October 21, 2025 // Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Romans 5:12-21
Reflect on the Word //
One of my old colleagues had a special penchant for getting away with going around the rules of my previous organization to get what he wanted. He often got praised for his work too, like he’d done nothing wrong during all those months that I had noticed his actions. It’s true I didn’t know if he was doing these things on purpose, and yet the very moral side of me still got so frustrated, I wanted to tattle to my supervisor saying, “Him! It’s him, he’s doing something wrong!” But I never did.
No, even though my emotions told me to focus on the wrongs I thought my coworker had committed, the Lord had called me to something better: to focus on the rights I could do, both inside and outside the office. In today’s First Reading from his Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul reminds us that goodness and grace can only follow those who pursue obedience in Him—and conversely, choices made in disobedience can only lead towards sin and death.
If my colleague was purposefully making poor choices at work, that was his business, not mine—God could sort out and handle the rest, as Jesus did on the Cross all those years ago. No, Christ didn’t harp for hours and hours on the Fall caused by Adam and Eve’s decision, but instead chose to right the wrongs through His own willing obedience, His own life. In Paul’s own words, “just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
The overflowing fruitfulness of grace and goodness are available to us, if we focus on and allow the Lord to perfect our own path. May we all choose to stay in God’s holy lane rather than judging another’s and let the grace that comes from our obedience to the Lord inspire those around us to do the same.
Relate to the Lord // What does staying in your holy lane look like? Ask God for the grace to focus on Him today.
Liz Homick works at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. as the loudest and most talkative librarian in the building. Since backpacking Europe for six weeks after graduating with her Master’s in Library Science, Liz is a huge advocate of solo travel and attending Mass in every language imaginable. She believes in unconditional kindness and existing brightly despite life’s storms.
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