GOSPEL REFLECTION, FRIDAY, 28TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 16 OCTOBER 2026, STE MARIE-MARGUERITE DE YOUVILLE, RELIGIOUS

Luke 12:1-7.  In a tumultuous scene in today’s gospel, huge crowds had gathered to hear Jesus preach so that they were stumbling over each other.  The scene is almost chaotic.  Jesus preached alternately to the disciples and then to the crowds, to individuals asking questions, and interrupted by various events. 

Speaking to the disciples he warned them to ‘beware of the yeast [the dirt, the impurity] of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.  Here hypocrisy implies play-acting at religion, saying one thing outwardly but doing another, lacking inner conviction, sincerity, authenticity.  True disciples are courageous in their honesty and sincerity of heart and deed.  That applies to us too as his disciples now.

To the crowds he urged fearlessness, just as he had urged courage to the disciples, reminding them that they were in the hands of God, and the Holy Spirit will give them courage when they are tempted by fear.  We are reminded that Christian sincerity requires the courage to acknowledge the Lord when we are challenged or in intimidating circumstances.  However there is one unforgivable sin and that is to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.  The Scribes and Pharisees had claimed Jesus’ words and deeds to be the work of the devil, denying the grace and power of the Holy Spirit – that is, as the Jewish people understood the work of the Spirit, not yet in a full Christian sense of the Holy Spirit.  To deny the Spirit is to lose the ability to recognise God, repeatedly closing our eyes and ears to him.   If we do that, we become blind and deaf to his work among us.  That is the unforgiveable sin, the ultimate estrangement from God.