Homily notes from the Dicastery for the Clergy and featured Papal homilies for Sunday. Related bulletin infographics are also provided. Papal Homilies, Leo XIV, Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, Sunday Readings

Papal Homilies Leo XIV, Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, Sunday Readings

Papal Homilies Leo XIV, Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, Sunday Readings

Papal Homilies Leo XIV, Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, Sunday Readings

October 5, 2025

October 5, 2025

27th Sunday of Year C
Papal Homilies

⬅️ ➡️

Papal Homilies

Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV
Quotations

Fr. Richard P. Hoerning

DICASTERY NOTES 2000POPE FRANCISPOPE BENEDICT XVI

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It seems evident that the prevailing theme this Sunday is faith, since it is mentioned in all three readings. At the end of the first reading we read, “But the upright will live through faithfulness,” a sentence that will be taken up by Paul and will repeated throughout the Church Fathers. In the Gospel, Jesus focuses on the power of faith, even of faith as small as a mustard seed. Finally, Paul urges Timothy to bear witness to his faith in Christ Jesus and accept with faith and love the message conveyed by him (Second Reading).

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Doctrinal Messages

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Living faith in one’s personal situation. A believer, whatever the age or place in which he lives, cannot but practice his faith in his daily life. Faith and life support one another or together they collapse.

Habakkuk is a man of faith, who sees around him violence, oppression, plundering and discord (Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans in 597 BC). How does this man of faith react to this odious situation, fraught with such pain? He reacts by posing two great questions, which bear the two-fold and contrasting charge of his trust in God and his indignation before the siege and such evil.

  • "How long, Yahweh?"
  • "Why?"

Isn’t God the King of kings and the Lord of lords? Why such wretchedness, so much injustice, so much destruction? Why doesn’t God intervene, and now? These are questions that arise in a given context, but that apply to all people and all times. Throughout history these questions have arisen in the soul of every man on the face of the earth.

God does not leave Habakkuk’s trusting complaints unattended.

  • First of all, he urges him to have full confidence in the fact that God will answer his questions, although he does not do so with the immediacy that the prophet would hope for, "for the vision is for its appointed time."
  • Then he urges Habakkuk to be patient and hopeful, for the answer "will certainly come before too long."
  • Finally, God ensures the prophet that anyone whose heart is not upright will succumb, but the upright will live through faith-faithfulness.

The situation of the disciples who say to Jesus "increase our faith," as is that of Timothy, who is responsible for the community of Ephesus, and who is to be the first to accept the faith that Paul has taught him and bear witness to it, even with martyrdom, if necessary. The disciples who live with Jesus have seen Jesus’ great faith, which makes his word and his works effective (healing, miracles). Their faith is insignificant and small compared to Jesus’ enormous faith. This is why they ask Jesus to increase it. The persecution suffered by Timothy and his community challenges his faith and his faithfulness to the Gospel. Hence the words with which Paul encourages him. The historical dimension of faith must be taken into account at the present time, as has already occurred in the past. How can we live the faith of all times today, in our environment, in the contemporary world?

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Qualities of faith. In the texts of today’s liturgy we can discover some of the qualities that a faith lived in one’s personal situation must have. 1) A faith based on a deep humility. In the Gospel, after Jesus Christ emphasizes the power of faith, he stresses that this effectiveness derives from the believing conviction of one’s smallness, "We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty." What is it that we must do? Serve God and do his will. 2) A hopeful faith. Trials, suffering and misfortune cannot diminish in the least our expectation of and hope in God’s intervention. We must not have any doubts, for the action of God will come. When? How? We must let God answer in full freedom, with the certainty that everything he does he does with justice and for the good of those whom he loves. 3) A witnessed faith. Faith is a gift that God grants us, and it is a task that God assigns to us. As a task, we must perform it day after day, in our specific circumstances, which can sometimes be hard and difficult. A humble, hopeful and patient faith is something that we also need as contemporary Christians, living in a world that often challenges our faith and is even hostile to it.ans of charity.this world and present ourselves before God’s judgment.

