Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. John tried to dissuade him. ‘It is I who need baptism from you’ he said ‘and yet you come to me!’ But Jesus replied, ‘Leave it like this for the time being; it is fitting that we should, in this way, do all that righteousness demands.’ At this, John gave in to him.
In the beginning was the Word:
The shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.
After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:
Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken. This census – the first – took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his own town to be registered. So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and travelled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem, since he was of David’s House and line, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them at the inn.
This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
John in his prison had heard what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?’ Jesus answered, ‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.’
Everything that was written long ago in the scriptures was meant to teach us something about hope from the examples scripture gives of how people who did not give up were helped by God. And may he who helps us when we refuse to give up, help you all to be tolerant with each other, following the example of Christ Jesus, so that united in mind and voice you may give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it be when the Son of Man comes. For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept all away. It will be like this when the Son of Man comes. Then of two men in the fields one is taken, one left; of two women at the millstone grinding, one is taken, one left.
The people stayed there before the cross watching Jesus. As for the leaders, they jeered at him. ‘He saved others,’ they said ‘let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.’ The soldiers mocked him too, and when they approached to offer vinegar they said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’ Above him there was an inscription: ‘This is the King of the Jews.’
Luke 21:5-19The destruction of the Temple foretold
Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers, ‘Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market.’ Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: Zeal for your house will devour me. The Jews intervened and said, ‘What sign can you show us to justify what you have done?’ Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the words he had said.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
‘In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his bosom. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.” “My son,” Abraham replied “remember that during your life good things came your way, just as bad things came the way of Lazarus. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.”
‘The rich man replied, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.” “They have Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham “let them listen to them.” “Ah no, father Abraham,” said the rich man “but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”’
The parable Jesus reveals the reality of human life: a yearning for happiness, recognition, security, and companionship. Today's Gospel welcomes us to consider something deeper than simply avoiding sorrow, loneliness, and hunger.
From a human perspective, we might interpret this Gospel as a story about two types of people—almost like a binary system of good and bad. The first character is a wealthy man who appears to have no problems, yet his life is marked by monotony and lacks deeper meaning. The second character, Lazarus, is aimed with great suffering—he lacks food, proper clothing, and most painfully, hope. This absence of hope makes him feel like a failure.
Today, I invite both you and myself to move beyond this simple "0-1" system and look at these individuals from a different perspective.
After the meaningful reflection, we see that neither person truly lived a full life. The rich man was better off materially, but his life was protected only by his wealth, while Lazarus had almost nothing. Both faced the dilemma of "what comes next?" The rich man looked ahead to his future, uncertain of what would follow, and the poor man had not little hope for better days. Both struggled with life's big question: what is next? Their lives existed at opposite extremes.
This same situation exists today. We see people around us who are wealthy and others who have nothing. The question "what comes next?" and "is there any hope?" dwells in our hearts. Of course, no one wants to be so poor as to have nothing, but we all struggle with question: what should I do next?
The truth is that extremes rarely exist; most of us live somewhere in the middle. We all want to be happy, but a life without questions or challenges is an illusion. Even if someone claims, to have no questions, there remains a longing to be satisfied and to ask, "Where is my happiness and my future?"
Expecting life to be free from suffering, challenges, and struggles is an illusion. Complete joy is not the reality of this world. Today, God leads us—through questions and challenges—toward His place, toward eternity.
Saint Paul reminds us in his letters that our time of suffering on earth is brief compared to what comes next—our eternal home.
Life is complex. It requires us to face goodness and questions we cannot always answer. Joy and challenges both shape our humanity. This is the life to which the Lord has called us. Amen.
