Healing an Indifferent Heart: Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025

                                            Healing an Indifferent Heart:

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 

September 28, 2025

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Amos 6:1-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31

 

These readings point out that the enemy of human nature is indifference, and that our salvation is communal. The prophet Amos states it plainly: Woe to the complacent! Amos takes aim at those whose comfort keeps them from caring for the lesser fortunate around us. The Gospel is stark. The rich man in luxurious clothing and undisturbed comfort does not even see the suffering of Lazarus, who represents the collective world’s poor. The rich man’s entry into eternal life is tied to his treatment of Lazarus. When he comes around to see the errors of his way, he realizes the chasm is too great. He did not even know that Lazarus existed, and his indifference to him, cost him salvation.

 

Father Abraham reminded him that he and his brothers had all the resources at their disposal to discern the goodly way of life, but they were indifferent to the words of Moses and the prophets. They were indifferent to the guidelines that the faith provided. They did not see their relevance. Abraham says that even the preposterous event of someone being raised from the dead would not shake people out of their unconcern. A cold, apathetic heart is faith’s nemesis.

 

Scripture asks us, “How do we rouse a cold heart into caring?” We have great stories in our history that show us the wrongness of the ways of autocrats, narcissists, and tyrants. The Herods, Grinches, and Ebenezer Scrooges are the toughest hearts to break open because they simply do not care. Only the most persistent, sustained, penetrating effort to love those tormentors could have an effect. The one who persists in radically loving these bullies knows that love is the most powerful and least used force of energy in the world. Only real love can halt the progression of hate and indifference.

 

Indifference has never solved any of the world’s problems. A gently intrusive love, a love that seeks connection, a creative love that sees new hope, is the love that will save the world. We cannot think we are saved if our hearts are not moved by the death of innocent children in Gaza. We cannot think we are saved if we hold fast to our political ideologies instead of trying to understand a person with a different perspective. We cannot think we are saved if we fail to bother to love a friend or family member who suffers mental illness, addiction, or is in great pain. We cannot be saved if we turn away.

 

Our prophetic life has to be one of unity where the rich man and Lazarus eat modestly at the same table. Today’s prophet cannot use words of blame, accusation, or division. Today’s prophet has to teach others to endure without losing hope, especially when there is sadness, anger, rejection, and silence. We must keep showing up. We must keep putting love in places where hate, division, and indifference exist. We must simply stay rooted when the ground beneath us feels uncertain and unstable. Our actions must be to be gently intrusive into the lives of others, so they know we are trying to love them a bit more – especially when they feel unlovable. We persist. We persist because God loved us first and we simply want to pass along what we have received. We rise, in body, mind, and spirit, because we believe in love’s power to enter deeply into the turbulence of another’s soul and offer hope. Each day, when we rise, we open our souls for a conversion of heart. Let’s us confidently witness what love can do to a fractured heart. It just may save the world. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Daniel 7) Thrones were set up and the Ancient One took his throne. His clothing was bright as snow, and the hair on his head as white as wool; His throne was flames of fire, with wheels of burning fire.

 

Tuesday: (Zechariah 8) There shall yet come peoples, the inhabitants of many cities; and the inhabitants of one city shall approach those of another, and say, "Come! let us go to implore the favor of the LORD"; and, "I too will go to seek the LORD."

 

Wednesday: (Nehemiah 2) In the month Nisan of the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes,
when the wine was in my charge, I took some and offered it to the king. As I had never before been sad in his presence, the king asked me, "Why do you look sad? If you are not sick, you must be sad at heart."

 

Thursday: (Nehemiah 8) The whole people gathered as one in the open space before the Water Gate, and they called upon Ezra the scribe to bring forth the book of the law of Moses which the LORD prescribed for Israel.

 

Friday (Baruch 1) During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed: "Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem, that we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors, have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed him.

 

Saturday (Baruch 4) Fear not, my people! Remember, Israel, You were sold to the nations not for your destruction; It was because you angered God that you were handed over to your foes.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 1) Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him." Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?"

