Saturday 11 October 2025
St John XXIII
Joel 4:12-21. Let the just rejoice in the Lord – Ps 96(97):1-2, 5-6, 11-12. Luke 11:27-28.
One human family
In Luke’s Gospel today, Jesus shows his divine consistency. A woman, excited by his teachings, gives him poetic praise by honouring the ‘womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you’. What a great, earthy commendation. No dainty elegance lost here, and a wonderfully feminine compliment, too, coming from a woman’s experience and viewpoint of life. Jesus’ reply is not a rebuke but rather an urge to look beyond the natural norms of life: ‘Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.’ This isn’t the first time he’s dismissed biological ties in favour of spiritual ones; we recall he told his listeners once, ‘Those who do the will of my Father are my brothers and sisters and mother.’ God’s vision is of one human family, if only we rose – with the aid of the Holy Spirit – above the selfishly natural and embraced the lovingly universal.
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