15 October 2026 - Thursday of the 28th week of Ordinary Time
Eph 1:1-10; Lk 11:47-54
Homily
This Gospel text we have just read is a continuation of the one we had yesterday.
In Luke's Gospel, the whole of Jesus' teaching is set in a context of struggle between the kingdom of God, whose coming Jesus announces, and the forces of evil, represented first by the tempter in the desert, then by the increasingly strong opposition that the Pharisees and Scribes offer Jesus, until his long ascent to Jerusalem, where the forces of evil seem to have triumphed over him when he is put to death and laid in the tomb, awaiting the final victory of the Son of God on the morning of the resurrection.
In the text we have just read, Jesus continues the long list of rebukes to the Pharisees and Doctors of the Law, much of which we read yesterday.
And all these rebukes are summarised in one terrible sentence: "Woe to you, doctors of the Law. You have taken away the key to knowledge; you yourselves have not entered into it, and those who tried to enter into it, you prevented them.
The knowledge of God is at the heart of all Revelation in both the Old and New Testaments. The human being, created in the image and likeness of God, is capable of knowing him and therefore also of loving him. But this knowledge is given to him - it is a gift. Here on earth we see God through the images we have of Him. In the age to come, we will see him face to face. But already here on earth we have a genuine knowledge of Him through love. A love that is pure gift, since this love has been placed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. A love that manifests itself through faithfulness to His commandment - which is itself first of all the commandment of love, which underlies all the others.
In the temptation of Adam and Eve at the beginning of Genesis, the tempter wants to convince them that they can monopolise that knowledge which God, according to the tempter, would like to reserve for Himself. Jesus reproaches the Pharisees for having taken away the key to knowledge, replacing love with the observance of a multitude of commandments and practices.
At this Eucharist, let us ask ourselves to what extent we ourselves penetrate the mystery of the knowledge of God, through fidelity to His commandment of love of God and neighbour, and to what extent we close ourselves off from this knowledge - and at the same time block access to it for our brothers and sisters - whenever we fail to keep this fundamental commandment of love of God and neighbour.
Armand Veilleux
* We celebrate today the memorial of St. Theresa of Avila