Daily Readings for October 30, 2018

1st READING

There are various types of subordination, and many different areas where we become subordinate to others. Today’s reading begins with a teaching about mutual submission between husband and wife. This is the basis for the statement: Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.  Couples need to discuss how to weave submission into their relationship.

Ephesians 5:21-33

21 Brothers and sisters: Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the Church, he himself the savior of the Body. 24 As the Church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her 26 to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, 27 that he might present to himself the Church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the Church, 30 because we are members of his Body. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church. 33 In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.

P SA L M 

Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

R: Blessed are those who fear the Lord.

1 Blessed are you who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways! 2 For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and favored. (R) 3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table. (R) 4 Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord. 5 The Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. (R) 

GOSPEL 

How a big tree grows from a small seed is a mystery. We may not understand this, but such things are in the hands of the Creator. Let us trust God and cooperate with His grace, and leave the work of conversion to the mystery of His will and power. 

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.

Luke 13:18-21

18 Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.” 20 Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”