SATURDAY OF WEEK 31 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Jesus Christ was rich,
but he became poor for your sake,
to make you rich out of his poverty. 2COR 8:9

ROMANS 16:3-9,16,22-27

My Soul's Beloved,

The Church is made up of sinners called to be saints. Our whole life must be one of striving to live united to each other in love and grace. We are brothers and sisters in You, Lord, and we have the privilege of calling Your Father, our Abba. You have given us Your Mother to be our Mama as well, and all the saints gone before us are our family. They are witnesses to us that it is possible to strive after holiness and perfection with the help of the Holy Spirit that is poured out into our hearts when we were baptized. Yet, Beloved, because we are sinners, and we allow our weaknesses to sow division and discord between us, we are often at war with each other. But this is not what the family of God ought to witness to each other and to the world. How can we attract others to the faith if we live it so poorly? It will never be said of us as it was said of the early Christians, 'See how they love one another.'

Beloved, we were created by the God of love in love, and only when we, too, love Him and one another will we experience the peace and joy of Your resurrection. The Gospel has been preached to the ends of the earth, and the Church is made up of people from different nations, cultures, and languages. We come in all shapes and sizes, but our common inheritance is what should bind us in perfect harmony. Yet, this is not always true.  Grant us wisdom, O Lord, to know that if we are to be light and salt in the world, then we must love one another and be prepared to lay down our lives for each other. Love alone will draw all men and women to know You and love You as You ought to be known and loved. Help us, Lord, never to lose sight of the goal which is to make disciples in every nation. The greater our labor in the vineyard, the quicker will Your Kingdom be established on earth and the sooner will You return to claim Your inheritance and take us to be with You forever.

My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked death to save my life: I am not the only one to owe them a debt of gratitude, all the churches among the pagans do as well. My greetings also to the church that meets at their house.

Greetings to my friend Epaenetus, the first of Asia’s gifts to Christ; greetings to Mary who worked so hard for you; to those outstanding apostles Andronicus and Junias, my compatriots and fellow prisoners who became Christians before me; to Ampliatus, my friend in the Lord; to Urban, my fellow worker in Christ; to my friend Stachys. Greet each other with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.
I, Tertius, who wrote out this letter, greet you in the Lord. Greetings from Gaius, who is entertaining me and from the whole church that meets in his house. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends his greetings; so does our brother Quartus.
Glory to him who is able to give you the strength to live according to the Good News I preach, and in which I proclaim Jesus Christ, the revelation of a mystery kept secret for endless ages, but now so clear that it must be broadcast to pagans everywhere to bring them to the obedience of faith. This is only what scripture has predicted, and it is all part of the way the eternal God wants things to be. He alone is wisdom; give glory therefore to him through Jesus Christ for ever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 144(145):2-5,10-11

I will bless your name for ever, O Lord.

I will bless you day after day
and praise your name for ever.
The Lord is great, highly to be praised,
his greatness cannot be measured.

Age to age shall proclaim your works,

shall declare your mighty deeds,
shall speak of your splendour and glory,
tell the tale of your wonderful works.

All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord,
and your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of the glory of your reign
and declare your might, O God.

I will bless your name for ever, O Lord.

LUKE 16:9-15

My Soul's Beloved,

If we recognize the true value of things, both temporal and eternal, and use both wisely, we will gain the inheritance that God has set aside for us. We scoff at people who we know are notorious, public sinners, and forget that we are perhaps more wicked and worthy of condemnation because our sins are committed in secret. 

All that we own in this world is passing and is subject to death and decay. We have no lasting inheritance here on earth; what is imperishable is the good we do while we still can. Death comes to us all like a thief in the night, and while we foolishly believe that we will have time to repent, we may die without getting the time to do so. All too often, we spend our lives toiling to offer a more comfortable life for our families and sacrificing the quality time we could have spent with them, and realizing too late that we made the wrong choices. We were strangers to our children, who grew up all too quickly and no longer need us as much anymore. 

Lord Jesus, thank You for the timely reminder today to withhold all negative judgment of those whose lives we know nothing about and busy ourselves with amassing treasures in heaven.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity. The man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great; the man who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in great. If then you cannot be trusted with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches? And if you cannot be trusted with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own?
‘No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.’
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and laughed at him. He said to them, ‘You are the very ones who pass yourselves off as virtuous in people’s sight, but God knows your hearts. For what is thought highly of by men is loathsome in the sight of God.’