Day: September 15, 2026

A reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to Corinthians
12:31-13:13

Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.

But I shall show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in human and angelic tongues
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, love is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.
If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

From the Gospel according to Luke
7:31-35

Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?
What are they like?
They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’

For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine,
and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

It is indeed the ruling class that closes the door on the way in which God wishes to save us. And so we can understand Jesus’s heated exchanges with the ruling class of his time: they argue with Him, put Him to the test, set traps for Him to see if He will fall, because they are resisting being saved. Jesus says to them: “But I don’t understand you! You are like those children: we played the flute for you and you did not dance; we sang a dirge for you and you did not weep. But what do you want?”; ‘We want things our way: we want to achieve salvation in our own way!”. There is always this refusal to accept God’s way. (…) They do not believe in mercy and forgiveness; they believe in sacrifices. “I want mercy, not sacrifices”. They believe in having everything in its place, neatly arranged, everything clear. This is the tragedy of resistance to salvation. We too, each one of us has this tragedy within. But it will do us good to ask ourselves: (…) “Do I believe that Jesus is the master who teaches us salvation, or do I go about hiring gurus to teach me something else? A safer path, or do I take refuge under the roof of rules and the many commandments made by men? And so, I feel safe, and with this – it is rather harsh to say this – sense of security, do I buy my salvation, which Jesus gives freely through God’s generosity?” It would do us good today to ask ourselves these questions. And the last one: “Am I resisting Jesus’ salvation?” (Pope Francis, Homily of 3 October 2014)