Texts taken from the “On Your Word” Missal September-October 2022
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
3rd week of the Psalter
FIRST READING
From the Book of Wisdom (Wis 9:13-18)
What person can know God’s counsel? Who can imagine what the Lord intends? The reasoning of mortals is timid and our reflections uncertain, because a perishable body weighs down the soul and this clay dwelling burdens a mind full of worries. We can scarcely imagine the things of earth, and we discover with difficulty what is within reach; but who has probed the things of heaven? Who would have known your will, if you had not given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? Thus the paths of those on earth were made straight; people were taught what is pleasing to you and were saved through wisdom.” – The Word of God.
Commentary on the First Reading
Who can understand God’s will in their own life? By what means can we accomplish what is good? How can we act wisely in all the events of our lives? We too often ask ourselves these questions about God’s will in our lives and, consequently, about the right way to act in our daily actions. Today the liturgy shows us the right way to approach these questions. In fact, the passage presented by the liturgy contains part of the prayer Solomon raises to God precisely to obtain wisdom. The answer to our questions is unique and can also help us today! Wisdom is the sole means between God and humanity that reveals his will to us. For this very reason, wisdom becomes a personification of Christ, who is the true wisdom of the Father. Wisdom comes from God as a free gift. To have wisdom of heart, we must ask the Lord to send us the Holy Spirit, so that he may help us receive, welcome, and consent to God’s will, even when it does not coincide with our expectations, and make the right choices for our lives as believers.
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. I appeal to you on behalf of Onesimus, my child, whom I have begotten in chains. I am sending him back to you, he who is so dear to me. I would have liked to keep him with me, so that he might assist me in your place, now that I am in chains for the Gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary. Perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a time: 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 man and as a brother in the Lord. So if you consider me a friend, welcome him as you would welcome me. – The Word of God.
Commentary on the Second Reading
The Letter to Philemon, the shortest of those written by Saint Paul and later collected in the biblical text, appears as an interweaving of various themes and concrete situations. First of all, there is Paul’s imprisonment, from which he writes. Then a part of the vast network of relationships he had woven with other believers emerges. Finally, and very importantly, there is the Christian message, absolutely new in the context of his time, concerning slavery (see also 1 Cor 12:13 and Col 3:22-25): if Jesus is the one true Lord of heaven and earth (see Eph 6:9), it no longer makes sense to speak of masters and slaves. However, what truly stands out is Paul’s style in inviting Philemon to treat the slave Onesimus as a true brother in Christ, writing: “I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.” Paul’s attitude of presenting himself with love, tenderness, sensitivity, mercy, and a great deal of prayer must also be adopted by the Church in the third millennium: small, but reconciled in Christ.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 14:25-33)
At that time, a large crowd was traveling with Jesus. He turned and said to them: “If anyone comes to me and does not love 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 build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and being unable to finish the work, all who see it will begin to ridicule you, saying: ‘This person began to build but was unable to finish the work.’ Or what king, setting out to wage war against another king, does not first sit down and consider whether he can confront with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If not, while the other is still far away, he sends messengers to ask for peace. So then, none of you can be my disciple if you do not renounce all your possessions.” – The Word of the Lord.
Commentary on the Gospel of the Day
The passage opens with Luke’s observation about the many people who, for very different reasons, follow the Lord. Through the examples that follow, Jesus wants to clarify the conditions for following him authentically and, consequently, to assess the motivations that the true disciple must embrace on the journey he sets before them. To be disciples, detachment is necessary: abandoning what holds first place for us. This is the indispensable condition for truly succeeding in following him, beginning the work, and managing to finish it. Following Christ must take priority and precedence over everything else. There must be nothing, no obstacle, between him and us. “Hate” here does not mean what it generally means in English, but “love more,” prefer, give precedence. Therefore Jesus is saying: “If you truly want to be my disciple, you must put me before every other person, without compromise!” Those who follow Jesus must be completely free from every inner and outer bond that prevents them from loving him absolutely and without reserve. Entire crowds follow Jesus, then, but to truly be “his own,” we must choose Christ as the sole point of reference in life.