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Pastoral Suggestions

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How long? Why? These questions lie in ambush whenever man finds himself in times of danger or misfortune, either personally or collectively, especially when danger looms over innocent people. Even more if such people are our friends or loved ones.

  • Why this traffic accident which claimed the lives of two friends who were not at fault?
  • Why this horrible cancer which is inexorably eroding the vitality of a wife or husband?
  • What have I done to deserve a daughter who has fallen prey to drug abuse?
  • How long will I have to endure all the physical and moral pain inflicted upon me by this disabled child?
  • How long will I have to patiently tolerate my husband’s ill nature and treatment?
  • Why all this pain that I just cannot cope with?

These are questions that for many remain unanswered. It is thus that wrong and sad decisions are made.

  • "It’s better to die than to suffer like this." Such decisions lead to suicide or euthanasia.
  • "I’d rather get a divorce than continue to be treated so unfairly," and so you divorce instead of looking for a more Christian solution, even though it might be more demanding in the short-term.
  • "This Faith doesn’t suit me." So you rebel against God and abandon your faith and your Christian practice, because God does not suit your needs or does not let himself be manipulated by your will.

However, there are also many Christians and non-Christians who hear an answer in their conscience. Look to the answer of humanism, which in the resigned acceptance of pain and misfortune sees a rugged path, sometimes heroic but always noble, towards humanization and moral elevation. The Christian answer elevates pain, trial and anguish to the higher rank of redemption, for all this constitutes one’s cross, which mysteriously unites with Christ’s cross of salvation. What is your personal answer to such questions, which sooner or later we all ask ourselves?

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Faith continues to work miracles. There are "small miracles" which are ignored and are known only by God, which happen in the daily life of many Christians, of your neighbors, of the faithful in your parish.

  • The miracle of sincere and frank forgiveness.
  • The miracle of constant, altruistic, disinterested service, solely motivated by Christian love.
  • The miracle of consecrating to God the beauty so greatly admired by many, a hefty bank account, the freedom to do exclusively what God wills.
  • The miracle of faithfulness to the word given when receiving the sacrament of marriage or of priestly ordination.
  • The miracle of conversion before the testimony of a friend or an intense experience in a church or in a sanctuary.

Today there are also "great miracles."

  • The miracles that God continues to work through the intercession of his saints, today as in the past, and that are required in order for a Christian to be beatified or canonized.
  • There are also "great miracles" which God works through the mediation of living and holy people, who are not publicly known, because holiness is always discreet and God usually prefers these special graces to remain within the circle of intimate friends.

Small and great miracles are still signs with which God shakes our conscience, challenges us and wishes to continue to offer us his salvation.

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Today’s Gospel page (cf. Luke 17:5-10) presents the theme of faith, introduced by the disciples’ question: “Increase our faith!” (see 6). A beautiful prayer, which we should pray often throughout the day: “Lord, increase our faith!”

Jesus responds with two images: the mustard seed and the attentive servant. “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree: “Be uprooted planted in the sea”, and it would obey you” (v. 6). The mulberry tree is a sturdy tree, well rooted in the earth and resistant to the winds. Jesus, therefore, wants to make it clear that even if faith is as small as a mustard seed, ot has the strength to uproot even a mulberry, and then to transplant it into the sea, which is something even more unlikely: but nothing is impossible to those who have faith, because they do not rely on their own strength, but on God, who can do everything.

Faith compared to the mustard seed is a faith that is not proud and self-confident; and doesn’t pretend to be that of a great believer! It is a faith that in its humility feels a great need for God and in its smallness it abandons itself with total confidence to God. It is a faith that gives us the ability to look with hope at the ups and downs of life, which also helps us to accept defeats, and sufferings, in the knowledge that evil never has, nor never will never have, the last word.

How can we know if we really have faith, that is, if our faith, though tiny, is genuine, pure, and honest? Jesus explains this to us by pointing out that the measure of faith is service. And he does so with a parable that at first glance is a little disconcerting, because it presents the figure of an arrogant and indifferent master. But it is exactly what this master does brings that highlights the true heart of the parable, that is, the attitude of the availability of the servant. Jesus wants to say that this is how a person of faith is should be in relation to God: he is completely surrendering to Gods will, without expectations or pretensions.

