Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time, November 5, 2026.
Our meditation today has the theme: The Christ Factor. Everyone of us who follow Christ has the right and obligation to express his or her faith. We all believe that what we are today and how we walk in the light of Christian faith, because there is the Christ factor. According to Christian fundamental theology, Jesus Christ is the fundamental reason of our faith. If Jesus is not the one, our faith would go somewhere else and take another form which is different from what we have now. If it is not Jesus Christ, we would not have a life which we have today and in this place.
Each of us can make a long list of benefits, successes, miracles and goodness attributed to Jesus Christ factor. When it comes to the vocation, a religious or a priest, for example, is naturally so excited and grateful of this specific calling and the Christ factor is considered the ultimate answer for the growing of it and the mission it entails. This is also the same with every respective profession and way of life of people in general. The Christ factor indeed leads and guides our lives both now and in the future after our death. However, if it is not the Christ factor chosen, it means that person basically does not choose Jesus Christ as the way of his or her life.
Saint Paul shared his faith experience with the Philippians, that his past had made him widely known as the powerful enemy to the Church. But then he considered all of that as a total loss, when he made Christ the main and ultimate reason for his new life. Such sharing experience of faith is very common among us Christians from various contexts of this life, either in small or big groups, either in informal setting among friends or on the occasion of sermon of priests in the church.
In our ministries of proclamation the Word of God and works of love, the Christ factor should be our only point of reference. The face of Christ should become dominant, a universal attraction and a standard for achieving the highest goodness and truth. We need to avoid every kind of word, deed and service which tend to obscure the role of the Christ factor, which comes out with even more visible the role of human persons, particular groups, certain ideas, specific situations or some special materials. If these all are to replace the role of the Christ-factor in our lives, our way to salvation and eternal happiness will be left out.
The Christ factor for us has a lofty and highest purpose in the salvation of everyone without exception. On the contrary, the non-Jesus Christ’s factors must have their own interests and tend to create discrimination, division and separation. Therefore, Jesus himself teaches that even if only one person or one part of what the Father has entrusted to Him is missing, He must go to look for, find it out and bring back home. In heaven there will be great joy when one who has lost is found safely and walking joyfully in the way of Jesus Christ.
Let's pray. In the name of the Father ... O Lord Jesus, make us saviors for our neighbors who are lost from Your truth, way and life. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit ... In the name of the Father ...
