THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Tuesday

Year I

Readings

First Reading
Rom 8:18–25

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 126:1b–2ab, 2cd–3, 4–5, 6

Gospel
Lk 13:18–21

Meditation on Today’s Readings

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

Today’s selection from Ephesians is an example of a household code. Household codes sought to order the roles and relationships in Roman households between husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves. Christian writers sometimes adapted these codes, as in today’s reading. Here it emphasizes the husband’s obligation to love his wife. Although the implied lack of equality between the two may offend our modern sensibilities, the requirement that Christian husbands love their wives “as Christ loved the church” would, in fact, ensure that women be treated with respect. Luke often attests to Jesus’ equal treatment of men and women,. In today’s Gospel, for example, a parable about a man is paired with a matching parable about a woman.

In the twin parables of Jesus, the mustard seed and the yeast are metaphors for the action of the Spirit that Paul describes in the excerpt from Romans. Together with all creation, we who have the Spirit “groan within ourselves” as we await the quiet revolution that the power of God is working within us.

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