Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

What is Daily Mass Readings with Homily and Saint of the Day?

Hear the Mass readings of the day, followed by a homily grounded in the writings of the Church Fathers, Doctors, and master theologians. Every episode concludes with a brief reflection on the heroic virtue of the Saint of the Day and a practical spiritual resolution to carry into your daily life.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is Friday, November the sixth. O Lord, who made us citizens of heaven by the Blood of Your Son, withdraw our hearts from the things of earth. Teach us to spend the goods You entrust to us for eternity, and keep us steadfast beneath the Cross. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians.

Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and observe those who thus conduct themselves according to the model you have in us. For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their "shame." Their minds are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified Body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, beloved.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 122.

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

I rejoiced because they said to me, "We will go up to the house of the Lord." And now we have set foot within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

Jerusalem, built as a city with compact unity. To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord.

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

According to the decree for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. In it are set up judgment seats, seats for the house of David.

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia. Whoever keeps the word of Christ, the love of God is truly perfected in him. Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.

Jesus said to his disciples, "A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said, 'What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.' The steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.' He called in his master's debtors one by one. To the first he said, 'How much do you owe my master?' He replied, 'One hundred measures of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.' Then to another he said, 'And you, how much do you owe?' He replied, 'One hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.' And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light."

The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul weeps as he writes. Their God is their stomach. St. John Chrysostom presses the phrase: the man ruled by appetite has made his belly a temple and himself its priest, and glories in what should make him blush. Their minds are fixed on earthly things, and their end is destruction, not because God is cruel, but because what they worship cannot outlast them. A god that perishes takes its worshipers down with it.

Against this Paul sets a citizenship. Philippi was a Roman colony, its people proud of a capital most of them would never see, living by its laws far from its walls. So the Church lives: a colony of heaven planted on earth, awaiting a savior from the capital. And he will not discard the body, but transform it, conforming our lowly flesh to his glorified Body. The body is not the enemy. It is the destiny.

The psalm sings the road. I rejoiced when they said to me, let us go. St. Augustine, on this psalm, hears in the city of compact unity the Church bound together in one charity, and in the pilgrim’s joy the joy of being invited. Citizenship is a gift before it is a task. And notice the plural: let us go. No one climbs to Jerusalem alone.

Now the Gospel, which has troubled readers for centuries. Cornelius a Lapide insists on the distinction the Lord himself draws: the master does not praise the fraud, but the foresight. The steward is no model of injustice. He is a model of urgency. He hears that the account is coming, and he does not despair, and he does not delay. He acts, and he acts for the future.

Prepare a full account of your stewardship. Every one of us has heard that sentence, or will. St. Augustine teaches that we own nothing in the final sense; all that we hold is held in trust, and what we keep beyond our need belongs to the poor. The steward squandered the master’s goods. Then he spent them on friends, who would receive him. The Lord takes the second act and turns it toward heaven: use the goods of this world so that when they fail, the poor you have befriended will welcome you into eternal dwellings.

Here is the rebuke. The children of this world are more prudent than the children of light. They plan for a retirement of a few decades with ferocious ingenuity. Disciples plan for eternity with sleepy vagueness. St. Josemaría Escrivá urged the Christian to bring to the work of the soul the same initiative, the same resourcefulness, the same drive that men bring to their business. Paul’s enemies of the cross plan for the next meal. The steward plans for the next house. The Christian is meant to plan for the mansions of the Father.

So the two readings meet. Our citizenship is in heaven; therefore our money, our hours, our talents are embassy property, to be spent in the interest of the homeland. Every pardon granted, every alms given in secret, every hour surrendered to someone in need is a promissory note rewritten, a debt lightened, a friend made who will stand at the door.

The account is coming. Write it now, while the pen is still in your hand.

Before this day ends, decide on one specific sum of money or one specific hour, and give it to a person in need, in secret if you can, as a payment on your account.

May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.