Saturday September 20, 2025

---

“Some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” (From today’s Gospel reading)

---

Good News Reflection for:

Saturday of the 24th Week of Ordinary Time
September 20, 2025

Today’s Readings:

1 Timothy 6:13-16
Psalm 100:1-5
Luke 8:4-15
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092025.cfm
Podcast:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-september-20-2025

How critical thinking builds our trust in God

One of the most important courses I took during high school was called “Critical Thinking”. In a moment I’ll share how it’s been helping me trust the Lord better. I’ll explain how it’s good soil for receiving and growing in the Word of the Lord, producing abundant fruits as Jesus describes in Luke 8:4-15.

Unfortunately, people often mistake “critical thinking” for criticizing, as in putting others down, unfavorably judging them, finding fault whether it’s deserved or not. But in fact it means skillful judgment as to truth and merit, factual analysis, and clear-headed, logical, unemotional thought processes. 

My husband Ralph took a similar course when he entered the Air Force after graduating from high school. It taught him how to recognize and distrust rumors and propaganda so that he would not be tricked by the enemy.

I wish these courses were required studies for everyone! There’s an awful lot of uncritical thinking happening today, and this is making everyone’s hardships harder. And at the bottom of it, people are being tricked by the enemy of God’s people, the Devil.

The Devil is very pleased when a person lets political propaganda or societal trends (or any authority other than God) dictate what’s right and what’s wrong. Or when scientific “facts” are pushed on us despite a lack of thorough scientific analysis. Or when “news” programs censor opposing viewpoints so that our critical thinking is stifled.

In this environment, the truth about faith and salvation are sown onto hard paths where they’re trampled, and onto rocky ground where they wither, and into thorns where they get choked out by falsehoods.

Critical thinking builds our faith and our trust in God — this is not an oxymoron. We aren’t called to blindly follow God but to draw closer to him through the gift of our intellect.

When we fail to use critical thinking skills, we lose what we call “common sense”. Common sense is normal native intelligence. God instilled it in humankind when he created us in his image. But common sense only makes good sense when based on critical thinking.

Now take this a step further: Common sense influenced by the Holy Spirit is critical thinking united to Divine Wisdom.

Non-critical thinking is blind trust. The only one we should give blind trust to is God. The ONLY one. Blind trust in anything or anyone else is a sin because it’s a form of idolatry and it easily leads us astray.

Adam and Eve failed to use critical thinking when the serpent tricked them into a false idea of what God had commanded them. God had said, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17). The serpent used propaganda to make them think that God meant something different: “Actually you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5).

Without critical thinking, we make bad choices even when we have the best of intentions.

Today I’m very grateful for that high school course on critical thinking as I analyze what others are putting their blind trust into. The more I feel pressured to do something, the more I distrust it — this is one of the lessons taught in the class (at the time, the teacher was mainly talking about teenage peer pressure). So I take time to analyze the source of the pressure and the possible motives of those pushing me to trust them. I examine how closely their philosophies align with the Bible and 2000 years of Catholic Church teachings. I research the broader picture: Who else is offering information on the topic and are they researching it or are they just repeating sound bytes that they’ve been pressured into using?

There are other critical thinking skills that we can use in addition to these, but the process must ultimately rely on how well we can hear the Holy Spirit guiding us. Is our personal relationship the Holy Spirit influencing the process?

Truly critical thinking includes the realization that I will never see the full picture, I will never know all the nuances of an issue, and I can never fully trust my conclusions. When we neglect to spend enough time in prayer and in the study of scripture and Church teachings, and when we don’t pay attention to the warning flags of the Holy Spirit, and when we blindly trust those who are not doing this either, we’re very vulnerable to the propaganda of the Enemy.

Truly critical thinking benefits greatly from the activation of the Holy Spirit’s gift of discernment.

© 2025 by Terry A. Modica

---

 To distribute the Good News Reflections in your church bulletin or in RCIA or faith sharing groups, please contact us.

 You can also receive this & more faith-builders by text message on your phone.

 Keep it going! This reflection reached you thanks to benefactors. Please support this ministry today.

 Post your prayer request.

 How else can we serve you today? Visit our homepage.

Search more reflections in our continually growing database.

Homebound, Prison & Hospital Ministers are invited to print and distribute them without further permission.

Continue your prayer time with these:
Pray with Saints | Pray the Rosary | Other Prayers | Random Quotes.

 

Order and share Terry Modica's books

Socialize with us at:
        

Please share this with others by inviting them to visit this page. You may also print this for your personal use and you may share the print-out with others.