Faith and Work

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to rely on our trust in God to motivate and support our good works in our communities.

Working with Faith

The Reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans describes our Justification apart from the Law.

* [3:21–31] These verses provide a clear statement of Paul’s “gospel,” i.e., the principle of justification by faith in Christ. God has found a means of rescuing humanity from its desperate plight: Paul’s general term for this divine initiative is the righteousness of God (Rom 3:21). Divine mercy declares the guilty innocent and makes them so. God does this not as a result of the law but apart from it (Rom 3:21), and not because of any merit in human beings but through forgiveness of their sins (Rom 3:24), in virtue of the redemption wrought in Christ Jesus for all who believe (Rom 3:22, 24–25). God has manifested his righteousness in the coming of Jesus Christ, whose saving activity inaugurates a new era in human history.

* [3:21] But now: Paul adopts a common phrase used by Greek authors to describe movement from disaster to prosperity. The expressions indicate that Rom 3:21–26 are the consolatory answer to Rom 3:9–20.

* [3:25] Expiation: this rendering is preferable to “propitiation,” which suggests hostility on the part of God toward sinners. As Paul will be at pains to point out (Rom 5:8–10), it is humanity that is hostile to God.

* [3:27–31] People cannot boast of their own holiness, since it is God’s free gift (Rom 3:27), both to the Jew who practices circumcision out of faith and to the Gentile who accepts faith without the Old Testament religious culture symbolized by circumcision (Rom 3:29–30). (Romans, CHAPTER 3, n.d.)

Psalm 130 is the De profundis used in liturgical prayers for the faithful departed.

* [Psalm 130] This lament, a Penitential Psalm, is the De profundis used in liturgical prayers for the faithful departed. In deep sorrow the psalmist cries to God (Ps 130:1–2), asking for mercy (Ps 130:3–4). The psalmist’s trust (Ps 130:5–6) becomes a model for the people (Ps 130:7–8). (Psalms, PSALM 130, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus' Denunciation of the Pharisees and Scholars of the Law recalls their treatment of prophets.

* [11:37–54] This denunciation of the Pharisees (Lk 11:39–44) and the scholars of the law (Lk 11:45–52) is set by Luke in the context of Jesus’ dining at the home of a Pharisee. Controversies with or reprimands of Pharisees are regularly set by Luke within the context of Jesus’ eating with Pharisees (see Lk 5:29–39; 7:36–50; 14:1–24). A different compilation of similar sayings is found in Mt 23 (see also notes there).

* [11:49] I will send to them prophets and apostles: Jesus connects the mission of the church (apostles) with the mission of the Old Testament prophets who often suffered the rebuke of their contemporaries.

* [11:51] From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah: the murder of Abel is the first murder recounted in the Old Testament (Gn 4:8). The Zechariah mentioned here may be the Zechariah whose murder is recounted in 2 Chr 24:20–22, the last murder presented in the Hebrew canon of the Old Testament. (Luke, CHAPTER 11, n.d.)

David Crawford asks why did Jesus have such a problem with these pillars of Jewish religion and society? In the Gospel readings from yesterday and today, we learn that the Pharisees too often misused their religious authority for personal gain and to keep others down.

I am not aware of any Christians today who proudly identify as Pharisees, but pharisaical attitudes are still around. I suspect we all show signs of pharisaical behavior from time to time. (I confess I do.) It helps me to be aware of how easily that can creep into my faith life. It can be tempting to rail against the sins of others and delight in their punishments, forgetting (as today’s reading from Paul reminds us) that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When I fall into this trap, I fail to extend God’s mercy even though I have received it more times than I can count. It can be tempting, because I am a “good” person and a Christian, to believe I know what God wants on political, social, economic and other matters – forgetting that (as I Corinthians 13:9 states) my knowledge of God’s will is only partial. It can be tempting to read the Scriptures as an exercise in gaining information to be used as a type of ammunition against people on “the other side,” all the while forgetting that we received the Word not to brandish as a weapon but as a blessing to bring all people into closer relationship with God. It can be tempting to invoke Jesus as we condemn others, forgetting that Jesus came not to condemn but to save (John 3:16-17) and that God desires that everyone should be saved (I Timothy 2:4). It can be easy to assume that others should be more like me and want what I want – the types of music I like in worship, the political views and parties I support, etc., etc. – forgetting that Christ (not me) is the one we should emulate. (Crawford, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The key of knowledge that opens the kingdom of God,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).

