TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Tuesday

Year I

Readings

First Reading
Rom 1:16–25

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 19:2–3, 4–5

Gospel
Lk 11:37–41

Meditation on Today’s Readings

Taken from the Vatican II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois

In today’s reading from Romans, Paul condemns as fools those godless people who resist the knowledge of God accessible to all who have eyes to see the world God has made. Paul says that such folly is inexcusable. Similarly, in today’s Gospel, Jesus indicts as fools those Pharisees who care more about external observances than about internal dispositions.

Along the same lines, Paul insists in Galatians that we have been set free, not by external observance of the law, but by the internal disposition of faith in Christ. He says this is all that matters: “only faith working through love.” This may be the sense of Jesus’ concluding remark as well. “Give alms,” he tells the Pharisees, “and behold, everything will be clean for you.” In other words, not ritual washing but love—caring concretely for the needs of others—makes one clean before God.

The copyright for the Sunday Missal Introductions is:
Copyright (c) 2001, Daughters of St. Paul
The copyright for the Weekday Missal Introduction is:
Copyright (c) 2002, Daughters of St. Paul