August 25, 2025
Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 425
Reading I
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the
Thessalonians
in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for all of you,
remembering you in our prayers,
unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love
and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,
before our God and Father,
knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen.
For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.
In every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything.
For they themselves openly declare about us
what sort of reception we had among you,
and how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God and to await his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead, Jesus,
who delivers us from the coming wrath.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b
R. (see 4a) The Lord takes
delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to the LORD a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the LORD loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches;
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
You do not enter yourselves,
nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You traverse sea and land to make one convert,
and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna
twice as much as yourselves.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say,
‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’
Blind fools, which is greater, the gold,
or the temple that made the gold sacred?
And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’
You blind ones, which is greater, the gift,
or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;
one who swears by the temple swears by it
and by him who dwells in it;
one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God
and by him who is seated on it.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082525.cfm
Commentary on 1
Thessalonians 1:1-5,8-10
We have been reading from the Old Testament for the past
nine weeks. We began with the 12th chapter of the book of Genesis and
went through selected passages from each of the first eight books of the Bible
in order: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and
Ruth.
Today we go back to the New Testament and we begin with
readings from the first letter of Paul to the Christians of Thessalonica, in
Macedonia, northern Greece. The letters of Paul (and those attributed to
him) are not presented in our New Testament in the order in which they were
written. They have been listed according to their length, so the letter
to the Romans, being the longest, is placed first and the short letter to
Philemon is last.
The first letter to the Thessalonians, although well down
the list, is actually the earliest letter of Paul’s that we have. It
seems to have been written from the city of Corinth, in Achaia, in southern
Greece. It was written about the year 51 AD, i.e. just a little over 20
years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This makes it also the
earliest of the 27 books of the whole New Testament. It was written, as
were all the Pauline letters, well before the first gospel. This makes it
a work of considerable significance. Twenty years, in many ways, was a much
shorter period in those days than now because society changed much more slowly
and, in a 20-year period, would hardly have changed at all. Nevertheless, as we
read through this letter we see how well developed the Christian message
already is.
The ideas contained here were, for the Christians who read
them, part of the Gospel message, i.e. the ‘Good News’ about God which came to
us through Jesus Christ. Note that Paul uses the word “gospel” (euangelion,
meaning good news) in today’s passage, although Mark, Matthew, Luke and John—as
we know them—would not begin to appear for another 20 years.
The New International Version Study Bible gives
this introduction to the city of Thessalonica:
Thessalonica was a bustling seaport city at the head of the
Thermaic Gulf. It was an important communication and trade centre,
located at the junction of the great Egnatian Way and the road leading north to
the Danube. Its population numbered about 200,000, making it the largest
city in Macedonia. It was also the capital of its province. The
background of the Thessalonian church is found in Acts 17:1-9. Since Paul
began his ministry there in the Jewish synagogue, it is reasonable to assume
that the new church included some Jews. However, 1:9-10 and Acts 17:4
seem to indicate that the church was largely Gentile in membership…Paul’s
purpose in writing this letter was to encourage the new converts in their
trials (3:3-5), to give instruction concerning godly living (4:1-8), to urge
some not to neglect daily work (4:11-12) and to give assurance concerning the
future of believers who die before Christ returns…the subject of eschatology
seems to be predominant in both Thessalonian letters. Every chapter of 1
Thessalonians ends with a reference to the Second Coming of Christ, with
chapter 4 giving it major consideration…The two letters are often designated as
the eschatological letters of Paul. (edited)
Today’s reading is summarised by the New American
Bible as follows:
“Paul expresses his satisfaction that the three principal
Christian characteristics—faith, hope and love—are at work in the Thessalonian
community. Unhesitatingly, he places its members among those specially beloved
and chosen by God. He recalls that his preaching of the Gospel to them
was not received as a mere intellectual exercise, but had made a strong actual
impact on their lives which not even the opposition of unbelievers could
dispel. Their faith has been an inspiration to Christians elsewhere, who
have been impressed especially by the Thessalonians’ complete abandonment of
idolatry for the worship of the true God, and by their profound orientation
toward the Second Coming of Jesus.”