"We consider that the key of knowledge means the law [of Moses] itself, and by faith in him, I mean justification in Christ. Although the law was in shadow and type, yet those types show to us the truth, and those shadows depict to us in many ways the mystery of Christ. A lamb was sacrificed according to the law of Moses. They ate its flesh. They anointed the lintels with its blood and overcame the destroyer. The blood of a mere sheep could not turn away death. Christ was typified under the form of a lamb. He endures to be the victim for the life of the world and saves by his blood those who are partakers of him. One might mention many other instances as well, by means of which we can discern the mystery of Christ sketched out in the shadows of the law. When speaking to the Jews, he once said, 'There is one that accuses you, even Moses, whom you trusted. For if you had believed Moses, you should have also believed me, because he wrote of me' (John 5:45-46). 'You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me' (John 5:39). Every word of divinely inspired Scripture looks to him and refers to him. As it has been shown, if Moses speaks, he typified Christ. If the holy prophets that you name speak, they also proclaimed to us in many ways the mystery of Christ, preaching beforehand the salvation that is by him." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 86) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Romans 3:21-30 comments on the beauty of the Christian life. There is indeed no distinction at all. Because everyone is a sinner, everyone can be redeemed. Jesus didn’t die just for Jews or for Gentiles. He didn’t die just for the poor or the wealthy or for the oppressed or the free. No one person and no one group can claim him as their own. Jesus belongs to everyone—and that means everyone can belong to him.

Today’s reading begins with Paul announcing that “the righteousness of God has been manifested” (Romans 3:21). It was manifested at Jesus’ death and at his resurrection. And it continues to be manifested every time ordinary believers put aside animosity, divisions, and prejudice in order to love each other as Jesus loves each one of us!

“Jesus, teach us to live as one in you!” (Meditation on Romans 3:21-30, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on how Paul condemns the pagans who worshipped beasts and the Jews who had the Law but failed to follow it. Jesus redefined righteousness as mercy and compassion. Love is more important than observance. The justified are ‘at peace” with God by faith. It is to trust in God as faith and in His mercy as expressed on the Cross. As James says we have to do work to live in God’s love. When we do good we are more able to accept God;s love. We change ourselves. Friar Jude comments that, in Luke, Jesus speaks of the monuments to the prophets built by those whose ancestors had killed them. He chastises those with the “Key of Knowledge” that do not help people follow God’s Law.

Fr. Mike Schmitz contextualizes readings from 1 Maccabees today which covers the beginning of Roman rule over the Jewish people. Additionally, he emphasizes the wisdom from Sirach about surrounding ourselves with influences that lead us closer to God and help us grow in holiness. Today’s readings are 1 Maccabees 8, Sirach 22-23, and Proverbs 22:26-29.

Father Richard Rohr, OFM, recalls the work of Old Testament Scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann (1933–2025) who witnesses Jesus’ prophetic role in his solidarity and his compassion for those on the margins.

Empires live by numbness. Empires, in their militarism, expect numbness about the human cost of war. Corporate economies expect blindness to the cost in terms of poverty and exploitation. Governments and societies of domination go to great lengths to keep the numbness intact. Jesus penetrates the numbness by his compassion and with his compassion takes the first step by making visible the odd abnormality that had become business as usual. Thus compassion that might be seen simply as generous goodwill is in fact criticism of the system, forces, and ideologies that produce the hurt. Jesus enters into the hurt and finally comes to embody it. [2]  

At the end of his book The Tears of Things, Richard Rohr identifies characteristics of those he calls “true prophets” who follow in the footsteps of Jesus and the Hebrew prophets.   

• Prophets embrace religion as a way of creating communities of solidarity with justice and suffering.  

• They look for where the suffering is and go there, just as Jesus did.  

• They speak of solidarity with one God, which also implies union with all else. 

• The prophet learns to be for and with, not against.  

• They are for those who are suffering or excluded.  

• They are centered not on sin but on growth, change, and life.  

• They know that the best teachers are reality itself and creation.  

• They do not reject the way of the priest—they have just moved beyond it alone. [3] (Rohr, n.d.)

Our Baptismal Anointing as priest, prophet, and leader underlines our mission to demonstrate trust in God as we work to be peace and compassion in our environment.

References

Crawford, D. (n.d.). Daily Reflection October 16. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved October 16, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-october-16-2025 

Luke, CHAPTER 11. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 16, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/11 

Meditation on Romans 3:21-30. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved October 16, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/10/16/1408282/ 

Psalms, PSALM 130. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 16, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/130?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved October 16, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/prophetic-solidarity-and-compassion/ 

Romans, CHAPTER 3. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 16, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/3?21 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Do Not Lose the Key of Knowledge. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved October 16, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Prophets and Persecution

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to consider how God is active today in the lives of people who work for peace and justice in our environment.

Persecution and Prophets

The Reading from the First Letter of Paul to theThessalonians reviews Paul’s Ministry Among Them.

Psalm 139 proclaims God’s presence in every part of the universe.

* [Psalm 139] A hymnic meditation on God’s omnipresence and omniscience. The psalmist is keenly aware of God’s all-knowing gaze (Ps 139:1–6), of God’s presence in every part of the universe (Ps 139:7–12), and of God’s control over the psalmist’s very self (Ps 139:13–16). Summing up Ps 139:1–16, 17–18 express wonder. There is only one place hostile to God’s rule—wicked people. The psalmist prays to be removed from their company (Ps 139:19–24). (Psalms, PSALM 139 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Gospel of Matthew continues the Denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees.

