A Small Faith: Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025

                                                               A Small Faith:

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 

September 7, 2025

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Wisdom 9:13-18; Psalm 90; Philemon 9-17; Luke 14:25-33

 

The Gospel of Luke is known to be “the beautiful Gospel” because of the many tender stories and healing narratives. However, we are in a cycle in which we are getting the hard sayings of Jesus, sayings that make us uncomfortable. A few weeks ago, we heard Jesus say that he was the source of division, even with families, and today he tells us that we must hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even one’s own life to be a disciple. These are hard sayings. As we know Jesus to be a man of love, one who loves us as God does, we wonder what he meant.

 

In biblical times, the word “hate” was not used the way we understand it today. It was not about emotional dislike or repulsion. It was used to “love less” or “to prioritize less.” It was more about putting one’s commitment to the Kingdom of God and to Jesus above all else for the salvation of one’s soul. It does not mean you are to despise your family or to enter into bad relations with them. Jesus is asking his disciples to keep their love and commitment strong so that it takes precedence over all other relationships. It is about the primacy of love, the singularity of purpose. The same applies to one’s possessions. They must not be the object of one’s desires but put into right relationship. When he asks that we even hate ourselves, he is challenging us to put Jesus as our top choice, even above all other relationships, ambitions, and desires. He is seeking our total commitment. 

 

What does this mean for us today? We must read the Bible and its commentaries to understand what Jesus is saying as the spokesperson for God and the Kingdom of Heaven. The Psalmist tell us week after week what God wants. We must try to understand God’s heart, mind, and values. Many times, we read a Scripture passage to support our claims and beliefs to the exclusion of the other fundamental messages. We read excerpts to support our political perspective and we throw out the material that makes us uncomfortable. Even within the faith, traditionalists, centrists, and progressives read passages to support their worldviews. How can we be so far apart when we are reading the same texts? Or, is the question, “are we reading the texts so that we are open to understanding the mind, heart, and soul of Jesus’s teaching?” That makes all the difference. 

 

I heard a quote the other day that I want to share with you. I am paraphrasing it. “We think we must be people of great faith. That’s not the case. Great faith is over-rated. What we need is a small faith and a very big God.” We do so much to make God fit into our framework, and that is unfair to God. We domesticate God, we put God into brackets of comprehension, we speak for God. We, of small faith, need a bigger God, a God who fills us with wonder, with reverence, and with intrigue. We may want to start with the God of the Psalmist who is magnificent, fair, revolutionary, creative, comforting, and beyond comprehension. We want a God who makes Onesimus, the slave, an equal to Paul. We want to know a God who makes sense of the turbulence in our lives so that our suffering has meaning to it. We want to God who governs the Cosmos and still cares for the least among us because this God’s mercy is so great. We want a God who will say to each of us, “Let me see you and know you that I may love you better. That’s all I want.” Let us search for this God who wants to be found and yet remains beyond description. Let us search for the God for whom we have no words, but when we encounter this God, we want nothing more than to make God the center of our lives. Let us give God a chance. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Micah 5) You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.

 

Tuesday: (Colossians 2) As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

 

Wednesday: (Colossians 3) If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

 

Thursday: (Colossians 3) Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.

 

Friday (1 Timothy 1) I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man.

 

Saturday (1 Timothy 1) Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life. To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. 

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 1) The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.

 

Tuesday: (Luke 6) Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles.

 

Wednesday (Luke 6) Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.

 

Thursday (Luke 6) To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well.

 

Friday (Luke 6) Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.

 

Saturday (Luke 6) "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but not do what I command? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them.

 

Saints of the Week

 

September 7: Stephen Pongracz (priest), Melchior Grodziecki (priest), and Mark Krizevcanin (canon) of the Society of Jesus were matyred in 1619 when they would not deny their faith in Slovakia. They were chaplains to Hungarian Catholic troops, which raised the ire of Calvinists who opposed the Emperor. They were brutally murdered through a lengthy process that most Calvinists and Protestants opposed.

 

September 8: The Birth of Mary was originally (like all good feasts) celebrated first in the Eastern Church. The Roman church began its devotion in the fifth century. Her birth celebrates her role as the mother of Jesus. Some traditions have her born in Nazareth while others say she hails from outside of Jerusalem.

 

September 9: Peter Claver, S.J. (1580-1654) became a Jesuit in 1600 and was sent to the mission in Cartegena, Colombia, a center of slave trade. For forty years, Claver ministered to the newly arrived Africans by giving them food, water, and medical care. Unfortunately, he died ostracized by his Jesuit community because he insisted on continuing the unpopular act of treating the slaves humanely.

 

September 10: Francis Garate, S.J. (1857-1929) was a Basque who entered the Jesuits and became a doorkeeper at the Univeristy of Deusto in Bilbao. He modeled his ministry after Alphonsus Rodriguez and became known for his innate goodness, humility, and prayerfulness. 

 

September 12: The Name of Mary was given to the child in the octave that follow her birth on September 8th. Mary (Miriam) was a popular name for a girl because it means "beloved." 

 

September 13: John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor (347-407) was a gifted homilist and was called "Golden Mouth" because his words inspired many. He was raised in Antioch and joined a community of austere hermits but the lifestyle damaged his health. He became the archbishop of Constantinople where he introduced many conservative and unpopular reforms. He fled to escape an uprising from the people and on the way to exile he died.

 

September 14: The Triumph of the Holy Cross remembers the finding of the true cross by the Emperor Constantine's mother, Helen in early 4th century. Two churches were dedicated in the name of the cross on this day in the 4th century. Therefore, the feast was applied to this day. In the 7th century, the feast was renamed, "The Triumph." The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 335 was also dedicated on this day.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• September 7, 1773. King Louis XV wrote to Clement XIV, expressing his heartfelt joy at the suppression of the Society. 
• September 8, 1600. Fr. Matteo Ricci set out on his journey to Peking (Beijing). He experienced enormous difficulties in reaching the royal city, being stopped on his way by one of the powerful mandarins.
• September 9, 1773. At Lisbon, Carvalho, acting in the king's name, ordered public prayers for the deliverance of the world from the "pestilence of Jesuitism." 
• September 10, 1622. The martyrdom at Nagaski, Japan, of Charles Spinola and his companions. 
• September 11, 1681. At Antwerp, the death of Fr. Geoffry Henschen (Henschenius). A man of extraordinary learning, he was Fr. Jan von Bolland's assistant in compiling the Acts of the Saints. 
• September 12, 1744. Benedict XIV's second Bull, Omnium Sollicitudinum, forbade the Chinese Rites. Persecution followed in China. 
• September 13, 1773. Frederick II of Prussia informed the pope that the Jesuits would not be suppressed in Prussia and invited Jesuits to come. 
• September 14, 1596. The death of Cardinal Francis Toledo, the first of the Society to be raised to the purple. He died at age 63, a cardinal for three years.