Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
You Are in the Spirit
Liturgical Cycle: C | Lectionary Cycle: I
Introduction
Christians too, like anyone else, have to fight within themselves the tyranny of sin. They are torn beings, capable of the worst, yet capacitated for the best by the Spirit of Christ. They have to make Christ’s experience their own. We have to struggle to make the Spirit come to life in us and under his guidance and with his vitality seek the identity of Christ.
We are sinners, deserving of punishment. But God is a patient God, willing to give new chances.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
you enter our existence,
torn and divided as it is,
and with death written into it,
to set us free with the life of your Spirit.
May we give space to your Spirit
to work in us, to unify and renew
our being and our actions,
that with his help we may overcome
the forces of evil in us.
May we not be cut down like fruitless trees
but live for life and for love
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord,
but rather in his conversion that he may live.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
One day, some people told Jesus what had happened in the temple: Pilate had killed Galileans and their blood was mingled with their sacrifices.
Jesus asked them:
“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this?
No, I tell you. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did.
And those eighteen people in Siloam, who were crushed when the tower fell, do you think they were more guilty than all the others in Jerusalem?
I tell you, no. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish just as they did.”
And Jesus continued:
“A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none.
Then he told the gardener:
‘Look here, I’ve been searching for figs on this tree for three years and found none. Cut it down, why should it keep draining the soil?’
The gardener replied:
‘Leave it one more year, so I can dig around it and add some fertilizer,
maybe it will bear fruit from now on. But if it doesn’t, you can cut it down.’
Prayers of the Faithful
– That all the faithful, leaders and members, may heed the call of the Church to look into our own hearts and to change what ought to be changed, we pray:
– That we may bring a bit of warmth to those whose hearts are empty and cold, that they may discover happiness in the love of God and neighbor, we pray:
– That the word of God may stir us to bear fruits of justice and love, and that the bread of life of the eucharist may make us strong and faithful, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord, God of life and love,
you created people in your own likeness
and then you sent your Son among us
to take on our own human likeness.
As he comes now among us,
he who knew how to cope with sin,
may his Spirit become the source
of our vitality and strength,
that your Son’s experience may become ours
and that with him we die to sin
and live for a life that never ends.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
may we be so guided in life by your Spirit,
who is also the Spirit of Jesus, your Son,
that we may not be merely grateful
for the freedom he brought us,
nor claim his message as our ideology.
We pray you rather
that your Son may live in us in such a way
that people recognize that he is alive in us
who is our Lord for ever.
Blessing
God sent his Son to take sin away and to make us live in the Spirit, who brings us life and peace. So we must live the life of the Spirit, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
25 October 2025
Luke 13:1-9
The Gospel today begins with two tragic stories: the Galileans killed by Pilate, and the eighteen crushed when the tower of Siloam fell. People wanted to know: were these victims punished by God for their sins? Jesus answers firmly—no. Their deaths were not punishments. But He uses the moment to remind His listeners of something deeper: tragedy should not lead us to judge others, but to look within, to repent, and to turn back to God while there is still time.
Then Jesus tells the parable of the barren fig tree. For three years it bore no fruit. By all logic, it should be cut down. But the gardener pleads: “Leave it for one more year. I will dig around it and fertilise it. Perhaps it will bear fruit.” This is the heart of God. He does not condemn; He is patient, merciful, and always offering us another chance. But His patience is not to be taken for granted—time is not infinite. The tree must eventually bear fruit.
This Gospel invites us to reflect on three things. First, suffering is not always a punishment from God. Great saints in history were those who suffered the most, not because God condemned them, but because their suffering became a path to deeper union with God.
Second, our lives are entrusted with opportunities—like the fig tree planted in a vineyard, we are favoured. We have received faith, freedom, education, and love. God asks us: What fruit are we bearing for others?
Third, we live in the gospel of the second chance. Each day is another year given to the fig tree of our soul, another grace-filled opportunity to grow, to reconcile, to serve, to love.
But Jesus also warns us: there will not always be another “tomorrow.” To delay conversion is to risk wasting the gift of life. Today is the time to bear fruit. Today is the day to pluck a weed and plant a flower, to forgive, to serve, to pray, to love. Let us not waste God’s patience.
Splitting
Jesus cautions his listeners about the dangers of splitting people into mutually exclusive categories of good and bad. Neither the Galileans killed by Pilate nor the eighteen crushed under the tower in Siloah were worse or more sinful than anybody else. None of us is totally bad or totally good; we are all shades of grey, with varying degrees of goodness and badness in us. Unfortunately, we still practice this primitive splitting in our interactions with people. It is easier to navigate a world where we can clearly label people, be they our neighbors or political leaders. However, Jesus invites us to don the gospel glasses and look at the positive potential in people who may currently be either non-productive or counterproductive – like the gardener in the parable who positively sees the potential of the currently unproductive fig tree and is willing to risk giving it yet another opportunity and to work towards helping the tree realize the potential.
Luke 13: 1-9
God’s patience must drive us to conversion
In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls for repentance through the parable of the barren fig tree. Many people still believe that certain tragedies are God’s punishments for our sins. However, Jesus rejects this notion and calls all to repentance. Giving more time for the barren fig tree to bear fruit illustrates God's patience and the urgency of transformation.
Pope Francis often echoed this call to conversion in his teachings. In Evangelii Gaudium, he speaks of the need for personal and communal renewal, emphasising that the Church and the world cannot remain stagnant. We are all called to bear fruit and live in a way that reflects God's love, mercy, and justice. The Pope warns against the "globalisation of indifference," where we become complacent or disconnected from the sufferings around us.
Pope Francis also pointed out in Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti that we are faced with numerous "signs of the times," such as environmental degradation, social inequality, and increasing division. These are reminders that repentance is not just an individual act but also a communal and global one. The world is like the fig tree—God gives us time and grace to change our ways, but this time is not infinite.
In our daily lives, we in the Church, are called to examine where we are like the barren fig tree, where we might need to turn away from complacency and sin. Pope Francis urges us to be active agents of change and cultivate lives that bear the fruits of love, solidarity, and care for creation. Through our individual and collective acts of repentance, we open ourselves to God's mercy and the opportunity for new life.