 

Tuesday: (Luke 9) When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.

 

Wednesday (Luke 9) And to another he said, "Follow me." But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father." But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."

 

Thursday (Matthew 18) "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?" He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

 

Friday (Luke 10) For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.

 

Saturday (Luke 10) Jesus said, "I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.
Behold, I have given you the power 'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you.

 

Saints of the Week

 

September 28: Wenceslaus, martyr (907-929), was raised a Christian by his grandmother while his mother and brother were opposed to Christianity. His brother opposed him when he became ruler of Bohemia in 922. He introduced strict reforms that caused great dissatisfaction among nobles and political adversaries. His brother invited him to a religious ceremony where he was killed in a surprise attack.

 

September 28: Lawrence Ruiz and 15 companion martyrs (seventeenth century), were killed in Nagasaki, Japan during 1633 and 1637. Most of these Christians were friends of the Dominicans. Lawrence, a Filipino, was a husband and father. He and these other missionaries served the Philippines, Formosa, and Japan.

 

September 29: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels are long a part of Christian and Jewish scripture. Michael is the angel who fights against evil as the head of all the angels; Gabriel announces the messiah's arrival and the births of Jesus and John the Baptist; and Raphael is a guardian angel who protects Tobias on his journey. Together, they are venerated to represent all the angels during a three-day period.

 

September 30: Jerome, priest and doctor (342-420), studied Greek and Latin as a young man after his baptism by Pope Liberius. He learned Hebrew when he became a monk and after ordination he studied scripture with Gregory Nazianzen in Constantinople. He became secretary to the Pope when he was asked to translate the Bible into Latin.

 

October 1: These of Lisieux, doctor (1873-1897), entered the Carmelites at age 15 and died at age 24 from tuberculosis. During her illness, Pauline, her prioress, asked her to write about her life in the convent. These stories are captured in "The Story of a Soul." He focused on her "little way" of pursuing holiness in everyday life.

 

October 2: The Guardian Angels are messengers and intermediaries between God and humans. They help us in our struggle against evil and they serve as guardians, the feast we celebrate today. Raphael is one of the guardians written about in the Book of Tobit. A memorial was added to the Roman calendar In 1670 in thanksgiving for their assistance.

 

October 3: Francis Borgia, S.J. became a duke at age 33. When his wife died and his eight children were grown, he joined the Jesuits. His preaching brought many people to the church and when he served as Superior General, the Society increased dramatically in Spain and Portugal. He established many missions in the new territories. 

 

October 4: Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was from the wealthy Bernardone family who sold silk cloths. After serving as soldier as a prisoner of war, Francis chose to serve God and the poor. He felt called to repair God's house, which he thought was a church. His father was angry that he used family money so he disinherited him. He began to preach repentance and recruited others to his way of life. His order is known for poverty, simplicity, humble service, and delighting in creation.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• September 28, 1572. Fifteen Jesuits arrived in Mexico to establish the Mexican Province. They soon opened a college. 
• September 29, 1558. In the Gesu, Rome, and elsewhere, the Jesuits began to keep Choir, in obedience to an order from Paul IV. This practice lasted less than a year, until the pope's death in August, 1559. 
• September 30, 1911. President William Howard Taft visited Saint Louis University and declared the football season open. 
• October 1, 1546. Isabel Roser was released from her Jesuit vows by St Ignatius after eight months. 
• October 2, 1964. Fr. General Janssens suffered a stroke and died three days later. During his generalate, the Society grew from 53 to 85 provinces, and from 28,839 to 35,968 members. 
• October 3, 1901. In France, religious persecution broke out afresh with the passing of Waldeck Rousseau's "Loi d'Association." 
• October 4, 1820. In Rome, great troubles arose before and during the Twentieth General Congregation, caused by Fr. Petrucci's intrigues. He sought to wreck the Society and was deposed from his office as Vicar General, though supported by Cardinal della Genga (afterwards Leo XII).