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Gospel Commentary for Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Don’t Lose Heart
When we look at the world—and sometimes even at our own lives—it’s almost impossible not to feel discouraged. How far can corruption go? How far can violence reach? When will situations that seem unbearable finally end? And yet, Paul reminds us today: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
According to the news and everything we see around us, the answer might seem obvious: a lot of people! We see persecution and even real genocides of Christians in Africa, and more subtle forms of hostility toward faith in our own surroundings. Who can be against us? It often feels like almost everyone. But Paul goes on: neither persecution, nor the sword, nor hunger, nor war—nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Reading chapter 8 of the Letter to the Romans slowly, line by line, becomes like a steady heartbeat of hope against the constant rhythm of bad news.
When faced with trials that seem impossible to overcome, the disciples—like many of us—suggest running away. To flee or to hide (to bury our heads in the sand) may seem easier for a while, but it only leads to fear that borders on panic, to growing lies, to denial, to terror.
The disciples’ words—“Go away, because Herod wants to kill you”—echo Joseph’s dream in the infancy narratives and the flight into Egypt. At the beginning of the Gospel, the goal was to protect the mission of the Son. Now, it is to fulfill it. Jesus doesn’t run away because He knows who He is: the Christ, the Anointed One, the Blessed who comes in the name of the Lord. He keeps walking toward Jerusalem because He knows that nothing can separate Him from the love of God—which is His very being—for the Father and He are one.
In the same way, we, His disciples, can be sure that nothing and no one can separate us from that love—no matter how hard it may be to believe. Running away is not really an option for us, because it would only lead us into other, deeper kinds of slavery. The only real choice is to believe.
So, who—truly—can be against us?