveness for the times we fall short and receive strength through the sacrament to pick ourselves up and to attempt to live a life pleasing to God.

Through the intercession of St. Paul, and our guardian angels, let us pray for the strength to always live a life of love of God and love of neighbor. Let us not despair during times we may fail but be grateful for the gift of forgiveness God gives us each time we repent and turn back to him.

 

I wrote the following for my Lay Carmelite Community.

In the month of October, we have two very special Carmelite saints to commemorate. We start the month off with the Little Flower: Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus. Then on October 15^th, we commemorate Saint Teresa of Jesus (of Avila). Both are, because of their writings, considered Doctors of the Church.

St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, while reading the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians when Paul spoke of love being the root of all vocations in the Church, realized that her vocation was that of “love.” She is quoted as saying, “Yes, I have found my place in the Church and it is you, O my God, who have given me this place: in the heart of the Church, my mother, I shall be love.” She realized that doing all things withing the church without love of God or love of neighbor was meaningless.

With St. Teresa of Jesus, she realized that we need to always live in the presence of God. “Whoever lives in the presence of so good a friend and excellent a teacher as is Jesus Christ, can endure all things. Christ helps us and strengthens us and never fails; he is a true friend.” So, as e live out our Carmelite vocation within the Catholic Church, let us always remember to live in the presence of Jesus. No matter what problems we are facing, if we remember that Jesus is present to us, he’ll help us through our difficulties.

Further, in all that we do, as St. Theresa of Jesus reminds us, we need to have love as the foundation in all we do, whether in our worship of God, or in our dealings with others. Our vocation is to love God with our whole mind, heart, and soul, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

St. Theresa of the Child Jesus and St. Teresa of Jesu, pray for us.

Whoever listens to you listens to me.

 

For the scripture readings for this reflection, go to: Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today Jesus is expressing frustration at those people around him that find it hard to accept him and his teachings. They were present for all his various miracles and healings, and yet they find it hard to accept him for who he is: the long-awaited Messiah.

Our Lord says, “For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have long ago repented…” I often wonder why it was so hard for people, who witnessed the great things Jesus had done, would not have become his followers? Were they so comfortable with their sinful lives that they were unwilling to turn to the Lord in repentance and accept him as Messiah?

Human nature being what it is, people find it easy to just to continue with their familiar ways of living. Putting God first in their lives means work. It means realizing that we need to repent from our sinfulness and to turn to God in love. It means doing some extra work to become a person who loves God with our whole being and to love others as we love ourselves. People tend to find it hard to turn away from their comfortable lives. They find it hard to live a spiritual life with God in the center of who they are. They prefer putting their self-interests ahead of obeying God’s laws of love towards Him and towards others.

Let us not fall into that way of living. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, are called to listen to Jesus through His teachings in Scripture and His teachings as understood in the Catholic Church. Let us repent of any sinfulness we may be guilty of. Let us always keep an open ear, an open mind, and an open heart to where the Lord is calling us to be: people who love God and are willing to serve him in how we live out our lives as Christians.

You cannot serve both God and mammon

 

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, pastor of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org) 

Submission to Blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella for XXV Sunday in Ordinary Time by Fr. Arthur F. Rojas

© All Rights Reserved personally by Rev. Fr. Arthur F Rojas, September 18 th , 2025 ©

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

Glory to Jesus Christ!

In the Ordinary Form, the readings of Sunday, September 21 st speak to our times quite directly, namely Amos 8:4-7, Psalm 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; and Luke 16:1-13. Dear parishioners of the Extraordinary Form, although I know that your readings today are from Galatians 5:25-26, 6:1-10; and Luke 7:11-16, in light of recent events please consider these following points for all Catholics and people of good will.

Two common threads of the readings in the Ordinary Form are the supremacy of God and its impact on how we treat our neighbor, both high and low. Consider the denunciations of the prophet St. Amos of mistreatment of the poor and manipulation of norms by special interests, the Responsorial Psalm’s praise of God’s supremacy and His aid to the poor, the exhortation of the apostle St. Paul to St. Timothy and a broader audience (including you and me) to pray for our civil authorities, and the Gospel’s trenchant reminder that we should maintain God’s trust in us, let alone our trust in Him. As more and more Americans lack appreciation, even simple respect for the image of God in each human person, let alone our neighbor in this country, state, city, or town, from our secularized society’s increasingly overt rejection of a transcendent Supreme Being, thus we cannot be surprised that from turning our collective back on God, then we turn increasingly against each other, starting from the highest echelons of society and wounding so many families and relationships in our midst.

