August 24, 2025
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 123
Reading 1
Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.
I will set a sign among them;
from them I will send fugitives to the nations:
to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan,
to the distant coastlands
that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory;
and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.
They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations
as an offering to the LORD,
on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries,
to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD,
just as the Israelites bring their offering
to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm
R.(Mk 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the
Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters,
You have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:
"My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges."
Endure your trials as "discipline";
God treats you as sons.
For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline?
At the time,
all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,
yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who are trained by it.
So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.
Make straight paths for your feet,
that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father, except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him,
"Lord, will only a few people be saved?"
He answered them,
"Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door,
then will you stand outside knocking and saying,
'Lord, open the door for us.'
He will say to you in reply,
'I do not know where you are from.
And you will say,
'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.'
Then he will say to you,
'I do not know where you are from.
Depart from me, all you evildoers!'
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
For behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082425.cfm
Commentary
on Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7,11-13; Luke 13:22-30
There is a worldwide tendency among people who believe in a
religion to feel that they are a privileged group, that they carry with them
some cast-iron guarantee that their future is absolutely secure. The concept of
a ‘chosen people’ is not really confined to the Jews. We find it among
Christians, Hindus, Muslims and even among militant Buddhists (perhaps a
contradiction in terms?).
It is not for us here to evaluate other religious beliefs.
We will confine ourselves to Christians. Even among Christians themselves there
are divisions about who is chosen and on the right path. Just listen to some
Christian groups speak about others.
Christians have believed for a long time that they and they
alone will be, as they put it, ‘saved’. “Outside the Church there is no salvation”
was a rallying cry for centuries and, if we are not mistaken, still is for
some. Yet it was well before the Second Vatican Council that the American
Jesuit, Fr Leonard Feeney, was condemned and excommunicated by the Holy See for
denying salvation to non-Christians.
How many will be saved?
Perhaps this was what Jesus’ questioner had in mind when—in today’s Gospel
passage—he asked:
Lord, will only a few be saved?
The question reflected the belief of many Jews in Jesus’
time that they and they alone were God’s ‘Chosen People’. For them that meant,
on the one hand, that ‘pagans’ and ‘unbelievers’, people who did not observe
the Law of Moses, were outcasts to be rejected by God forever. The salvation of
God’s People, on the other hand, was virtually guaranteed, provided they kept
the Law.
As often happens, Jesus does not answer his enquirer’s
question directly. If he does not actually counter with another question, he
will speak in parables or images. In any case, his meaning will be quite clear
to an open mind. Jesus speaks today about coming in through a narrow door and
about a householder who refuses to open the door after he has locked up for the
night. The fact that those knocking claim to be companions known to him does
not make him change his mind:
I do not know where you come from; go away from me…
These are terrible words to hear!
So, in answer to the person’s question, Jesus does not
confirm or deny that only a few will be saved. What he does say is that
salvation is not guaranteed for anyone. Saying “We are your Chosen People” will
not be good enough. What Jesus is saying is that no one, no matter who they
are, has an absolute guarantee of being saved, of being accepted by God. No one
is saved by claiming identity with a particular group or by carrying a
particular name tag.
Message is for all
Jesus does not at all say that only a few will be ‘saved’. The whole thrust of
the Gospel, and especially of the Gospel according to Luke which we are
reading, is that Jesus came to bring God’s love and freedom to the whole world.
The message of that Gospel is that there is not a single person, not a single
people, nation, race, or class, which is excluded from experiencing the love
and liberation that God offers.
The primary role of the Christian community has never been
simply to guarantee the ‘salvation’ of its own members. It is not the function
of the Church to turn all its energies to seeing that its members ‘save their
souls’ and sometimes pray for those in ‘outer darkness’.
The role of the Christian community from the beginning until
now is first and foremost to proclaim to the whole world the Good News about
God’s love for the world, to share the message of the Gospel about what
constitutes real living with the whole world. It also hopes that many will respond
to its message of life through a conversion of their lives. The Church
completely betrays this mandate when it becomes obsessed with its own survival
and its own ‘rights and privileges’.
