Catholic lectionary for 11 November 2025

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 2, verses 23-24

²³For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.

²⁴Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.

Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 3, verses 1-9

¹But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.

²In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery,

³And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace.

⁴For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality.

⁵And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.

⁶As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering.

⁷And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble.

⁸They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.

⁹They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.

Read more:Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 3

Luke, Chapter 17, verses 7-10

⁷ How we are bound to God, and not he to us

⁷But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?

⁸And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?

⁹Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.

¹⁰So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Read more:Luke, Chapter 17

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17

17:7 But which of you - But is it not meet that you should first obey, and then triumph? Though still with a deep sense of your utter unprofitableness.

17:9 Doth he thank that servant - Does he account himself obliged to him?

17:10 When ye have done all, say, We are unprofitable servants - For a man cannot profit God. Happy is he who judges himself an unprofitable servant: miserable is he whom God pronounces such.But though we are unprofitable to him, our serving him is not unprofitable to us. For he is pleased to give by his grace a value to our good works, which in consequence of his promise entitles us to an eternal reward.

NOTES

Today's reading is entirely devoted to describing the spiritual state of those who come into contact with the Kingdom. It is no accident that it begins by affirming human spiritual freedom. Of course, in a world lying in evil there will always be sinners, until its complete transformation, but this in no way excuses those who...

Today's reading is entirely devoted to describing the spiritual state of those who come into contact with the Kingdom. It is no accident that it begins by affirming human spiritual freedom (vv. 1–2). Of course, in a world lying in evil there will always be sinners, until its complete transformation, but this in no way excuses those who choose the path of evil and sin: each person is answerable before God for his own choice. Yet in the Kingdom a choice, like repentance for any sin, remains possible until the end of time, when the Kingdom is revealed in all its fullness. That is why Jesus commands us to forgive a brother who has sinned if he repents and asks forgiveness for what he has done (vv. 3–4).

But genuine repentance is impossible without the inner spiritual wholeness that the disciples have in mind when they ask Jesus to “increase our faith” (v. 5). In reply, Jesus not only points out what the faith of a spiritually whole person can do (v. 6), but also explains how such faith can be acquired (vv. 7–10). He compares His disciples with slaves not in order to belittle them, but to explain how a person seeking the Kingdom must regard his ministry. Just as it does not occur to a slave that by carrying out his master's command he has earned something or may lay claim to something, so a person who has fulfilled what God entrusted to him must under no circumstances think that he has deserved anything or has a right to anything. Such an attitude is evidently possible either out of having no alternative, as is usually the case with a slave who has nowhere to go and knows that he will receive no reward for his work, or out of the fullness of trust, when the relationship with God and with people is so deep that His will is fulfilled as something self-evident and a person does not even think of demanding any reward for his labour. Such relationships require a person to surrender himself completely to God's will, and if he resolves to do this, he truly acquires the spiritual wholeness that makes faith able to “move mountains.”

But what comes to the fore here is, of course, neither the possibilities that open up nor even the spiritual state in itself, but the relationship with God and with the One Whom He sends into the world. It is no accident that Jesus pays such attention to one of the people He healed, who returned to thank Him (vv. 12–19). Of course, Jesus recedes into the background here: the healing itself takes place on the way, as though without His direct participation. But perhaps He acts in this way so that those who were healed will look upon Him not as a wonder-worker, but as the One Who brought the Kingdom into the world. He leaves them free: anyone who does not wish to thank Him need not do so, and will not fall ill again. It then becomes clear that a relationship with Him mattered to only one of the ten. Ten people came into contact with the Kingdom, but only one entered it: the one to whom not only health mattered, but also the One Who brought this Kingdom into the world.

As the Savior's words show, the question of faith is directly connected with the question of spiritual life as such. What does it mean to increase faith? How did the disciples themselves understand an increase in faith? They must have meant something connected with the confidence they experienced...

As the Savior's words show, the question of faith is directly connected with the question of spiritual life as such. What does it mean to increase faith? How did the disciples themselves understand an increase in faith? They must have meant something connected with the confidence they experienced when, at their Teacher's command, they preached the Kingdom and joyfully saw that not only people, but also spirits obeyed them. In those days, this sense of power was usually associated with faith, with its presence or absence. Jesus, however, is speaking of something somewhat different. He speaks of faith as a spiritual state. Precisely and only a spiritual one. After all, any manifestation of inner strength in a person is a natural phenomenon as much as a spiritual one. Here there is not only the spiritual impulse as such, not intention alone, but also nature and the psyche, which also respond to spiritual influence. But Jesus speaks only of the spirit. Only of the will. Only of intention.

