Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 17:1bcd, 6-7, 8b, 15

Gospel: Luke 8:1-3

Daily readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091826.cfm

Luke’s Gospel today is only three verses, but there is a lot inside them. Jesus is traveling from town to town, proclaiming the Kingdom of God. With him are the Twelve — and also some women: Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; Joanna, wife of Herod’s steward Chuza; Susanna; and many others who provided for them out of their own resources. Luke names them. He does not treat them as background. These are women who had been healed, women who left comfortable or difficult lives to follow Jesus on the road, women who used what they had to support the mission. Luke is not making a point about gender roles — he is recording who was actually there. And he is setting something up: these same women will be the first at the tomb.

Paul is clear about why that matters. If Christ has not been raised, he says, then your faith is vain, our preaching is false, those who have died are simply gone, and we are the most pitiable of all people — people who have organized their lives around something that is not true. He does not soften this. He runs the logic all the way out: everything depends on the resurrection. Either it happened and everything is different, or it did not and nothing holds. But then he turns: But now — Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. That “but now” carries the whole weight of the Christian life.

Friday is the right day to sit with that. Today is the day between death and resurrection — in the liturgical imagination, the day the disciples did not know what Sunday would bring. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna followed Jesus and provided for him out of their resources. They gave what they had while he was alive. They will be the first to bring spices to the tomb. Their faithfulness does not depend on certainty — it depends on love and on memory of what happened to them when they met him.

A few questions to sit with today:

1. Paul says: if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable of all. Is my hope genuinely oriented beyond this life — or is my faith mostly about getting through the day? Is that honest, and what would I want it to be?

2. Mary Magdalene was healed of seven demons. Joanna walked away from a comfortable position to follow Jesus on the roads of Galilee. Both gave out of what they had been given. What has Jesus freed me from or given me that I am offering back to him?

3. The women provided for the mission out of their resources. Is there a concrete way I am supporting something larger than myself right now — in my family, my parish, my community?

4. It is Friday. Where am I between death and resurrection in my own life right now — what is still in the tomb, waiting?

One small thing for tomorrow:

Tomorrow — Saturday — is the day before resurrection. Light a candle, or simply sit in quiet for a few minutes, and name one thing you are waiting to see come back to life.

Lord Jesus, you let women travel with you, be changed by you, and give to you out of what they had. You did not ask them to be less than they were. You asked them to follow. Help me to follow in the same way — not because I have everything figured out, but because I remember what happened when I met you. Let my faith rest on the resurrection, not just on comfort. When I am in the Friday space, remind me that Sunday is coming. Amen.

If you would like to share: what is one thing in your life right now that is still in the tomb — that you are waiting to see raised?