30TH SUNDAY YEAR C 26TH OCTOBER 2025

The book of Sirach, which is also called Ecclesiasticus, is one of the wisdom literature books of the Bible. It can only be found in the original Catholic Bibles. A good book to read, it deals with our daily human relationship and boost our confidence in the divine grace of God. The massage in today’s reading is that God accepts those who whole-heartedly serves him. God listened to the prayers that comes directly from the heart. The prayer of the humble and the oppressed pierces the clouds.

I came across a phrase yesterday “If you are praying for long life, you need not be afraid of old age”. St. Paul in the second reading of today is showing us that we should not be afraid of the end, for the end will surely come. We should be ready and prepared at all time. When we live our daily life obeying the commandments and doing God’s will, fear of death should be the least of our worries.

The writing of St. Paul portrayed an image of a self-confident person who has giving his best and ready to receive the crown of glory as his reward. After doing our best in life to the glory of God and at the service of humanity, we should be thankful and ready for any eventuality.

Prayer is a major focus in the Gospel of Luke. In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us how we must be humble when praying. God listen to a humble self-accusation prayer and despises the ‘self-contradictory bragging of innocence of the Pharisee’. Prayer is not about how much we can prove our innocence before God, but it is a humble adoration before God. Prayer is acknowledging our limitations and knowing that God the Almighty is in charge and in control of our lives. We pray that God will give us the humble heart and mind to be grateful for all we have and all we are.

 Fr. Jerome Otitoyomi DUKIYA. C.S.Sp.