Sunday Liturgy, September 7, 2025

Texts taken from the “On Your Word” missalette, September-October 2025

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)  – 3rd week psalter

First Reading

From the Book of Wisdom (Wis 9:13-18)

What human being can know God’s counsel? Who can conceive what the Lord intends? The deliberations of mortals are timid, and our reflections are uncertain, because a corruptible body weighs down the soul, and this tent of clay burdens the mind with many concerns. We can scarcely imagine the things of earth, and we discover with difficulty what is at hand; but who has ever explored the things of heaven? Who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? Thus were the paths of those on earth made straight; and people learned what pleases you and were saved through Wisdom.

The word of God.

Commentary on the First Reading

Last Sunday we were invited to learn to be humble, to stand with the lowliest, as Jesus did. This is because - as is revealed to us today - only from this perspective is it possible to glimpse God’s presence within the events of history, the only one who can help us find the right answers to life’s great questions, since - as the Book of Wisdom reminds us - “who can conceive what the Lord intends… we can scarcely imagine the things of earth.” Only in Jesus - the Father’s Wisdom - will we learn not merely, and not only, to find answers, but to ask ourselves the right questions, among which the most important is: “What does the Lord want from me/from us here and now? What does he want to tell us through this experience?” So much so that the psalmist, amid life’s hardships and contradictions, declares: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place through all generations,” and “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a wise heart.”

Second Reading

From the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to Philemon (Phlm 9b-10, 12-17)

Beloved, I, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus, appeal to you on behalf of Onesimus, my child, whose father I have become in my imprisonment. I am sending him back to you, and this means sending my own heart. I should have liked to keep him with me, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the Gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be forced but voluntary. Perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but much more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but even more to you, both as a human being and as a brother in the Lord. So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.

The word of God.

Commentary on the Second Reading

The second reading is taken from the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to Philemon. The Apostle asks him to welcome back into his home the slave Onesimus, who has now become a Christian: “I appeal to you on behalf of Onesimus, my child, whose father I have become in my imprisonment. I am sending him back to you, and this means sending my own heart.” Paul is imprisoned, and in the letter he reveals all his concern and care for his friend, more than his difficult situation. And so he continues: welcome him “no longer as a slave but much more than a slave, as a beloved brother… as a human being… as a brother in the Lord. So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.” These words suggest the strong bond of friendship between Paul and Onesimus and, at the same time, how his past condition has become secondary in the face of his conversion. This text leads us to reflect on the value of friendship and on learning to regard others not so much for what they were in the past, but for what they desire to build for the future: it does not matter where you come from or what you have done, but where you want to go.

Gospel

From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 14:25-33)

At that time, great crowds were traveling with Jesus. He turned and addressed them: “If anyone comes to me without loving me more than their father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even their own life, they cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding themselves unable to finish the work, all who see it will begin to ridicule them, saying, ‘This person began to build but was unable to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle against another king would not first sit down and decide whether, with ten thousand troops, they can successfully oppose the other king advancing against them with twenty thousand? But if not, while the other is still far away, they send a delegation to ask for peace. In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all their possessions cannot be my disciple.”

The word of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel

Last Sunday the Gospel invited us to look beyond immediate reward to the reward of the resurrection of the righteous. Today, addressing the crowd, Jesus says: “If anyone comes to me without loving me more than their father, mother, wife, children… and even their own life, they cannot be my disciple.” What Jesus wants us to understand can be grasped in two dimensions. Even though a “crowd” follows Jesus, we must remember that each person carries within their heart a specific life project to which they must respond, learning to be guided by God’s wisdom (first reading). Secondly, following the Lord asks us to embrace Jesus’ own project: “Whoever does not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Following the Lord asks us to embrace the cross, that is, to accept his boundless logic of love, certain that the Lord will never abandon us, because he conquered the cross by dying on it. This is the wisdom of which the first reading spoke.