This attitude towards God is also reflected in the way we behave in the community: it is reflected in the joy of being at the service of one another, already finding in this its own reward and not in the recognitions and advantages that can result from it. It is what Jesus teaches at the end of this story: “When you have done all you have been commanded, say: “We are useless servants. We have done what we were obliged to do.”

Useless servants, that is, with no expectations of being thanked, with no demands. “We are useless servants” is an expression of humility, and willingness that does so much good to the Church and reminds us of the correct attitude needed to work in the Church: that of humble service, of which Jesus has set the example, in washing the feet of his disciples (cf. John 13:3-17).

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All the texts of this Sunday’s Liturgy speak to us of faith, which is the foundation of the whole of Christian life. Jesus taught his disciples to grow in faith, to believe and to entrust themselves increasingly to him, in order to build their own lives on the rock. For this reason they asked him “increase our faith!” (Lk 17: 5).

What they asked the Lord for is beautiful, it is the fundamental request: disciples do not ask for material gifts, they do not ask for privileges but for the grace of faith, which guides and illumines the whole of life; they ask for the grace to recognize God and to be in a close relationship with him, receiving from him all his gifts, even those of courage, love and hope.

Jesus, without directly answering their prayer, has recourse to a paradoxical image to express the incredible vitality of faith. Just as a lever raises something far heavier than its own weight, so faith, even a crumb of faith, can do unthinkable, extraordinary things, such as uproot a great tree and plant it in the sea (ibid.). Faith trusting in Christ, welcoming him, letting him transform us, following him to the very end makes humanly impossible things possible in every situation.

The Prophet Habbakuk also bears witness to this in the First Reading. He implores the Lord, starting with a dreadful situation of violence, iniquity and oppression. And even in this difficult, insecure situation, the Prophet introduces a vision that offers an inside view of the plan that God is outlining and bringing to fulfilment in history: “He whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab 2: 4). The godless person, the one who does not behave in accordance with God, who trusts in his own power but is relying on a frail and inconsistent reality that will therefore give way, is destined to fall; the righteous person, on the other hand, trusts in a hidden but sound reality, he trusts in God and for this reason will have life…

“The second part of today’s Gospel (Luke 17:7-10) presents another teaching, a teaching about humility that, nevertheless, is closely connected with faith. Jesus invites us to be humble and offers the example of a servant who works in the fields. When he returns home the master asks him to continue working. According to the mentality of Jesus’ time the master had every right to do this. The servant owed the master his complete availability; and the master did not think himself obligated to him if he carried out his orders.

Jesus makes us aware that, before God, we find ourselves in a similar situation: we are God’s servants; we are not his creditors but we are always debtors in relation to him because we owe him everything, because everything is his gift. Accepting and doing his will is the way that we must live every day, in every moment of our life. Before God we must not present ourselves as those who believe that they have done a service and deserve a great recompense. This is an illusion that can arise in everyone, even in persons who do a much work in the Lord’s service, in the Church. We must instead be aware that we never do enough for God.

We must say, as Jesus suggests: ‘We are useless servants. We did what we were obliged to do’ (Luke 17:10). This is an attitude of humility that truly puts us in our place and permits the Lord to be very generous with us. In fact, in another passage of the Gospel, he promises us that ‘he will gird himself, have us sit at table and will serve us’ (cf. Luke 12:37). Dear Friends, if we do the Lord’s will every day, with humility, without expecting anything from him, Jesus himself will serve us, help us, encourage us, give us strength and peace.”

In today’s Second Reading the Apostle Paul too speaks of faith. Timothy is asked to have faith and, through it, to exercise charity. The disciple is also urged to rekindle in faith the gift of God that is in him through the laying on of Paul’s hands, in other words the gift of Ordination, received so that he might carry out the apostolic ministry as a collaborator of Paul (cf. 2 Tm 1: 6). He must not let this gift be extinguished but must make it ever more alive through faith. And the Apostle adds: “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control” (v. 7).

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