Newsletter 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) 26th October, 2025

Newsletter 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) 26th October, 2025.pdf

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Gospel Reflection:

This Gospel is written to warn against self-righteousness.  A self-righteous person is one who thinks he/she is virtuous in God’s sight when in fact he/she is not.  The Pharisee had good reason to think that he was alright in God’s sight.  He was neither a thief, nor dishonest, nor an adulterer, nor did he neglect to do penance.  He fasted twice a week which was very, very virtuous.  He gave tithes on all he owed.  (You can’t knock him back for that).  He had very good reason to feel that he was in God’s good books, but he felt so confident in his virtues that he failed to see his vices.  He could not see his pride, for example. For this reason, Jesus said of the Pharisees: “They do their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.  They love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have people call them Rabbi.” (Mt 23:5-8). On another occasion Jesus said: “Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites… on the outside you look righteous to others but inside are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”  The pharisees, the very ones who claimed to be self-righteous, were the ones who murdered the Lord (Deicide).  So much for their self-righteousness. We too can be so confident about our virtues that we fail to see our vices.  We should examine our conscience - at least once a week if not once a day.  In this way we can see that we always have room for improvement.  Therefore, we cannot say we are righteous enough.  Examination of Conscience:  Is God our first love?  Are we more preoccupied or concerned with other things such as family, money or sport?  What occupies us the most?  Is it God or oneself?  Which one is our idol?  Do we honour our parents, our boss at work (do we work to our best)? Are we spending one hour a week the presence of Jesus so this parish can continue Perpetual Adoration, so that everyone can spend time with Jesus, any time they want.  Do we try to die ourselves totally for our neighbour? – as Christ taught us by His Life.  Jesus said: “Love one another as I have loved you.”  Do we think or speak badly of someone when not necessary?  Do we always try to forgive those who have wronged us?  Do we actively share our faith? Even if we were to tick all of the above, we still can’t say that we don’t have a long way to go.  Our aim is to imitate Christ who said: “Be perfect as My Heavenly Father is Perfect!” “Be holy as I am holy.”  This is a journey that requires unrelenting effort.  When we compare our virtue to Christ; all self-righteousness disappears; instead, we repeat the words of the tax collector: “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” In other words, because Our Lord calls us to perfection, to be completely like Him, we have a long way to go.  We are called to live, not on the level of the flesh or the world but on the level of the Holy Spirit.  In other words, we are called to live as Jesus lived.  We are called to be full of Jesus or full of the Holy Spirit as Our Mother is – “full of grace.” When we have reached that level, then we can rightly claim righteousness. God’s plan is to restore His Kingdom “as it was before the sin of Adam.” In recent times we have seen evidence of a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  The purpose of the Holy Spirit is for humans to become one with Jesus as it was before the sin of Adam, and as it is in Heaven.  St John Paul II recognised this new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and he called it a “New and Divine Holiness.”  He wrote: “God Himself had provided to bring about a new and divine holiness in which the Holy Spirit wishes to enrich the Church at the dawn of the third millennium in order to restore all things into union with the Heart of Christ.” St John Paul II called this holiness “new and divine.”  It is a new holiness because it is a divine holiness.  It is a divine holiness because it is the holiness of God Himself.  Through a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we today become full of the Holy Spirit or full of God.  St John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, put it this way:  The entire matter of reaching union with God consists of purging the will of its appetites so that the human and lowly will be changed into the divine will, made identical with the will of God. Bl Dina Belanger, a French-Canadian nun who died in 1929 wrote: “We are no longer two, Jesus and I, we are One, Jesus alone. He makes use of my faculties … it is He who thinks, acts, prays, in a word, who lives, and I buried in His Heart … have surrendered all.   This is how it is in heaven ...” On May 2^nd, 1928:  Jesus said to Bl Dina: “The greatest joy a soul can give me is to allow me to raise her up into my Divinity.  Yes, my little bride, I take immense pleasure in transforming a soul into Myself, of absorbing it wholly into the Divinity.” St Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament wrote in her diary that the Holy Spirit is intended to change a person into a living host.  “When I had received Jesus in Holy Communion, my heart cried out with all its might. “Jesus transform me into another host, I want to be a living host for You.” As soon as she made this request, He responded that she was indeed a living host. There is no limit to what Our Lord wants to do for us.  Our Lord is going all out!