SPCP- Newsletter - Sunday, 12 October 2025 - Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year. Year C

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Homily: Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year. Year C - Sunday, 12 October 2025

 

Homily: Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year. Year C - Sunday, 12 October 2025

Readings for Sunday, October 12, 2025 - Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year. Year C

FIRST READING: 2 Kgs 5:14-17

Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4. "The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power"

SECOND READING: 2 Tim 2:8-13

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Luke 17:11-19). Alleluia, alleluia! For all things, give thanks to God because this is what he expects of you in Christ Jesus.

GOSPEL: Luke 17:11-19

Image - https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/4Oy6DrQDrAl9ablzLfEZ/jesus-heals-the-ten-lepers?ru=Paul-Evangelion 

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Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for the Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year. Year C - Sunday, October 12, 2025, by clicking this link here: https://on.soundcloud.com/3iOzqFjv2qMO1JrF7p (EPISODE- 551)

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PROLOGUE:

From the most ancient times, including the time of Abraham and Moses, right through to the time of Christ's disciples, one of the most important things for a true disciple was to continue to have and to foster a humble, grateful and remembering heart. When a person or a community forgets the blessings of the past and ceases to be grateful for what we have, rather than be sad about what we have not, everything goes awry. A grateful, humble, remembering heart is our duty and our salvation.

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HOMILY

A writer, whose name is not known, once declared, “Happy are those who dwell not on what they have not, but rather happy the ones who give thanks for all that they do have.” Very good advice. And it's very fitting with the Gospel today.

How grateful am I for what I have? And how do I show this gratitude to God and to people around me? There are so many wonderful stories of people who have gone against the odds and have achieved so much, and are grateful for the wonderful blessings they do have. And the Gospel is a reminder of the absolute importance of being grateful for the gifts that God has given us.

There are so many things to be thankful for in this life, and it's important to take time out to remember them and to give God thanks. The readings remind us that there's nothing better and more necessary than a grateful, remembering heart. One of the lepers was a Samaritan.

Samaritans were hated by Jewish people of the time. They were not accepted, and they certainly weren't spoken to or engaged with. But here was a group of lepers that included Jewish people and a Samaritan as well.

And that shows us that these other Jewish lepers had accepted a Samaritan among them. Their rejection and marginalisation as a group, the pain that they were suffering, had brought them together as a community. They were suffering and excluded, and that had brought them together into one community. Also, our Lord accepts people with no distinctions.

They're all in need of healing, and he gives them all what they need, irrespective of where they come from or what they believe. However, the Samaritan is the only one who turns back and gives thanks. In Jewish law, a person was not considered purified or healed, even if it was obvious that they had been, until, legally, the priests had declared them to be clean again.

So they could be healed, but not yet officially recognised. So the other nine go off to fulfil the letter of the law, of the requirements for purity. But the Samaritan realises, wait a minute, I'm already cured, I'm purified by our Lord.

So he turns back to give our Lord thanks directly, to give Jesus, who is God, thanks. Samaritans were considered inferior and half pagan, and also, Samaritans were considered impure and not to be associated with. Yet the Samaritan here in this gospel is the only one who opens his heart to the Lord and expresses the real content of purity.

The clean of heart are not those who merely observe rules and appear irreproachable, or who belong to a particular group of people, but rather they are the ones who are consistent and whose hearts and attitudes match their outward actions. People who act with humility, appreciation and gratitude for the overwhelming and generous graces that they've received. The Samaritan is the one who remembers Jesus.

This man is grateful. He's doubly marginalised. He's a leper and a foreigner.

And so while Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem, where he will be killed at the hands of those who defended formal legal rules about purity, our Lord gives this man, who is truly pure of heart, the wonderful saying, Your faith has made you well. It's a reminder of that importance, of being grateful for the many gifts that God has given us. It's too easy to be tempted to stew over things that have gone wrong, all the hurts, the snubs and mistakes of the past.

There are so many things, though, to be grateful for in our lives, and it's important to take time out regularly to remember those blessings and graces, and to give heartfelt thanks, and to keep them in front of our minds, particularly for times of struggle. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel regularly forgot the many blessings that God had given them, and this led to grumbling and complaining. Forgetting, grumbling, and ruminating on the negative easily leads to failing to count our blessings, and it can lead, as it has done in the past, throughout history, to turning away from God.

