30th Sunday Ordinary Time October 26, 2025

Readings: Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 2, Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 18:9-14 

Jesus wants to teach us more about prayer today. The first reading, from Sirach, is very clear that the Lord is not partial to the weak. We need to hear that today when there is such an emphasis on the preferential option for the poor. Sirach is not against this preferential option that is surely present in much of the Scriptures but also wants us to be sure that we understand that God listens to everyone, rich and poor alike. The real challenge is to be among the lowly—those who know their reality in the face of God. We are all paupers when it comes to our relationship with God! The only important reality in life is to relate to God, to continue to speak with God Day and night, to insist that God be present in our lives and transform us as He wants to do.

Yes, we have to admit that often the poor of this world cry out to God with intensity more than those who are wealthy and find no need of God. We have to admit that our western, so-called “developed” nations, have by and large lost any interest in God. God has really become, in the western countries, a useless concept for most people. It looks indeed, for many, as if God is only a need of the poor and oppressed. The rest of us have money and power and food. Our Scriptures tells us over and over again that this way of thinking is an illusion. Yet the number of people who attend Church in the western “developed” countries continues to drop. We just don’t need God.

We are not called to come to Church on Sunday and look down on those who no longer have faith. That would make us exactly like the Pharisee in today’s Gospel from Luke! Instead, we should be asking the Lord to have mercy on us, to change our lives, to make us fully alive in Him so that others can see the presence of God once more active in our world.

It is not easy to live as a Christian today. It is not easy to tell others that we do believe in Jesus Christ and that He is our Savior when they ask us. Our first challenge is simply to deepen our own faith so that we do live every moment of every day aware of God’s love, mercy and compassion. If we do that, then our faith soon becomes apparent to others, not in any offensive way, but simply as the whole energy of our lives.

We do not come to Church to be better than others. We come to Church because we believe and we are called to express our belief. Let us ask today that God will strengthen this faith within us and show us His way in our daily lives. To God be glory for every. Amen.

                 Fr. Terry.