Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings 11-October-2025

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

11:27–28

27. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.

28. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

BEDE. While the Scribes and Pharisees were tempting our Lord, and uttering blasphemies against Him, a certain woman with great boldness confessed His incarnation, as it follows, And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, &c. by which she refutes both the calumnies of the rulers present, and the unbelief of future heretics. For as then by blaspheming the works of the Holy Spirit, the Jews denied the true Son of God, so in after times the heretics, by denying that the Evervirgin Mary, by the cooperating power of the Holy Spirit, ministered of the substance of her flesh to the birth of the only-begotten Son, have said, that we ought not to confess Him who was the Son of man to be truly of the same substance with the Father. But if the flesh of the Word of God, who was born according to the flesh, is declared alien to the flesh of His Virgin Mother, what cause is there why the womb which bare Him and the paps which gave Him suck are pronounced blessed? By what reasoning do they suppose Him to be nourished by her milk, from whose seed they deny Him to be conceived? Whereas according to the physicians, from one and the same fountain both streams are proved to flow. But the woman pronounces blessed not only her who was thought worthy to give birth from her body to the Word of God, but those also who have desired by the hearing of faith spiritually to conceive the same Word, and by diligence in good works, either in their own or the hearts of their neighbours, to bring it forth and nourish it; for it follows, But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. 44. in Matt.) In this answer He sought not to disown His mother, but to shew that His birth would have profited her nothing, had she not been really fruitful in works and faith. But if it profited Mary nothing that Christ derived His birth from her, without the inward virtue of her heart, much less will it avail us to have a virtuous father, brother, or son, while we ourselves are strangers to virtue.

BEDE. But she was the mother of God, and therefore indeed blessed, in that she was made the temporal minister of the Word becoming incarnate; yet therefore much more blessed that she remained the eternal keeper of the same ever to be beloved Word. But this expression startles the wise men of the Jews, who sought not to hear and keep the word of God, but to deny and blaspheme it.

Catena Aurea Luke 11

The Story of St. John XXIII

To understand the significance of Pope John XXIII’s influence on the Church, we must reflect on Holy Mass in the 1950’s, and before. A railing separated the altar from the congregation. For much of the Mass, the people didn’t see their priest’s face; he celebrated the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ facing an altar that stood against the wall. Prayers, were said in Latin, an ancient language dating back to the early Church; “Lord have mercy” translated to “Kyrie Eleison;” “Our Father, who art in Heaven” was “Pater Noster, qui es in caeli.” At Communion, the host, the Body of Christ, was placed directly on your tongue, only by a priest. All of these things establish distance between the Church and its members.

Pope St. John XXIII, the son of a tenant farmer, was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, on November 25, 1881 in Bergamo, Italy, near Milan. He was ordained a priest on August 10, 1904, and was given the great honor of celebrating his First Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican. During the hard times of WWI, Roncalli rose through the hierarchy of the Church, and became a member of the Vatican Diplomatic Corp, responsible for the Church’s missions throughout Europe.

In January, 1953, he received his red hat, the symbol of becoming a cardinal. After the death of Pope Pius XII, in 1958, on the twelfth ballot, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli became Pope John XXIII. He was an elderly compromise that all parties could live with until a “more dynamic” pope could be found. In the 1960’s, Pope John summoned the Bishops from all around the world to the council called Vatican II, bringing openness, tolerance, and love to the whole family of the Church.

Because of Vatican II, the railing is gone; the altar has been turned around so priests could face their congregation. Holy Mass is said in the language of the people of every country. Men and women now assist with distribution of the Blessed Sacrament, and individuals can receive it in their hands, putting it in their mouths themselves.

Pope John was expected to maintain the Church as it always was, but ended up changing the entire world. During his time, he addressed the rights of women, the quest for a world without nuclear weapons, and the importance of bringing peace to the world through support for the United Nations. And humbly he spent his Christmases and Easters dining and praying with prisoners after he completed his official duties.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born into a poor family; and he died poor. His living heirs each got less than $20 from his personal fortune. He never used his power to help his family. He wrote:

The world is only interested in making money. A great honour
has come to our family. At my own death, I shall not be denied
the praise which did so much honour to the holiness of Pius X:
born poor, he died poor.

But now Pope St. John XXIII, left a rich, lasting legacy behind him.

john23.org

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY(RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

First Reading:

From: Joel 3:12-21 (NABRE 4:12-21)

A call to battle
---------------------
[12] Let the nations bestir themselves,
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there I will sit to judge
all the nations round about.

[13] Put in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
for the wine press is full.
The vats overflow,
for their wickedness is great.

The day of the Lord
---------------------------
[14] Multitudes, multitudes,
in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.
[15] The sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.

[16] And the Lord roars from Zion,
and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
and the heavens and the earth shake.
But the Lord is a refuge to his people,
a stronghold to the people of Israel.

[17] “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,
who dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy
and strangers shall never again pass through it.

The future glory of Israel
-----------------------------------
[18] “And in that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the stream beds of Judah
shall flow with water;
and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord
and water the valley of Shittim.

[19] “Egypt shall become a desolation
and Edom a desolate wilderness,
for the violence done to the people of Judah,
because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
[20] But Judah shall be inhabited for ever,
and Jerusalem to all generations.
[21] I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty,
for the Lord dwells in Zion.”