Saint Paul in the second reading captures this well. He's basically saying, I've suffered everything for the gospel. I've lost so much.

However, I will continue to trust in God and praise him still. I will continue to focus on the good news, because it's more powerful than bad news, and no matter what happens, there's more good news than bad, and the good news of Christ will have the last word in everything. It's so important to regularly sit at personal prayer time, and with a journal and a pen in hand, and spend some silent quality time reflecting in prayer, writing down any and every blessing, every grace, every joy that comes our way, this day, this week, this month, and in fact right throughout life.

In this prayer exercise, the object is to only list the positive things that come to mind, the things we're grateful for, the countless gifts that God has showered upon us, big and small, extraordinary as well as ordinary. It will certainly keep our sense of perspective, and I truly believe that if we sat in prayer, writing down all the blessings and gifts that we receive daily, we would fill that journal book up of thanksgiving and grace in days, and by the end of the year we'd have a pile of books piled up right to the roof. Even specialists in emotional health remind us that what we focus on, positive or negative, can have profound effects on our sense of well-being.

It's a bit like if we eat the wrong type of food, if it's not nourishing, if it's junk food and we take in too much of it, we take into our bodies things that are wrong and it does us no good, it can actually do us harm. The same with what we focus on in our daily lives. If we take in all the negatives and minimize the positives, it will distort our perceptions and be very unhealthy for us.

That's not to say we should be unrealistic or in denial of the many difficult things and issues in life, but a sense of perspective helps us to keep turning back to God and trusting in God's care that it's still with us, no matter what's happening. God's blessings are, as the psalm reminds us, not all in the past, and we will continue to praise God and trust in God's faithfulness and care. Remembering Jesus Christ, as Saint Paul asks us to do in the second reading, is about accepting Jesus' message of love without building up purely legal or religious boundaries and walls.

I always find it striking that the word we use to describe what we're doing on Sunday when we gather for Mass is called Eucharist, which is a Greek word meaning Thanksgiving. That is very significant. We give thanks to God for so many things.

We remember the past week and offer it up to the Lord and we give thanks for the blessings to come and offer that up to the Lord too. But this Thanksgiving is not just what we do here on Sunday. It's also the people we're called to be in Christ.

It is right and it is just that we, in word and action, are people who always and everywhere give the Lord thanks. 

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References:

Fr Paul W. Kelly

 

MISSION 2000 – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR C. BY MARK LINK S.J. –

 

SHARING THE WORD THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR. GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ.

 

Image Credit- https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/4Oy6DrQDrAl9ablzLfEZ/jesus-heals-the-ten-lepers?ru=Paul-Evangelion  

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Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year. Year C (Sunday, October 12, 2025)

 

(EPISODE- 551)

 

The Lord be with you.

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{{Welcome everyone}}

 

As we prepare to celebrate the great Sacramental feast of God's love, let us pause, recall our sins, and trust in God's infinite mercy.

[option two] (OHP Required)/ Presider: Have mercy on us, O Lord./ All: For we have sinned against you./ Presider: Show us, O Lord, your mercy. All: And grant us your salvation.

May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

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Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4. "The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power"

 

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Luke 17:11-19). Alleluia, alleluia! For all things, give thanks to God. Because this is what he expects of you in Christ Jesus.

 

Memorial Acclamation

3. Save us, Saviour of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.

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PREFACE: Sundays Ordinary II

Eucharistic Prayer III

Communion side:

 

(theme variation: full)

 

(pre+post variation: v2-short)

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{I pray that you have a wonderful and grace-filled week.}

 

Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.

 

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Archive of homilies and reflections: http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au

To contact Fr. Paul, please email: paulwkelly68@gmail.com

 

To listen to my weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

 

You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by sending an email to this address: Subscribe to mailing list to keep up-to-date

 

Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:

"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

 

Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

 

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

 

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins publishers.

 

Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).

 

Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

 

- "Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - in memory of William John Kelly - Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Music by Paul W. Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

 

"Quiet Time." Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

 

- "Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly. Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

 

Sound Engineering and editing - P.W. Kelly.

 

Microphones: - Shure MV5 Digital Condenser (USB)

 

Editing equipment: NCH software - MixPad Multitrack Studio Recording Software

NCH – WavePad Audio Editing Software. Masters Edition v 12.44

 

Sound Processing: iZotope RX 6 Audio Editor

 

[Production - KER - 2025]

May God bless and keep you.

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