GOSPEL REFLECTION OF POPE FRANCIS - 11/03/23 (Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time)

From the Gospel according to Luke

Lk 14:1-6

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine

at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,

and the people there were observing him carefully.

In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy.

Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking,

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

But they kept silent; so he took the man and,

after he had healed him, dismissed him.

Then he said to them

"Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern,

would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?"

But they were unable to answer his question.

WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER: 

This very way “of living, attached to the law, distanced them from love and from justice: they were attentive to the law, they disregarded justice; they were attentive to the law, they overlooked love”. (…) Closed men, men too attached to the law, or rather, too attached to the letter of the law, because the law is love. These men always closed the doors of hope, of love, of salvation. They were men who only knew how to close. (…) This is precisely “the path that Jesus teaches us, the exact opposite of that of the doctors of the law”. And “this path, from love to justice, leads to God”. Only “the path that goes from love to knowledge and to discernment, to complete fulfillment, leads to holiness, to salvation, to the encounter with Jesus”. “The other path”, however, “that of sticking only to the law, to the letter of the law, leads to closure, leads to selfishness”. And it leads “to the arrogance of considering ourselves just”, to that so-called “‘holiness’ of appearances”. Such that “Jesus says to these people: you like people to see you as men of prayer, of fasting”. This is only for appearances. And “this is why Jesus said to the people: do what they say, not what they do”, because “that mustn’t be done”. (…) Jesus draws near: closeness is the very proof” that we are “on the true path”. Because that is “the path that God has chosen in order to save us: closeness. He drew close to us, he made himself man”. And indeed, “God’s flesh is the sign; God’s flesh is the sign of true justice. God who made himself a man like one of us, and we who must make ourselves like the others, like the needy, like those who need our help”. (Santa Marta, 31 Oct 2014)

Source:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/word-of-the-day.html

Amen +

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, be with us always until the hour of our death. Amen. +

May the Lord + bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen. +  

Saint Martin de Porres, Religious—Optional Memorial:

https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-3---st-martin-de-porres-religious

Examination of Conscience and Guide to Sacrament of Confession:

https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/examination-of-conscience/

Ultimate Catholic Parents Guide:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ls6IcexZAls

Summary and Defense of Catholic Teachings:

https://www.catholic.com/tract/pillar-of-fire-pillar-of-truth