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Commentary:

3:14-17. The preceding verses were really a preparation for this final oracle which describes the Judgment and the victory of the Lord. “The valley of decision” (v. 14) is the same valley as that of Jehoshapat. The judgment that takes place on the day of the Lord is compared to a harvesting; the Lord will save his faithful, and destroy his enemies. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1040 uses this passage, along with Daniel 7:10 and Malachi 3:19, in its teaching about the Last Judgment (cf. the note on Jer 51:56) in which God the Father “through his Son Jesus Christ […] will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation, and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything toward its final end”.

The core of the oracle is vv. 16-17 when Joel sees the Lord presiding over Jerusalem and protecting his people, whose refuge and strength he is (cf. Ps 46). The picture of the Lord dwelling in his temple in Jerusalem recurs throughout biblical tradition and is probably in the background of what the fourth Gospel says about the Word, who was God and “dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). Similarly, the reference in v. 17 which makes Jerusalem a holy place through which strangers must not pass (cf. also Is 52:1; Jer 31:40; Zech 9:8) later gave rise to there being a “dividing wall” (cf. Eph 2:14) that prevented outsiders from entering the temple proper, under pain of death. This is the wall that St Paul sees as being symbolically broken down by Christ’s sacrifice, which removed any distinction between Jew and Gentile “that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end” (Eph 2:16). “The passion of the Saviour made peace between the circumcised and the uncircumcised, so that the Jew could no longer condemn the Gentile, basing his righteousness on the power of circumcision, nor could the Gentile denounce the Jew, asserting his superiority by the fact that he is uncircumcised, that is, a pagan. Both are re-made, and live out the faith of the one true God in Christ” (Ambrosiaster, “Ad Ephesios”, 2, 14).

3:18-21. The book ends with a vision of the eschatological Jerusalem in the new golden age. Three themes typical of Joel are raised in these verses, Judah’s afflictions (the locust plague, and the hunger and devastation that it brought) and here offset by an idyllic, Eden-like picture where Judah is a garden full of good things, of sweet wine and milk (v. 18). The same imagery and themes are to be found in Isaiah 30:25; Ezekiel 47:1-12; and Zechariah 14:8; the theme of living water will be taken up later by St John (cf. Jn 4:10-15; Rev 22:1). Judah will be most fertile, but God’s vengeance will be wreaked on Egypt and Edom (symbol- izing Israel’s enemies); they will now be the ones to suffer devastation.

Finally (vv. 20-21) comes the promise that never again will there be exile (Judah and Jerusalem will always be inhabited), and “the Lord will dwell in Zion” (cf. v. 21) – which is their dearest wish. The entire book of Joel has been working up to this outcome. This passage is used most notably by St John in his vision of the messianic Jerusalem coming down from heaven (“He carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, having the glory of God”: Rev 21:10-11); and it is an image of the heartfelt hope of all mankind.

Gospel Reading:

From: Luke 11:27-28

Responding to the Word of God
-----------------------------
[27] As He (Jesus) said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts that You sucked!" [28] But He said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

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Commentary:

27-28. These words proclaim and praise the Blessed Virgin's basic attitude of soul. As the Second Vatican Council explains: "In the course of her Son's preaching she [Mary] received the words whereby, in extolling a Kingdom beyond the concerns and ties of flesh and blood, He declared blessed those who heard and kept the word of God (cf. Mark 3:35; Luke 11:27-28) as she was faithfully doing (cf. Luke 2:19_51)" ("Lumen Gentium", 58). Therefore, by replying in this way Jesus is not rejecting the warm praise this good lady renders His Mother; He accepts it and goes further, explaining that Mary is blessed particularly because she has been good and faithful in putting the word of God into practice. "It was a complement to His Mother on her "fiat", `be it done' (Luke 1:38). She lived it sincerely, unstintingly, fulfilling its every consequence, but never amid fanfare, rather in the hidden and silent sacrifice of each day" (St J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 177). See the note on Luke 1:34-38.

[Note on Luke 1:34-38 states: 34-38. Commenting on this passage John Paul II said: "`Virgo fidelis', the faithful Virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary mean? What are the dimensions of this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God's plan in her and for the world. `Quomodo fiet?' How shall this be?, she asked the Angel of the Annunciation [...]."

"The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The `quomodo fiet?' is changed, on Mary's lips, to a `fiat': Let it be done, I am ready, I accept. This is the crucial moment of faithfulness, the moment in which man perceives that he will never completely understand the `how': that there are in God's plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that is, however he may try, he will never succeed in understanding it completely [...]."

"The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what one believes; to adapt one's own life to the object of one's adherence. To accept misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practises and what one believes: this is consistency [...]."

"But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration. Therefore, the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one's whole life. It is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm, it is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation. And only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole life can be called faithfulness. Mary's `fiat' in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent `fiat' that she repeats at the foot of the Cross" ("Homily in Mexico City Cathedral", 26 January 1979).]

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Luke
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Luke 11
27.	And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck.	Factum est autem, cum hæc diceret : extollens vocem quædam mulier de turba dixit illi : Beatus venter qui te portavit, et ubera quæ suxisti.	εγενετο δε εν τω λεγειν αυτον ταυτα επαρασα τις γυνη φωνην εκ του οχλου ειπεν αυτω μακαρια η κοιλια η βαστασασα σε και μαστοι ους εθηλασας
28.	But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.	At ille dixit : Quinimmo beati, qui audiunt verbum Dei et custodiunt illud.	αυτος δε ειπεν μενουνγε μακαριοι οι ακουοντες τον λογον του θεου και φυλασσοντες αυτον

Readings at Mass

The day of the Lord is near; sun and moon grow dark

'Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!'

Universalis podcast: The week ahead – from 12 to 18 October

Christian Art

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

The Story of St. John XXIII