And it is not only a verbal message, the verbal teaching of
Jesus, which has to be communicated. Our whole lifestyle, individually and in
community as Christians, is itself to be a proclamation to all those who hunger
for a life of truth, of love, of justice and greater sharing, a life of
compassion and mutual support, an end to loneliness and marginalisation,
exploitation and manipulation. Is that a picture of the Christian community you
belong to?
How to be ‘saved’?
How many people will be saved? What does it mean, ‘being saved’? It is not very
helpful to toss out the old catechism jargon about those dying “in the state of
grace”, “without mortal sin on their souls”. Trying to put it in more realistic
terms, to be ‘saved’ means to live and to die in a close loving relationship
with God and with others. It is to share the vision of life that Jesus offered
to us. It is both simple and difficult to do. Jesus tells us:
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if
you have love for one another. (John 13:35)
In other words, loving each other in the name and the spirit
of Jesus is really all that is necessary to be ‘saved’.
How many, then, will be saved? No one knows, but surely it
is God’s will that it should be many. And as the Scripture often says, God’s
plans will not be frustrated. It is not for us to judge.
A graced position
But let us come closer to home and look at the second part of Jesus’ teaching
today. To belong to the ‘People of God’ (a phrase used by the Second Vatican
Council), to belong to the Christian community is, in many ways, a privileged,
graced position.
If we really belong to a community which shares and explains
the Word of God in a way that helps me to understand the deeper meaning of
life, if I find comfort and support—spiritual, emotional, social and
material—from that community, then I am blessed indeed. But such a grace also
is one of responsibility.
Jesus expresses this in a number of ways. The path to life
is through a “narrow door”. In terms of the Gospel, the doorway to life can be
summed up in the word—love. In one sense, love is an all-embracing word in both
its figurative and literal meanings. Yet, to guide all one’s action only by
love is a choice that many are unable to make. Many find it extremely difficult
and many simply reject it. They prefer to go by the broader way (which they even
call ‘more human’) of hatred, resentment, jealousy, competitiveness and
revenge.
How many of us can claim to have succeeded in walking the
narrow way of unconditional and unremitting love? Yet, if we fail in love, what
kind of Christians are we? Do we deserve the final reward of brothers and
sisters, of disciples of Jesus?
Frightening possibility
So what Jesus is saying today is that many who regard themselves as ‘Catholics’
may find the door closed in their face. They will hear the terrible words, “I do
not know you”. How can Jesus not recognise someone who was baptised as Catholic
and who went regularly to Sunday Mass? Because these people in their turn did
not recognise Jesus himself in all those people they may have hated, resented,
used, exploited, manipulated, rejected and trampled on:
Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the
least of these, you did not do it to me. (Matt 25:45)
When we do come face to face with God—and hopefully we
will—we may be surprised at who is not there. We may even be more surprised at
those who are there: people we regarded as ‘pagans’ (Buddhists, Hindus,
Muslims), animists, agnostics, even atheists, people of other races whom we
tended to despise and the ‘dregs of society’. There will be people from east and
west, from north and south; they will all come to take their places at the
banquet in the Kingdom of God.
These people will be in the Kingdom because, whatever labels
we gave them, they were at heart loving, caring and sharing people, people who
lived their lives for others as Jesus did. These people Jesus will recognise.
Let us make sure that he will be able to recognise each of us, too. What will
you do today to make sure that Jesus knows you?
Comments Off
https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/oc211/
Sunday,
August 24, 2025
21st
Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lectio
Opening Prayer:
We come before you, Father, and because we do not know how to
talk to you, to help us we use the words your Son Jesus pronounced on our
behalf. Help us to listen to the upsetting message of this word: «Try your best
to enter by the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and
will not succeed.» This is a word you repeat to everyone who listens to your
Son’s Gospel. Help us to understand it. So that we may be able to read your
Scripture and savor it, feel it burn like a fire in us, we implore you, Father,
send us your Spirit. And you Mary, Mother of contemplation who have kept the
words and events of Jesus in your heart for a long time, grant us to
contemplate the Word, to listen to it and allow it to penetrate our hearts.
