July 24, 2026
Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 399
Reading 1
Return, rebellious children, says the LORD,
for I am your Master;
I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan,
and bring you to Zion.
I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart,
who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.
When you multiply and become fruitful in the land,
says the LORD,
They will in those days no longer say,
“The ark of the covenant of the LORD!”
They will no longer think of it, or remember it,
or miss it, or make another.
At that time they will call Jerusalem the LORD’s throne;
there all nations will be gathered together
to honor the name of the LORD at Jerusalem,
and they will walk no longer in their hardhearted wickedness.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 10d) The Lord will guard us as a shepherd
guards his flock.
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,
he guards them as a shepherd his flock.
R. The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
The LORD shall ransom Jacob,
he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.
Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,
they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings:
The grain, the wine, and the oil,
the sheep and the oxen.
R. The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
Then the virgins shall make merry and dance,
and young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.
R. The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart
and yield a harvest through perseverance.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Hear the parable of the sower.
The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the Kingdom
without understanding it,
and the Evil One comes and steals away
what was sown in his heart.
The seed sown on rocky ground
is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.
But he has no root and lasts only for a time.
When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
he immediately falls away.
The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word,
but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word
and it bears no fruit.
But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072426.cfm
Commentary on
Jeremiah 3:14-17
Today we are given an optimistic vision of Zion in the
messianic age. Jeremiah, in spite of his reputation, is not all gloom and doom.
It was, of course, an important role of the prophet to point out the people’s
shortcomings and to warn them of the consequences of their lifestyle. But it
was also his role to bring a message of hope and to raise the morale of people
who were oppressed or depressed.
Today’s reading is a message of hope for a people whose city
has been destroyed and who have been carried away into exile in Babylon. Now
the prophet is calling them to come back—not only to their city, but also to
following the will of their God. He calls them “faithless children”, and
reminds them that God alone is their husband and master.
The Hebrew word here for “husband/master” is ba’al,
which, of course, is also the name given to the false gods that the Jews of the
time had, under the influence of their conquerors, been worshipping. Jeremiah
is calling on his people to have only one ba’al or master,
namely Yahweh.
Now comes the promise. The people will return to Zion or
Jerusalem, but in very small numbers, “one from a city and two from a family”.
They are the remnant of Judah who will carry on the covenant promises of the
Messiah to come.
They will have shepherds, that is, rulers, who, like David
of old, will be “after my own heart”. They will be wise and prudent shepherds,
unlike the corrupt and idolatrous rulers who led them to their downfall and
exile.
“In those days”, that is, in the age of the Messiah, the
remnant that has returned to Jerusalem will grow in numbers, yet:
…they shall no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of
the Lord.”
It is clear that the Ark had been carried away or destroyed
with the pillaging of the Temple by the Babylonians, but this will not matter.
The Ark of the Covenant, formerly symbolising God’s royal
presence, will be irrelevant when the Messiah comes:
It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed, nor
shall another one be made.
For the city of Jerusalem itself will become the “throne of
the Lord”, where all the nations will assemble. Formerly, the Lord had been
“enthroned upon the cherubim” in the Ark (Ps 99:1).
Moreover:
…all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the
Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no longer stubbornly follow their own evil
will.
In the past, they refused to listen to the Lord and instead
worshipped idols made by human hands.
Unlikely as it must have seemed at the time, Jerusalem did
indeed become a place where the nations assembled. It became the place where
the Messiah, the Christ, sealed the New Covenant in his own blood. It was the
place where the people converged from all over the Mediterranean and, on the
day of Pentecost, heard the Good News proclaimed in a language they could
perfectly understand.
And, from Jerusalem, the message fanned out to the four
points of the compass and eventually to every corner of the world. This is the
theme of the Acts of the Apostles.
Jeremiah’s hearers never lived to see that day, but he was
accurate in everything he foretold. We, on the other hand, are the
beneficiaries. How are we responding to this tremendous gift of God’s love? To
what extent have we heard and assimilated the Message? And what difference does
our way of life make to those around us?