The letter begins, as usual, with greetings from
Paul—together with Silvanus and Timothy—to the local Christians for whom he is
writing. He assures the Thessalonians that they are constantly in his
prayers and those of his companions. There then comes a typical Pauline
blessing:
We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention
you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work
of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
In today’s reading the very core of Christianity is
expressed. We see the centrality of the Trinitarian relationship between
the Father and Christ and the Spirit, as well as the vital elements of faith,
hope and love. The previous verse describing the triad of faith, hope and
love is found frequently throughout the New Testament. As such:
- Real
faith results in action:
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone
claims to have faith but does not have works?…faith without works is also dead. (James
2:14,26)
- Christian
hope is not mere wishful thinking, but firm confidence in Jesus Christ and
his promises of a life that never ends.
I am the way and the truth and the life. (John
14:6)
- Unsparing
love imitates that of Jesus, who said that the greatest love anyone could
show was to give one’s life for one’s friends.
For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he
has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
He addresses them as “brothers and sisters beloved by
God”. They are all united to each other as children of one Father and
brothers and sisters of his Son.
The term ‘brothers’ is used by Paul 28 times in the two
Thessalonian letters. “The gospel”, that is, the gospel proclaimed by Paul,
Silas and Timothy, is a gospel they themselves had received by faith and passed
on. It ultimately comes from God the Father and then through Christ to
his followers and beyond. It is not mere hollow-sounding words. It
is filled with power and, once assimilated, can have a transforming effect on
one’s whole life.
This was its effect on the Thessalonian Christians. And
anyone who proclaims the Christian message through the words of Scripture knows
that there is a power there that goes far beyond any human eloquence.
…you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you
for your sake.
The example of Paul’s own life and that of his companions
was a kind of living gospel, which also had its influence on them. They
lived this life, not to draw attention to themselves, but to lead the
Christians to the following of Jesus’ Way:
…let your light shine before others, so that they may see
your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
(Matt 5:16)
Paul then congratulates the Thessalonians on the quality of
their faith whose reputation has spread far and wide not only to Macedonia, of
which Thessalonica is the capital, and to Achaia in the south where Corinth was
situated, but everywhere:
…For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you…
So effective has been their influence that Paul has hardly
to speak about it himself.
One reason why the Thessalonian example became so widespread
was because the city lay on the important Egnatian Way (Via Egnatiana).
Apart from that, it was a busy seaport and the capital of the Roman province of
Macedonia.
People in other places are telling about how Paul began his
work with the Thessalonians, how they turned away from false gods and came to
serve the living and true God and are now waiting for the return of Jesus, his
Son.
Here we have three marks of true conversion:
- turning
from idols (of all kinds);
- serving
God; and
- waiting
for Christ to return.
In his two short letters to the Thessalonians, Paul speaks
much of the second coming of Christ. In this early period of Christianity,
this was a major preoccupation for Christians. As the years passed and
there was no sign of the Second Coming and people were dying off before it
happened, the conviction of an imminent coming waned and the focus switched to
spending a long life in the service of the gospel.
Right now, though, they are waiting for the One who will
save them from the Retribution, the Day of Reckoning, that is to come. We
have in these last two sentences of the reading two main elements of the Good
News as preached by Paul: a vigorous emphasis on monotheism and a Christology
stressing the coming of the Risen Lord.
We might ask ourselves, if Paul were writing to the
Christian community in which we live—our diocese or our parish—what do we think
he might want to say by way of praise or criticism? What should we be
developing further and what should we be correcting or abandoning? And
how much of what he might say could apply to me personally?
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Commentary on
Matthew 23:13-22
We continue with the attack of Jesus on the mentality of the
scribes and Pharisees. Keep in mind (as we mentioned last Saturday) that first,
we are dealing more with a state of mind than a blanket condemnation of a whole
group of people, and second, that the words are mainly to be heard as providing
reflection for our own Christian communities and the way we behave.
Today and for the next two days we read of the seven ‘Woes’
that Jesus hurls against corrupt religious leaders. We have seen already how
the number seven is a favourite of Matthew.