Reading of the Gospel – Luke 13: 22-30
22 He went on his way through
towns and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone
said to him, "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" And he said to
them, 24 "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will
seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the householder has risen up
and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door,
saying, 'Lord, open to us.' He will answer you, 'I do not know where you come
from.' 26 Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in your presence, and
you taught in our streets.' 27 But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know
where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!' 28 There you
will weep and gnash your teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and
all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out. 29 And
men will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in
the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some
are first who will be last."
A Few Moments of Prayerful Silence:
To listen devoutly to the voice of God, we need silence and
interior calm. We need to create in our hearts «a quiet corner where we can
make contact with God» (E. Stein) and be able to establish deep communication
between ourselves and the Word. If we do not stand before God in silence, in
silence and gazing on his face, we will form words but we will be saying
nothing.
Meditatio
A Key to the Reading:
This Sunday’s passage is found in
the second part of Luke’s Gospel where Jerusalem, the object of Jesus’ existential
and theological journey, is mentioned several times of which three are part of
the post-Paschal liturgical way: Lk 9: 51 (13th Sunday of Ordinary Time “C”),
Lk 13: 22-30 (21st Sunday of Ordinary Time “C”) and Lk 17: 11 (28th Sunday of
Ordinary Time “C”). The proclamation of a journey, placed at the beginning of
the Gospel text, helps the readers to remember that they are also journeying
towards Jerusalem with Jesus. The journey towards the holy city is the thread
that runs through the whole of the second part of the Gospel (Lk 9: 51-19: 46)
and most of what is said is introduced by verbs of movement presenting Jesus
and his disciples as pilgrims or itinerants. Jesus’ journey towards the holy
city is not strictly speaking a geographical journey but corresponds to a
theological and spiritual journey. This kind of journey involves also the
disciple and the reader of the Gospel: going on «the journey» of Jesus makes us
as if like itinerants whose mandate is to preach the Gospel.
On this journey Jesus faces conflicts with
the Jewish world, and in Lk 13: 10-30 includes three episodes: 13: 10-17 (the
healing of the crippled woman), 18-21 (the parables of the mustard seed and the
yeast) and in 22-30 (the discourse on the narrow door). This last is the text the
liturgy of the Word presents to us this Sunday. It begins with the journey as a
background to Jesus’ words as he went «through towns and villages … teaching»
(v.22). It is characteristic of Luke to note Jesus’ ministry as a journey.
Now, at one stage on this journey towards
Jerusalem, someone puts a question to Jesus: how many will be saved? Jesus’
reply does not mention any number of those who will be saved but contains an
exhortation and a warning, «try,» points to an attitude to be assumed: «to enter
by the narrow door.» This image recalls in the mind of the disciples and of
Luke’s community the need to address their preoccupation with the burdensome
commitment that the journey of faith demands. Immediately after this, Jesus
introduces the true and proper teaching with a parable that is associated with
the image of the narrow door, the parable of the master of the house who, after
having closed the door of the house, will not allow anyone in (v.25). This
detail brings to mind the end of the parable of the ten virgins in Mt 25:
10-12. These examples tell us that there is an intermediate time when we must
commit ourselves to receive salvation before the door is closed definitively
and irreversibly.
Partaking in even the founding moments in the
life of the community, like at the supper of the Lord («we have eaten and drunk
in your presence») and the proclamation of the Word («you have taught in our
squares»), if not backed up by a life commitment, cannot avoid the danger of
condemnation. Luke’s Gospel likes to present Jesus as taking part at the table
of those who invite him, but not all who sit at the table with him have an
automatic right to the definitive salvation that he proclaimed through the
image of a banquet. Thus, also, having heard his teaching does not
automatically guarantee salvation. In fact, in Luke, listening to Jesus’ word
is an indispensable condition for discipleship, but it is not enough. Disciples
need to make the commitment to follow the master, keeping his teaching and
bearing fruit through perseverance (Lk 8: 15).
Those who have not been able to
enter by the narrow door before it is closed are called «doers of iniquity»:
they are those who did not commit themselves to putting God’s plan into
practice. Their future situation is presented figuratively with an expression
that tells of the irreversibility of their not being saved: «Then there will be
weeping and grinding of teeth» (v.28).