It is facile, in other words a cop-out, for one faction to point fingers at another faction in America when anyone with an attention span past several minutes or a historical memory past the last presidential election would notice that certain public figures who decried cancel culture at one time now clamor for it to advance their causes. Ironically, in quoting the words of a recently murdered public speaker and debater for reviving public debate and encouraging robust and civil exchange of views, the rhetoric and deeds of these persons foment further suppression of the freedoms of speech and expression in our country. Instead of merely reacting, let us think and pray before responding to the contemporary turbulence.

Let’s ask, what would count as actionable “hate speech” in the future when the balance of power changes at one level or another? Would preaching Biblical truth count, whether from a pulpit or on a tee-shirt or via social media? Common experience points to both left and right hands being on the throat of our God-given rights to freedom of speech, and collaterally, the free exercise of religion. As these hands from public and private sectors, even if serially, move to constrict public debate on a range of issues, both domestic and foreign, then as we address and engage each other less and less as neighbors, if not as brethren in Christ when applicable, it will become even easier to dehumanize and demonize each other, as what happened tragically in Spain in the early-to-mid 1930s. While human laws and policies have their proper place to ensure peace and good order, in the spirit of today’s readings more importantly we Americans – starting with us Catholic Americans - need to recover a Godly respect for each other and to reclaim the eroded practices of courtesy and good manners so that we may live in true freedom and not entrench the sway of might or Mammon. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! Our Lady of the Hudson, pray for us!

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Optional Memorial of Saint Januarius, Bishop and Martyr | USCCB

Today we commemorate the feast of St. Januarius, bishop and martyr. Many know him better as San Gennaro. Probably most notable here in New York City is the feast down on Mulberry Street in honor of San Gennaro. It goes for several blocks, lasts about 11 days, and celebrates the life of someone we know very little about.

What little we know of him was that he was a bishop martyred in 305 AD during the Great Persecution, and a core part of his veneration involves the miraculous liquefaction of his blood, an event seen as a sign of protection. It was reported that this miracle happened again today. Finally, San Gennaro is considered a patron saint of Naples and is greatly venerated there.

The fact that he was a martyr for the faith tells us a lot about what kind of person he was. He was willing to put his faith in Jesus Christ first in spite of the possibility of being put to death. In our gospel for today we hear Jesus tell us, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” San Gennaro knew these words well and was able to preserve his life for eternal life and is now an example of what it means to be a Christian.

St. Augustine was able to understand what San Gennaro was facing in being a bishop and eventually a martyr when he said: “The day I became a bishop a burden was laid on my shoulders for which it will be no easy task to render an account.” St. Augustine and San Gennaro took their call as bishops seriously and knew they would be held accountable to the Lord on judgment day.

Most all of us will never rise to the level of being a bishop or face the possibility of being a martyr for the faith. But we are called, like San Gennaro, to follow and serve Jesus Christ as his followers. It isn’t easy and is often considered counter cultural. San Gennaro found this out when he was martyred for his faith in Jesus Christ. Like San Gennaro, all of us are called to keep Jesus as the center of who we are. We are called to love and serve him in how we live and treat others. We are called to love God with our whole mind, heart and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Not an easy thing to do.

Let us pray for our bishops and priests and for each other to be better examples of what it means to be called “Christian.”

Your faith has saved you; go in peace.

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today we hear the familiar story of the sinful woman weeping at feet of Jesus and washing them with oil and her tears. She is described only as a “sinful woman,” but it’s unclear what kind of sin she was guilty of or who she was. St. Luke only describes her as a “sinful woman” that is seeking forgiveness for her sins. In her humility and sorrow for her sins, she approached Jesus in front of everyone present, not caring what other people would think of her. She was only concerned with showing repentance for her sinfulness and receiving forgiveness from the Lord.  She had the faith that Jesus would forgive her of all her sins.

In contrast, we have Simon, the Pharisee, who was not only judging the woman, but judging Jesus. We read, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is touching him, that she is a sinner.” In effect, Simon is condemning not only the woman, but Jesus as well. This Pharisee failed to understand that Jesus was more than a prophet: Jesus was the Messiah, able to bring forgiveness and reconciliation to all people. The woman recognized this of Jesus. She saw him as Messiah, and that he would have the power to forgive her sins and help her develop a loving relationship with God that she needed.

Jesus responds to the Pharisee, pointing out that he failed to show him any respect by embracing him, or giving him water to wash his feet. Jesus goes on to tell Simon, “So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love.” Then turning to the woman, Jesus says, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

This sinful woman serves as an example for all of us. We know that we can turn to Jesus for forgiveness of all our sins, whether they are great or small. Jesus is there for us to turn to him in the sacrament of confession ready to give us his forgiveness. It is through our faith in Jesus that we, too, can receive that gift of forgiveness for whatever sins we may have committed.

Let us take time to meditate on this gospel and be grateful that Jesus is always there for us in all our needs. We just need to turn to him and show him the same love that this woman showed him. Then he, in turn, will tell us: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”