REFLECTIONS TODAY People build monuments to their national heroes and declare official holidays to remember and honor their service and sacrifices for the country. But with great irony, those in authority who are at the forefront in honoring the heroes are often the ones who cause the suffering of people for whom heroes had offered their lives. In the Bible, the Lord speaks of “a monument and a name” (Is 56:5) he will give to individuals so that they will not be cut off from the memory of the people. Jesus tells the crowd that while they have memorials and monuments to honor prophets killed by powerful people for being thorns on their side, they should watch out lest they follow the evil deeds of their ancestors. They might end up persecuting the messengers of God. The monuments then serve not to honor the men of God, but memorials to violence done to them. Jesus speaks of prophets and “apostles” (“those who are sent”) sent by God to people. Luke would then refer to Jesus’ own messengers who are persecuted and killed in the evangelist’s time. But first, this would happen to Jesus himself, whom God sends after sending prophets of former times. In fact, after hearing Jesus saying “Woe!” to those who build memorials, the scribes and the Pharisees who feel alluded to, plot to catch Jesus and to kill him. First Reading • Rom 3:21-30 Brothers and sisters: Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his Blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of sins previously committed, through the forbearance of God—to prove his righteousness in the present time, that he might be righteous and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. What occasion is there then for boasting? It is ruled out. On what principle, that of works? No, rather on the principle of faith. For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Does God belong to Jews alone? Does he not belong to Gentiles, too? Yes, also to Gentiles, for God is one and will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Responsorial Psalm • Ps 130 “With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.” Gospel • Lk 11:47-54 The Lord said: “Woe to you! You build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” When he left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say. Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.