The Seven Woes are:
- …you
lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. (v 13)
[and] …you devour widows’ houses…(v 14). (This verse is not included in some texts.) - …you
cross sea and land to make a single convert…(v 15)
- …you,
blind guides who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by
nothing…’ (vv 16-22)
- …you
tithe mint, dill, and cumin…(vv 23-24)
- …you
clean the outside of the cup and of the plate…(vv 25-26)
- …you
are like whitewashed tombs…(vv 27-28)
- …you
build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous…(vv
29-32)
Today we read the first three Woes.
1. …you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven…(v
13) and (not included in some texts) …you devour widows’ houses…(v
14).
Jesus accuses the leaders of closing the entrance to the
Kingdom, thus preventing others from going in and not going in themselves
either. On the one hand, this can be a reference to their rejection of Jesus
who was himself the embodiment of the Kingdom, was preaching the Kingdom and
who, by his presence, had made the Kingdom accessible to all who came to him.
On the other hand, it can also mean that they made the observance of the Law
impossibly difficult by their complex interpretations of what was and was not
allowed.
Whether we are parents, or teachers, or priests or
religious, we can also by our behaviour both block people’s access to Jesus and
be far from him ourselves.
Included here is verse 14, left out of some texts, where
Jesus accuses the Pharisees of saying long prayers, but not hesitating to take
money (for the Temple, of course) from widows, the poorest of the poor.
Considering that widows were among the most destitute and insecure of people in
Jewish society, this was exploitation of the most base kind. A comparison in
our own day would be with the ways in which some “televangelists” were known to
extract money from poor and gullible people who should be receiving rather than
giving.
2. …you cross sea and land to make a single convert…(v
15)
While the religious leaders try to prevent people from
approaching Jesus, they themselves zealously go to great lengths to make even a
single convert, only to make that person even worse than themselves. They do
this by corrupting them with false ideas of what true religion is. They fill
them with ideas about ritual purification and thus create a false sense of
security about what really brings about salvation. At this time, Jewish
proselytisation was very active in the Greek and Roman world. Parallels can be
found in our own days among Christian groups.
3. …you, blind guides who say, ‘Whoever swears by
the sanctuary is bound by nothing’…(vv 16-22)
Here Jesus’ attack is directed at the leaders’ greed and
their corruption of religion for material gain. They persuade people to swear
by the gold of the Temple and make them pay. People are told not to swear by
the altar, but by the gift they have put there. Which is more holy, Jesus asks,
the Temple or the gold which the Temple makes holy, the altar or the gift which
the altar sanctifies? Again, in the name of holiness, the Pharisee-types are
exploiting the poor.
Sadly, today we also see abuse of authority and
power—whether in the Church, in government, in business or other arenas—leading
to all kinds of greed and corruption which undermine the very fabric of
societies. Positions of service are turned into instruments of personal gain,
often at the expense of the weakest and the most needy. Countries which long
ago should have become rich and prosperous and provided a high quality of life
for their people are bankrupt, in every sense of the word, while a small elite
live lives of shameless luxury.
The Church, too, can find itself over-concerned with matters
of money at the expense of its pastoral mission. A diocese, a parish, a bishop
or priest who is rich while living in a world of poverty and need is a major
stumbling block to the hearing of the Gospel.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1212g/
Monday,
August 25, 2025
Ordinary
Time
Opening Prayer
Father, help us to seek the values that will
bring us enduring joy in this changing world. In our desire for what You
promise, make us one in mind and heart.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives
and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 23: 13-22
Jesus said to the crowds and to his
disciples: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock
the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow
entrance to those trying to enter. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you
hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that
happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves. "Woe
to you, blind guides, who say, 'If one swears by the temple, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.' Blind fools,
which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you
say, 'If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the
gift on the altar, one is obligated.' You blind ones, which is greater, the
gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar
swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it
and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of
God and by him who is seated on it."
Reflection
During the next three days, we will meditate
on the discourse in which Jesus criticizes the doctors of the law and the Pharisees,
calling them hypocrites. In today’s Gospel (Mt 23: 13-22), Jesus uses the
expression “Alas for you...” (Mt 23: 2326) four times, and in the Gospel of the
day after tomorrow, He uses this same expression twice more (Mt 23: 27-32).