The Messianic Age continues, but it depends on us to make it
visible. The realisation of the Messianic Age is the coming of the Reign of God
into our world. There is a lot of work still to be done!
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Commentary on
Matthew 13:18-23
In today’s Gospel reading from the Parable of the Kingdom,
we find the explanation of the parable of the sower. Or perhaps we should say
it is an interpretation rather than an explanation. It is presented as coming
from Jesus, but it is likely to have come from the tradition of the early
Church. There is quite a different emphasis between the original parable and this
interpretation. The parable focuses on the sower and the ultimate and
inevitable success of his work. The interpretation, however, looks much more at
the soil in which the seed falls. The interpretation reflects the experiences
of the early Church as it tried to spread the gospel. The four different kinds
of soil are taken to represent four kinds of environments into which the Word
of God is ‘seeded’. The behavior of the seeds, then, represents four types of
responses to the Word of God.
The first kind is like the seed on the stony path. The Word
of God never even gets started, but gets plucked away by the evil influences by
which the person is surrounded. In our strongly secular world today it is not
easy for the Word to take root with so many competing enticements.
The second kind is like the seed that falls on the rock. The
Word of God is received with great enthusiasm; the person becomes a devout and
active Christian. But if obstacles arise which make the living of the Christian
life difficult, the person falls away, maybe quickly, maybe gradually. As the
Gospel says, the person has no roots; the faith has not gone deep, and so has
not been really assimilated. This must have been the case with many in the
early Church who enthusiastically embraced Christianity, but when persecution
came, abandoned their faith. In our own time, we see this often enough when,
for instance, people are removed from a protected environment where it is easy
to live the faith to one where the faith is ignored or even ridiculed.
The third kind is like the seed that falls among the briars
and brambles. I would suggest that a very large number of us are touched by
this category. Anxieties about many things and the lure of material goods can
gradually choke off our commitment to the gospel in its fullness. Our witness
becomes seriously compromised and “there is no yield”: that is, we make no real
contribution to building the Kingdom and changing the world. We sit on the
fence and try to have the best of both worlds; we try to serve God and mammon,
which Jesus says is not possible. I am sure many of us have matter for
reflection here.
Finally, there is the fourth kind, the seed which falls on
good soil. This is the one “who hears the message and takes it in”. These
people hear the Word, accept the Word, make it their own and it overflows into
all they are and do and say. Much fruit for the world comes from such persons.
These four types can still be found and it is for each one
of us to determine to which group we belong.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2166g/
Friday, July 24,
2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Lord, be merciful to your
people.
Fill us with your gifts and make
us always eager to serve you in faith, hope and love.
You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading – Matthew 13: 18-23
Jesus said to his disciples: 'So pay
attention to the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the
kingdom without understanding, the Evil One comes and carries off what was sown
in his heart: this is the seed sown on the edge of the path.
The seed sown on patches of
rock is someone who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy. But such a
person has no root deep down and does not last; should some trial come, or some
persecution on account of the word, at once he falls away.
The seed sown in thorns is someone who hears the word, but the
worry of the world and the lure of riches choke the word and so it produces
nothing. And the seed sown in rich soil is someone who hears the word and
understands it; this is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a
hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.'
Reflection
Context. Beginning with chapter
12 on the one side we see there is opposition between the religious heads of
Israel, the Scribes and the Pharisees, on the other side, within the crowds who
listen to Jesus and are admired because of his marvelous actions, gradually,
little by little a group of disciples is being formed, still of uncertain
features, but who follow Jesus with perseverance. To twelve of these disciples
Jesus has given the gift of his authority and of his power; he has sent them as
messengers of the Kingdom, giving them demanding and radical instructions (10:
5-39). Now at the moment when controversy breaks out with his opponents, Jesus
recognizes his true kinship, not in the lines of the flesh (mother, brothers),
but in those who follow him, listen to him and fulfil the will of the Father
(12: 46-50). This last account offers us the possibility to imagine that the
audience to whom Jesus addressed his words is two-fold: on the one side the
disciples to whom he has given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom (13; 11)
and who have the possibility to understand them (13: 50) and on the other side
the crowds who seem to be deprived of this deep understanding (13: 11, 34- 36).
