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Our Sunday Reflection, August 24, 2025 - 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
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"Go out to all the world and tell the Good News."
Psalm 117
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Introduction to the Liturgy of the Day
Anyone who has driven often on highways can recall times in which traffic has slowed to a standstill because of a bottleneck, when multiple lanes of traffic must funnel down to a single open lane. This contempo rary phenomenon is analogous to Jesus’ words today about getting into heaven. Jesus says people will come from every direction but must pass through a narrow gate to enter. Let us accept this challenge, patiently following that narrow path.Introduction to the Liturgy of the Word
God reveals to Isaiah that people from far and wide will be welcomed to the holy city, Jerusalem. The psalmist also invites people of every nation to glorify God. Centuries later, Jesus affirms that people from every point of the compass will be welcomed into the kingdom of God. That having been said, getting in is not easy and some will be sent away. May we embrace God’s discipline, in the spirit in which it is explained in the second reading today, recognizing that it is offered out of God’s great love for us.Reflections
- The passage we hear in the first reading today was written during a key era in Israel’s history. The Babylonians have just been defeated and the Jewish people can once again rule over Judah. At this point Isaiah could have called for only the Jewish faithful to return and refused entry to all pagans. But this is not what the LORD tells Isaiah. No, the LORD invites “nations of every language,” those who “have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory” (Isaiah 66:18–19). For Isaiah, then, this is an opportunity for the faith to spread well beyond the formerly exiled Chosen People and draw in people from Africa, Europe, and Asia, where the nations listed in these verses are located. Not only that, some of these “foreigners” even will be chosen by God to serve as priests and Levites. Those previously thought of as unclean and unworthy to worship at all will now be able to offer sacrifice and perform cultic functions. God is truly the God of all.
- If it seems as if the responsorial psalm is quite short today, it’s because these two verses are the entire psalm. Psalm 117 is not only the shortest psalm in the Bible, it’s the shortest chapter in the Bible. And yet, it says all that really needs to be said: God’s kindness and faithfulness lasts forever, and all God’s children should praise and glorify God. God’s mercy and love are shown through that kindness. We have seen that even when we are not faithful to God, God is always faithful to us—through the covenant passed down from Abraham to the new covenant consummated by Jesus’ sacrifice. All that’s missing today from that psalm is its final word: Hallelujah!
- Four times in the second reading we hear the word discipline, each time in a positive way, given out of love to help us grow. It is no coincidence that it comes from the same root in Latin as the word for disciple. Discipline teaches us how to be good disciples. Discipline is necessary to stay true to our mission, to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, and to see the Christ in others. Doing so habitually forms us into the kind of disciples whom Jesus called to follow him.
Question of the Week
What must I do to grow in the discipline of being a good disciple of the Lord? What can strengthen my “drooping hands and weak knees” (Hebrews 12:12)? from Pastoral Patterns
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readings of the mass
LISTEN HERE to the Audio Recordings of the Readings of Sunday, August 24, 2025
SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, August 24, 2025
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Offerings
The Sunday offerings are a portion of our blessings that we give to God (Church) in gratitude to what God has done for us...ONLINE GIVING OPTIONS -
Reflections on the readings
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News from the Vatican
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