Interesting is the reference to the great biblical patriarchs
(Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob) and to all the prophets: they will
enter and be part of the kingdom of God. If to Jesus’ contemporaries this
affirmation could seem to indicate that salvation was the privilege of the
Jews, for Christians of Luke’s community it constituted a warning not to think
of salvation as an automatic consequence. The kingdom that Jesus proclaims
becomes the place where the disciples meet and come from the «east and west,
from north and south» (v.29). Jesus’ discourse introduces a dynamic of
salvation that involves the whole of humanity and is addressed especially to
the poor and sick (Lk 14:15-24). Luke, more than the other Evangelists, is
sensitive to the proclamation of a universal salvation and presents Jesus as
offering the promise of salvation no longer just to Israel, but to all peoples.
The final affirmation comes as a sign of this changed condition of salvation:
«there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be
last» (v.30). This affirmation shows how God upsets and turns upside down the
mechanisms of human logic: no one must trust in a position attained, but
everyone is invited to constantly tune into the Gospel’s wavelength.
Some Questions:
•
The narrow door of salvation reminds us of the
necessity of all to be committed to receiving this gift. The image does not say
that God wishes to make it difficult to obtain salvation, but it emphasizes the
co-responsibility of men and women, the concreteness of the effort involved in
this commitment to obtain salvation. According to Cyprian, going through the
narrow door means a transformation: «Who
does not wish to be transformed as soon as possible into the image of Christ?»
The image of the narrow door is a symbol of the work of transformation to which
the believer is committed through a slow and progressive effort on him/herself
in order to refine him/herself and be molded by the Gospel. More correctly, the
one who does not commit him/herself to any kind of reciprocal relationship with
God, with others and with the world, risks perdition. Often the temptation is
to propose other doors, seemingly easier and more useful, like those of
selfishness, avoiding God’s friendship and relationships with others. Are you
committed to build relationships or are you intent on being selfish? Are you
convinced that salvation is offered you through the relational dimension of
communion with God and others?
•
Salvation is possible for all. Everyone may
attain it, but such a gift from Jesus requires an effective and personal
response from us. In Jesus’ teaching we do not find the use of any threat to
render people aware regarding salvation, but only an invitation to be fully
aware of the extraordinary and irreversible opportunity of the gift of mercy
and life before God and in dialogue with Him. Towards what and towards whom is
your life pointing? How do you use your freedom? Are you able to welcome God’s
invitation to be co-responsible for your salvation or have you surrendered to
waste and perdition?
•
If we consider the question of that person who
asked Jesus: “Sir, will there be only few saved?», no one can consider
him/herself privileged. Salvation belongs to all and all are called. The door
to salvation may be closed for those who expect to enter with the unwieldy
luggage of personal inconsistencies. Do you feel the desire to enter and be
part of that «infinite throng from east and west who will sit at the table of
the kingdom of God»? And if you see yourself as last (small, simple, sinner,
bent by suffering…) if you live with love and hope, do not despair. Jesus said
that the last will be first.
Oratio
Psalm 117: 1-2
Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us; and
the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!
Closing Prayer:
Lord, grant that we may feel the life of your Word we have
heard; break, we beseech you, the knots of our uncertainty, our quibbles, our
“ifs” and “buts” that hold us back from entering into salvation through the
narrow door. Grant that we may welcome without fear, without too many doubts,
the Word of God that invites us to commit ourselves and work hard at our life
of faith. Lord, grant that through the Word we have heard this Sunday, the day
of the Lord, we may be freed from false security concerning our salvation and
may your Word bring us joy, strengthen, purify, and save us. And you, Mary,
model of those who listen and of silence, help to be alive and authentic, to
understand that, in virtue of the Word, whatever is difficult becomes easy,
whatever is obscure becomes light.
Contemplatio
Contemplation is the peak of any biblical reading after we
have meditated and prayed. To contemplate is to enter, through listening to the
Word, into a faith and love relationship with God who is life and truth and who
in Christ has revealed to us his face. The Word of God unveils that hidden face
in every page of Sacred Scripture. Suffice it to looked in admiration, be open
to the light, allow it to penetrate us. It is the ecstasy experienced before
the beautiful and the good. Extend into your daily life this climate of great
communication experienced with God in listening to his Word and preserve the
taste of the beauty in your dialogue with others in whatever work you do.
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