Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of Saint Callistus I, Pope and Martyr
First Reading: Galatians 5:18-25
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6
Gospel: Luke 11:42-46
Daily readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101426.cfm
Paul gives us a beautiful list today, and it is worth slowing down for. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Fruit, he says, not effort. It is what grows when we stay close to Jesus, the way a tree planted by running water yields its fruit in due season, as the Psalm puts it. We do not manufacture patience or gentleness by trying harder at 5 p.m. on a tired Wednesday. We receive them, a little at a time, by staying near the source. If we live in the Spirit, Paul says, let us also follow the Spirit.
The Gospel shows what happens when we forget that. Jesus speaks sharply to people who pay careful attention to tithing garden herbs, yet overlook justice and the love of God. They love the seat of honor, and they pile heavy burdens on others without lifting a finger to help. It is not a speech about other people. It is a mirror. How easy it is to keep the small rules perfectly while being short with the people at home, or to care about being seen as good more than being good to someone.
Today the Church remembers Saint Callistus I, who knew something about lifting burdens. He began as a slave in Rome, endured imprisonment and hard labor, and was eventually freed. He went on to care for the Christian cemetery on the Appian Way, which still bears his name, and in about 217 he was elected pope. He is remembered especially for mercy: he welcomed back repentant sinners, even though some of the strict voices of his day criticized him for it. A man who had once been at the bottom understood that a burden is meant to be shared, and that the door should stay open for those who want to come home.
A few questions to sit with tonight:
1. Which fruit of the Spirit did I notice in myself today, even in a small way? Which one feels hardest to find right now?
2. Where have I focused on small, visible things while overlooking love and fairness toward the people closest to me?
3. Is there a burden I have placed on someone else, in expectations, impatience, or silence, that I could help carry instead?
4. Callistus believed that repentance opens the door back to the Church. Is there something I have been hesitant to bring to God or to confession because I thought it was too much?
For tomorrow:
Choose one person in your day, at home or at work, and lighten something for them. Take a small task off their plate, listen without hurrying, or say a kind word that costs you nothing but ego.
Lord Jesus, you invite me to stay close to you so that your Spirit can bear fruit in me. Forgive me for the times I keep the small rules but miss the people in front of me. Teach me to lift burdens, not add to them. Saint Callistus, who knew weakness and mercy from both sides, pray for me, that I may be quick to forgive and slow to judge. Make my heart a place where others feel welcome to come home. Amen.
If you would like to share: when did someone’s mercy or kindness lift a burden for you, and how did it change your day?
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