October 11, 2026 ~ 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year A

Spiritual Reflection

October 11, 2026 ~ 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year A (pdf)

My friend, how is it that you came in here
without a wedding garment? Mt 22: 14

Is holiness reserved for the virtuous and the perfect? Can the poor, the injured of all kinds – the sinners with their wounds and through their falls – honestly aspire to holiness?

 If the word of Jesus – “the good news is announced to the poor” – is true, then holiness must be offered and be accessible to the most wounded and destitute. One must never confuse holiness with moral perfection realized through human virtues. Any person, poor or wounded, even marginal psychologically or morally, can aspire to holiness starting with his real situation.

In his beautiful book, La nuit comme le jour illumine, Wilfrid Stinissen explains poverty of heart as a privileged way toward holiness:

Poverty of heart is not always very “beautiful;” it is not necessarily the fruit of ascetic virtues. It can be a physical or psychological handicap. But what renders a person incompetent in the eyes of the “world” is precisely that which can give a person access to the reign of God. If we say “yes” to God, we choose the narrow path that brings us to the reign of God. Our poverty then becomes “blessed,” and we become humble servants or servants of the Lord through whom he can do great things. One thing is central to the Gospel: God became man to save the poor. Poverty and weakness are never an obstacle. He did not come for those who are well but for those who are ill. When we are ready to not repress our poverty and anxiety, but to welcome it freely, Jesus can become what His name signifies: the One who saves.

One must not forget that the most neurotic of persons could, through his poverty and suffering, be closer to God than a person with the best equilibrium. All of this turns our human wisdom upside down. From the poor fishermen of Galilee, full of faults, to the Cure of Ars, the sublime wounded child haunted by despair, by what strange miracle could this multitude of saints attain the supreme degree of Christian maturity: holiness? …

Jesus’ disciple is not called to virtue but to holiness, and holiness is not the search for human perfection, concentrated on our efforts or generosity. This is why the spiritual Masters “consider the search for perfection for itself a demonic narcissism” and do not cease to denounce it as a religious trap.

In the Gospel, doesn’t Jesus say that the last will come first? And doesn’t he summon the most miserable and wounded to sit in the wedding banquet hall? …

In the Magnificat, the Virgin Mary says that God has cast down from their thrones those who have placed themselves on the pedestal of their false virtue, those who have thought themselves to be mighty and able to do great things by themselves. And what did he do? He went to look for the little ones – the lowly, the humble, the poor, the wounded – and he exalted them.

                                      André Daigneault, The Way of Imperfection, pp. 3-5

 References from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

 544   The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which means those who have accepted it with humble hearts. Jesus is sent to "preach good news to the poor"; 253 he declares them blessed, for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 254 To them - the "little ones" the Father is pleased to reveal what remains hidden from the wise and the learned. 255 Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst and privation. 256 Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering his kingdom. 257

588   Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by eating with tax collectors and sinners as familiarly as with themselves. 364 Against those among them "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others", Jesus affirmed: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 365 He went further by proclaiming before the Pharisees that, since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind to themselves. 366

Questions for Reflection

1.      What wounds or poverty have opened my soul to spiritual life?

2.      What are the natural virtues that I still rely on or have confidence in? How does God show me His light in these discoveries?

3.      In what way has Our Blessed Mother led me to be open to God’s mercy?

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.