Jezus powiedział do faryzeuszów: ”Żył pewien człowiek bogaty, który ubierał się w purpurę i bisior i dzień w dzień świetnie się bawił. U bramy jego pałacu leżał żebrak okryty wrzodami, imieniem Łazarz. Pragnął on nasycić się odpadkami ze stołu bogacza; nadto i psy przychodziły i lizały jego wrzody. Umarł żebrak i aniołowie zanieśli go na łono Abrahama. Umarł także bogacz i został pogrzebany. Gdy w Otchłani, pogrążony w mękach, podniósł oczy, ujrzał z daleka Abrahama i Łazarza na jego łonie. I zawołał: "Ojcze Abrahamie, ulituj się nade mną i poślij Łazarza; niech koniec swego palca umoczy w wodzie i ochłodzi mój język, bo strasznie cierpię w tym płomieniu". Lecz Abraham odrzekł: "Wspomnij, synu, że za życia otrzymałeś swoje dobra, a Łazarz przeciwnie, niedolę; teraz on tu doznaje pociechy, a ty męki cierpisz. A prócz tego między nami a wami zionie ogromna przepaść, tak że nikt, choćby chciał, stąd do was przejść nie może ani stamtąd do nas się przedostać". Tamten rzekł: "Proszę cię więc, ojcze, poślij go do domu mojego ojca. Mam bowiem pięciu braci: niech ich przestrzeże, żeby i oni nie przyszli na to miejsce męki". Lecz Abraham odparł: "Mają Mojżesza i Proroków, niechże ich słuchają". Tamten odrzekł: "Nie, ojcze Abrahamie, lecz gdyby kto z umarłych poszedł do nich, to się nawrócą". Odpowiedział mu: "Jeśli Mojżesza i Proroków nie słuchają, to choćby kto z umarłych powstał, nie uwierzą”.
Przypowieść Jezusa ukazuje prawdę o ludzkim życiu: o pragnieniu szczęścia, uznaniu, bezpieczeństwie i ludziach otaczających nas. Dzisiejsza Ewangelia zaprasza nas, by spojrzeć głębiej niż tylko na postawę unikania smutku, samotności i głodu.
Z ludzkiego punktu widzenia moglibyśmy odczytać tę Ewangelię jako opowieść o dwóch typach ludzi – niemal jak binarny system dobra i zła. Pierwszą postacią jest bogaty człowiek, który wydaje się nie mieć problemów, ale jego życie naznaczone jest monotonią i brakiem głębszego sensu. Druga postać, Łazarz, doświadcza wielkiego cierpienia – brakuje mu jedzenia, odpowiedniego ubrania, a co najboleśniejsze, nadziei. Ten brak nadziei sprawia, że czuje się przegrany.
Dziś zapraszam zarówno Ciebie, jak i siebie, abyśmy wyszli poza ten prosty system „0-1” i spojrzeli na te postaci z innej perspektywy.
Po głębszej refleksji widzimy, że żadna z tych osób nie przeżyła w pełni swojego życia. Bogaty człowiek był lepiej sytuowany materialnie, ale jego życie chronił jedynie majątek, podczas gdy Łazarz nie miał prawie nic. Obaj stanęli wobec dylematu: „co dalej?”. Bogacz patrzył w przyszłość, niepewny, co go czeka, a biedny człowiek miał niewiele nadziei na lepsze jutro. Oboje zmagali się z wielkim pytaniem życia: co dalej? Ich egzystencje istniały na przeciwległych biegunach.
Ta sama sytuacja występuje dziś. Widzimy wokół siebie ludzi bogatych i takich, którzy nie mają nic, albo prawie nic. Pytania „co dalej?” i „czy jest jakaś nadzieja?” mieszkają w naszych sercach. Oczywiście, nikt nie chce być tak biedny, by nie mieć nic, ale wszyscy zmagamy się z pytaniem: co powinienem zrobić dalej?
Prawda jest taka, że skrajności rzadko się zdarzają; większość z nas żyje gdzieś pośrodku. Wszyscy chcemy być szczęśliwi, ale życie bez pytań czy wyzwań to iluzja. Nawet jeśli ktoś twierdzi, że nie ma pytań, pozostaje w nim tęsknota do zaspokojenia pytania: „Gdzie jest moje szczęście i przyszłość?”
Oczekiwanie życia wolnego od cierpienia, wyzwań i zmagań to iluzja. Pełna radość nie jest rzeczywistością tego świata. Dziś Bóg prowadzi nas – poprzez pytania i trudności – do Swojego miejsca, ku wieczności.
Święty Paweł przypomina nam w swoich listach, że czas cierpienia na ziemi jest krótki w porównaniu z tym, co nastąpi – w wieczności.
Życie jest złożone. Wymaga od nas mierzenia się z radością pytaniami, na które nie zawsze mamy odpowiedź. Radość i wyzwania kształtują nasze człowieczeństwo. Do takiego życia powołał nas Pan. Amen.
About me
My name is Father Piotr Gasiorek, a
catholic priest working in Gibraltar
since 2015. Originally I come from
Poland. In 2022 I was naturalised as
Gibraltarian, and 2023 been
incardinated to The Diocese of
Gibraltar
