Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 6, 2025
The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So Jesus addressed this parable to them.
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house,
searching carefully until she finds it?
And when she does find it,
she calls together her friends and neighbors
and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’
In just the same way, I tell you,
there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who repents.”
There’s a line from my favorite Christopher Nolan movie, Interstellar, which says: “Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.”
This beautiful quote points to the heart of today’s gospel. 1 John 4:7-21 tells us, “God is love,” the free love that transcends all natural boundaries and reaches toward the margins, the outcasts, and the forgotten with divine concern. What feels unreachable to us is never unreachable to God.
Yet we live within limits. Time runs out, distance divides us, and scarcity shapes the way we measure risk and insure value. Much of our reality is underpinned by that logic. We hold tightly to what we can count, measure, preserve, or potentially lose: the time value of money, the return on a transaction, the efficiency of an exchange. Somewhere along the way, we even try to become our own brokers of the freest thing itself—love.
The scribes and Pharisees did the same in today’s gospel. They judged the outcasts who were open to God’s Word, rejecting their intrinsic value, measuring holiness the way the world measures merit. The sinners and tax collectors were perceived as losses to be written off. How many times have I done the same, offering God’s love selectively, as if I were its broker?
In his parables, Jesus reveals that divine charity transcends human calculation. Love’s value is not diminished by an abundance of sheep or heightened by the rarity of coins. It is defined only by the priceless worth of each soul, backed by the immeasurable unit of Love itself. In the truest sense, love is value. In God’s economy, the lost are not liabilities to be forgotten, but treasures to be purposefully pursued for all eternity.
To see as he sees is to measure as he measures — within space-time, yet beyond it; beyond exchange, beyond the calculus of judgment. May we position our hearts today and every day to receive the gift of what love is, so that we may be transformed into its givers of love to those who need it the most.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, like the angels in heaven, may our hearts rejoice over the sinner who repents, over the doubting who find faith, over the despairing who find hope, over the lonely who find love. With you, may we zealously seek out the lost of our world, so that, like us, they may find their true home in you. Amen.
Saint of the Day
In March 2001, Pope John Paul II beatified a group of martyrs killed during the Spanish Civil War in what was the largest ceremony of its kind.
These 233 martyrs were from all walks of life—ordained, religious, and laypeople. They were killed for professing their faith during a time of persecution, not for any political involvements.
This group of martyrs is only a small portion of the more than 10,000 people killed in Spain in the 1930s—other martyrs include 13 bishops, 4,154 priests and seminarians, 2,365 religious, 283 nuns and about 4,000 lay people killed for helping or hiding nuns or priests.
The martyrs honored today include Maria Teresa Ferragud, an 83-year-old woman from Valencia, who was killed with her four daughters, all of whom were religious sisters. They were killed on the feast of Christ the King in 1936, and Maria asked to be killed last so that she could encourage her daughters to die for their faith. The men who killed her immediately recognized that she was a saint.
Another of today’s martyrs is Francisco Castello y Aleu, who was 22 years old, a chemist by trade, and engaged to be married. He did not want to hide his faith during the persecution. Moments before he was killed, he wrote letters to his sister, to his spiritual director, and to his fiancée. He wanted to offer his youth as a loving sacrifice to God.
“The Church wishes to recognize these men and women as examples of courage and constancy in faith, helped by God's grace,” said Pope John Paul II at the beatification Mass. “For us they are models of consistency with the truth they professed, while at the same time they honor the noble Spanish people and the Church.”
You Blessed 233 Spanish Martyrs, who were killed for proclaiming your faith during the Spanish Civil War, pray for us!