These are condemnatory words, very hard words, against the religious leaders of
the times. In pondering them, I should not only think of the doctors and the
Pharisees of the time of Jesus, but also, and above all, of the hypocrisy found
in me, in us, in our family, in the community, in our Church, in today’s
society. Let us look into the mirror of the text to discover the errors in
ourselves.
•
Matthew 23: 13: The first “Alas for you...”
against those who close the door of the Kingdom because in this way you will
not enter and, you do not even let those who want to enter. How do they lock
people out of the Kingdom? They do it by presenting God as a severe judge,
leaving very little space for the mercy of God; by imposing, in the name of
God, laws and norms which have nothing to do with the commandments of God, by
presenting a false image of the Kingdom and by killing the desire to serve God
and the Kingdom. A community which organizes itself around this false god “does
not enter into the Kingdom,” and it is not even an expression of the Kingdom
and prevents its members from entering into the Kingdom.
•
Matthew 23: 14: The second “Alas for you...” is
against those who use religion to enrich themselves. You devour the property of
widows, though you make a show of lengthy prayers. The more severe will be the
sentence you receive because of this.” Jesus allows the disciples to live the
Gospel, because He says that the laborer has the right to his salary (Lk 10: 7;
cf. 1 Cor 9: 13-14), but to use prayer and religion as a means to enrich
themselves, that is hypocrisy and does not reveal the Good News of God. It
transforms religion into a market. Jesus drives out the merchants from the Temple
(Mk 11: 15-19) quoting the prophet Jeremiah: “My house will be called a House
of Prayer for all people; but you have turned it into a bandits’ den!” (Mk 11:
17; cf. Isa 56: 7; Jer 7: 11). When Simon the magician wanted to buy the gift
of the Holy Spirit, Peter curses him (Acts 8: 18-24). Simon received the “most
severe condemnation” which Jesus speaks about in the Gospel today.
•
Matthew 23: 15: The third expression of “Alas
for you...” is against those who proselytize. “You travel over sea and land to
make a single convert, and anyone who becomes one you make twice as fit for
hell as you are.” There are people who become missionaries and proclaim the
Gospel not to radiate the Good News, but to attract people for their group and
their church. John once prohibited a person from using the name of Jesus
because he was not part of His group. Jesus answered, “Do not stop him, because
anyone who is not against us is for us (Mk 9: 39). The document of the Plenary
Assembly of the Bishops of Latin America, which was held in March 2008 in
Aparecida, Brazil, bears the title: “Disciples and Missionaries of Jesus
Christ, so that our people may have life in Him.” That is to say, the purpose
of the mission is not to work in such a way that people become Catholic, but rather
that people may have life, and life in abundance.
•
Matthew 23: 16-22: The fourth “Alas for you...”
is aimed at those who swear. “You say, ‘if anyone swears by the Temple, it has
no force, but anyone who swears by the gold of the Temple is bound’. Jesus makes
a long disquisition to show the flaws in so many oaths that people made or that
the official religion ordered people to take: to swear by the gold of the
Temple or by the offering which was on the altar. The teaching of Jesus given
in the Sermon on the Mount is the best commentary on today’s Gospel: “But I
tell you do not swear at all, either by heaven since that is God’s throne, or
by earth, since that is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, since that is the city
of the great King. Do not swear by your own head either, since you cannot turn
a single hair white or black. All you need say is ‘Yes’ if you mean ‘yes’, ‘No’
if you mean ‘No’; anything more than this comes from the Evil One” (Mt 5:
34-37).
Personal Questions
•
“Alas for you...” is said four times: four
reasons to receive severe criticism from Jesus. Which of these four criticisms
refers to me?
•
Does our Church today deserve these “Alas for
you...” from Jesus?
Concluding Prayer
Sing a new song to Yahweh! Sing
to Yahweh, all the earth! Sing to Yahweh, bless His name! Proclaim His
salvation day after day. (Ps 96: 1-2)
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