Spirit is not nature. Quantitative measurements are impossible here. Spirit, or will, does not come in larger or smaller amounts. If the will is not fragmented, if it is not scattered through inner, psychological space or outer, physical space, it has absolute force. Not in the whole universe created by God, of course; only the will of the Creator Himself has that kind of power. But at one concrete point, it certainly does. That is why faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to move a mountain from its place. Faith here is not inner strength, and certainly not conviction about anything at all, but the fullness of relationship with God. It is that same fullness which, when directed toward creation, becomes the source of an infinitely powerful force, if only it is fully concentrated on something specific. But reaching that kind of concentration is not easy. No psychological techniques will help here.

This concentration is a derivative of that fullness of the life of the Kingdom which, in principle, has been opened after Christ's coming to everyone who seeks. It is the same fullness whose experience lets a person serve without counting merit: we have done what we were supposed to do; we are only servants who do not deserve a reward. It is the fullness in which one understands that every sin is absolutely destructive, and that, although sin is inevitable in the fallen world, complicity in it is always an existential catastrophe for a resident of the Kingdom. It is the fullness that is possible only in the Kingdom and without which there is no Kingdom. The fullness for which alone it makes sense to live.

Today we read the evangelist Luke's account of a somewhat mysterious dialogue about faith between the Lord and His disciples. At first glance...

Today we read the evangelist Luke's account of a somewhat mysterious dialogue about faith between the Lord and His disciples. At first glance, Christ's answer is hard to connect with the disciples' request that He increase their faith. Perhaps, as the evangelists often do, Luke reports Christ's words much more fully than the essence of the disciples' question. In such a situation, we should try to understand from what the Lord answers what the disciples had in mind. In addition, the evangelists often tell us about dialogues in which a person coming to Christ asks Him a question, while the Lord intentionally answers not the outward form of the question spoken aloud, but what deep in the heart moved the person to ask it. It is very possible that today we are seeing just such a dialogue.

So the disciples ask Him to "add" faith to them. The "increase" of the Synodal text renders a Greek word that, in an arithmetic sense, means addition rather than multiplication. So to speak, they ask Him to increase the quantity of faith, to give them more of it than they and other people have. Judging by Christ's answer, the disciples' request sounds like a request to sit at His right and left hand. The Lord says that the "quantity" of faith is not what matters. Even a small "quantity," faith the size of a mustard seed, in the Savior's words, transforms the world.

After this the Lord tells the disciples that a person should not expect a reward for doing what he is obliged to do. How does this thought agree with the previous one? Most likely the point is that the disciples, who have already grasped what the Lord says about the importance of faith for a person's salvation, are asking Him to give them faith that would "advantageously distinguish" them in God's eyes.

They have already understood that God needs not outward reverence, but faith. "See, we have left everything and followed You," Peter once said to Christ... Now the disciples, it appears, are asking Him to give them such faith that they could say: "See, we have great faith; what then will there be for us because of this?" It is precisely to such a question that the Lord answers with the words that faith capable of moving mountains is comparable to fulfilling one's duty before the Master and does not allow one to speak of merits. This is, of course, a very important revelation about God and the human person, especially if it is compared with the parable of the workers of the eleventh hour.

FAQ

I would like to ask a question that has interested me for a long time. It concerns the tradition of Satan's rebellion against God. Where is this spoken of in the Bible?

In the Bible, several places can be found that speak quite directly about Satan's rebellion against God or his opposition to God. Here are a few quotations (this selection does not claim to be exhaustive)...

In the Bible, several places can be found that speak quite directly about Satan's rebellion against God or his opposition to God. Here are a few quotations (this selection does not claim to be exhaustive):

Wisdom of Solomon, 2:24 "God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own eternity; but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it."

Isaiah, 14:12-15 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit."

Gospel of John, 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

1 John, 3:8 "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil."

At the same time, Holy Scripture does not give us "picturesque" descriptions of this event. There are a number of reasons for this, the main ones being the following: 1) The Bible is addressed to us, people, and we bear responsibility for ourselves and our sin; 2) In Old Testament times, there was a serious danger of dualism, the worship of two opposing deities, one good and one evil. Many ancient pagan peoples (including Semitic ones) adhered to this point of view: the Babylonians and Persians, for example. Therefore, everything concerning Satan is reported in passing in the Old Testament, so as not to draw the reader's attention to this topic.

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