Before the large crowds which gather together to listen to Jesus is presented,
above all, the parable of the sower. Jesus speaks about a seed that falls or
not on the earth. Its growth depends on the place where it falls; it is
possible that it be hindered so that it cannot bear fruit. This is what happens
in the first three types of earth “along the roadside” (the ground hardened by
the passing of men and animals), “the rocky earth” (formed by rocks), «on the
thorns” (it is the earth covered with thorns). Instead, the seed that falls on
“good ground” bears excellent fruit even if at different levels. The reader is
directed to be more attentive to the yield of the grain than to the gesture of
the sower. Besides, Matthew focuses the attention of the listener on the good
earth and the fruit that this earth is capable of producing in an exceptional
manner.
The first part of the parable ends with an admonition:
“Anyone who has ears should listen” (v. 9); it is an appeal to the liberty of
the listener. The word of Jesus may remain a “parable” for a crowd incapable to
understand; it can reveal “the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven” for those
who allow themselves to be upset or affected by its force. It is the acceptance
of the Word of Jesus that distinguishes the disciples from the indeterminate
crowds; the faith of the first ones reveals the blindness of the others and
obliges them to look “beyond” the parable.
•
To listen and to understand. It is always Jesus
who leads the disciples on the right path for the understanding of the parable.
In the future through the disciples, it is the Church to be guided in the
understanding of the Word of Jesus. In the explanation of the parable the pair
of two verbs “to listen” and “to understand” appears in 13: 33: That which has
been sown in the good ground is the one who listens to the Word and understands
it...” It is in the understanding that the disciple is distinguished, the one
who daily listens to the Word of Jesus, from the crowds which, instead, listen
to it occasionally.
•
Hindrances to understanding. Jesus recalls,
above all, the negative response to his preaching on the Kingdom of Heaven
given by his contemporaries. Such a negative response is bound to the diverse
impediments among them. The earth on the edge of the road; is that transformed
by passers by into a trodden road; it is totally negative: “Throw the seeds on
the pavement of the street, everybody knows that it serves nothing: the
necessary conditions for growth do not exist. And, then people go by, step over
it, and ruin the seed. The seed should not be thrown just any place” (Carlos
Mesters). Above all, there is the personal responsibility of the individual: to
accept God’s Word in one’s own heart; on the contrary, if it falls on a
“trodden” heart, which is obstinate because of its own convictions and
indifferent, he sides with the evil one who completes that persisting attitude
of closeness to the Word of God. Then the rocky earth: If the first impediment
was constituted by an insensitive, indifferent heart, now the image of the seed
that falls on the rocks, on stones, and among bushes indicates a heart immersed
in a superficial and worldly life. Such lifestyles are energies that prevent
the Word of God to bear fruit. They begin to listen, but immediately it is
blocked, not only by tribulations and trials that are unavoidable, but also
because of the involvement of the heart in concerns and riches. It is a life
that is not profound but superficial, worldly, it is similar to instability.
The good earth: is the heart that listens and understands the Word; this one
bears fruit. Such fruit is the work of the Word in the heart that accepts it.
It is a question of an active understanding, that allows itself to get involved
by God’s action present in the Word of Jesus. The understanding of his Word
will continue to be inaccessible if we neglect the encounter with Him and,
therefore, we do not allow it to overflow in us.
Personal Questions
•
Does listening lead to the deep understanding of
God’s Word or does it remain only an intellectual exercise?
•
Are you a heart that accepts, that is available,
docile to attain to a full understanding of the Word?
Concluding Prayer
The Law of Yahweh is perfect, refreshment to the soul; The
precepts of Yahweh are honest, light for the eyes. (Ps 19: 7-8)
