Oct. 4, 2026 ~ 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year A

Oct. 4, 2026 ~ 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year A (pdf)

“The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” Mt 21: 43

God who knocks is the light of Christ, His grace, which gradually penetrates, purifies, and transforms man. It is also the divine fire that St. John of the Cross mentions in his writings. This fire encounters spheres of evil in man, and it summons the soul to cooperate with grace, to make acts of contrition, and to be grateful for the blessed light… 

Gratitude is a path to God. So, too is contrition. They make up the two pillars of interior life. Not everyone sets foot on this path. So many of our pretensions, so much of our faith in ourselves – the attribution of God’s gifts to ourselves and concentration on ourselves – must collapse! How much we must believe in Love in order to want to discover His unceasing gift, which is poured out upon us. We must believe so deeply in order to be grateful to the Only Love! How much deeper humility and contrition must be born in us through numerous trials, failures, and disappointments in order for us to allow ourselves to be healed of the leprosy of misery. Deeper humility and contrition must arise in us so that we will stop considering this unceasing healing as normal and something that we deserve.  

Normally it is easier to come and beseech God than to return to thank Him like the leprous Samaritan (see Lk 17:11-19). It is not easy to ask; but it is even more difficult to show gratitude. The capital of divine humiliations must be great in order for us to notice the need to be grateful for every, even the smallest but always priceless, gift. When we delude ourselves by thinking that we are better than we really are, we do not notice divine gifts and we do not thank God for them. Prideful self-assurance and the conviction (perhaps unconscious) that we deserve everything that we receive and what we receive is definitely far too little, grow in us instead of gratitude. Only when we see that we are like beggars in rags whom God desires to redeem in His mercy, will we know that we deserve nothing. And only then will we receive every crumb of mercy as an underserved grace.     

Think about how contrition and gratitude are your path to holiness. Think about how contrition and gratitude are the two very important pillars of interior life. But are you capable of living by them? The prophet Isaiah exposes the truth that all of your “deeds are like polluted rags” ( Is 64:5). You are incapable of being contrite on your own. You will never master being grateful by your own strength. There is only one thing left for you to do: implore Jesus to live in you and act in you. Ask Him to be contrite in you. Beg Him to be grateful in you…for everything. A deep concern that others not attribute to you any kind of good or merit that is due to God will push you to constantly plea for gratitude for the gift. Therefore, you will strongly desire to attribute everything to the Only Lord.  

On this journey based on the two pillars, what ultimately matters is that God becomes not so much the object of your reflections and thoughts, but rather the subject of your desires and motives. He is the One who would like to replace your subjectivity; He would like to be more and more contrite and grateful in you. He would like to think and desire in you more and more. His light seems to push you toward His increasing desire, You live less, and allow Me to live in you more and more.

                                                                        S.C. Biela, The Two Pillars, pp.93-96

 References from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

1451  Among the penitent's acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is "sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again."

 1450   "Penance requires . . . the sinner to endure all things willingly, be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and fruitful satisfaction."

2638  As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you"; "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving."

Questions for Reflection

1.         In my daily life, how do I perceive myself as ‘a people that will produce fruit in the vineyard’?

2.        How do I live this particular topic of contrition and gratitude? How is God’s love present in what I experience?

3.     How can Mary, Mother of humility and gratitude, be my help in order to follow this path on the way to holiness?

Prayer after Sharing

Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the truth about my weaknesses and how it calls upon the abyss of your merciful Love.