* [23:27–28] The sixth woe, like the preceding one, deals with concern for externals and neglect of what is inside. Since contact with dead bodies, even when one was unaware of it, caused ritual impurity (Nm 19:11–22), tombs were whitewashed so that no one would contract such impurity inadvertently.

* [23:29–36] The final woe is the most serious indictment of all. It portrays the scribes and Pharisees as standing in the same line as their ancestors who murdered the prophets and the righteous.

* [23:29–32] In spite of honoring the slain dead by building their tombs and adorning their memorials, and claiming that they would not have joined in their ancestors’ crimes if they had lived in their days, the scribes and Pharisees are true children of their ancestors and are defiantly ordered by Jesus to fill up what those ancestors measured out. This order reflects the Jewish notion that there was an allotted measure of suffering that had to be completed before God’s final judgment would take place. (Matthew, CHAPTER 23 | USCCB, n.d.)

Nancy Shirley comments that like the scribes and Pharisees, we often run from our inner lives.

Do we fear the stench of failure, the debris of disappointment? Have weeds overtaken the garden? Will anything grow?  Jesus lays down a challenge: you can run but I am on your trail.  You can neglect the garden, but it will not die.  I will find you. 

The unabashed love that God has for us is shocking.  It is liberating to be known by another.  It is astonishing to be known and loved.  God exhorts us like “a father treats his children.”  Wherever we run, we are not far from home.  To glimpse this love can bring us home. (Shirley, 2025)

Don Schwager quotes “Good deeds done for God,” author unknown, from the 5th century A.D.

"Every good deed that is done for God is universally good for everything and everyone. Deeds that are not seen to benefit everything and everyone, however, are done on account of man, as the present matter itself demonstrates. For example, those who build reliquaries and adorn churches seem to be doing good. If they imitate the justice of God, if the poor benefit from their goods and if they do not acquire their goods through violence against others, it is clear that they are building for the glory of God. If they fail to observe God's justice... and if the poor never benefit from their goods and if they acquire their goods from others by means of violence or fraud, who is so foolish not to understand that they are building for human respect rather than for the glory of God? Those who build reliquaries in a just manner ensure that the poor do not suffer as a result of it. For the martyrs do not rejoice when they are honored by gifts for which the poor paid with their tears. What kind of justice is it to give gifts to the dead and to despoil the living or to drain blood from the poor and offer it to God? To do such things is not to offer sacrifice to God but to attempt to make God an accomplice in violence, since whoever knowingly accepts a gift which was acquired by sinful means participates in the sin." (excerpt from an incomplete Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, HOMILY 45) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 23:27-32 warns us to be careful not to observe these “hypocrites” at a distance, standing in judgment as if they’re some exotic species with whom we have nothing in common.

Blessed be God, who never stops loving us and calling us out of these tombs we have constructed for ourselves! Whenever we turn to him, he gives us the courage to search our hearts, the humility to repent, and the grace to take another step into the light of Christ. What’s more, he doesn’t just help us to shed our sins; he makes us into the very “aroma of Christ,” spreading the fragrance of his love everywhere we go (2 Corinthians 2:15).

“Search me, O Lord, and lead me on your path of righteousness!” (Meditation on Matthew 23:27-32, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments that Paul says that in Thessaloniki he was a tentmaker who took care of his needs. He cites as a witness that he acted blamelessly. Now he treats them as a father’s love, exhorting and encouraging, and he continues a lengthy thanksgiving and their success is based on the action of God. Whitewashed tombs are considered unclean. Looked good but inside nothing but decay. Continue to persecute the priests like your ancestors. Friar Jude reminds us that the Pharisees were prime in pushing Christians from the synagogue and being shunned by family and community.

Fr. Richard Rohr comments that Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022) and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) shared a friendship based on solidarity with the suffering of one another’s communities. The continuing and developing friendship between King and Nhat Hanh led Nhat Hanh to further explore the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity. As he wrote in Living Buddha, Living Christ.  

It was only later, through friendships with Christian men and women who truly embody the spirit of understanding and compassion of Jesus, that I have been able to touch the depths of Christianity. The moment I met Martin Luther King, Jr., I knew I was in the presence of a holy person. Not just his good work but his very being was a source of great inspiration for me. [3] (Rohr, n.d.)

We seek the consolation of the Spirit as we experience our Baptismal Anointing as prophet, and the likely disinterest of many in the Way we profess.

References

Matthew, CHAPTER 23 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 27, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/23?27 

Meditation on Matthew 23:27-32. (n.d.). The Word Among Us. Retrieved August 27, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/?utm_content=buffer5c902&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer 

Psalms, PSALM 139 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 27, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/139?7 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. CAC.org. Retrieved August 27, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-friendship-for-peace/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). True Beauty and Goodness Come from Within. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 27, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2025&date=aug27 

Shirley, N. (2025, August 27). Daily Reflection August 27, 2025 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved August 27, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-august-27-2025