August 25, 2026
Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 426
Reading 1
We ask you, brothers and sisters,
with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our assembling with him,
not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly,
or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement,
or by a letter allegedly from us
to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.
Let no one deceive you in any way.
To this end he has also called you through our Gospel
to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm
and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught,
either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement
and good hope through his grace,
encourage your hearts and strengthen them
in every good deed and word.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (13b) The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He has made the world firm, not to be moved;
he governs the peoples with equity.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!“Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may be clean.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082526.cfm
Commentary on 2
Thessalonians 2:1-3,14-17
In the First Letter to the Thessalonians (the earliest
extant letter of Paul that we have), Paul seemed to be saying that the second
and final coming of the Lord was imminent, although he was careful not to
specify a particular time.
Apparently replying to further questions, Paul (or the
actual author) in this second letter does not repeat all that was said in the
first letter about what would happen to the living and the dead. What is being
written here is supplementary to Paul’s oral teaching and the instructions
contained in the earlier letter. All he is concerned with is to emphasise that
the Lord’s final coming is not imminent, and that it cannot take place till
certain specific signs have preceded it.
Although the Second Coming and its prelude is a major theme
of this letter, Paul warns the Christians:
…not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by
spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day
of the Lord is already here.
In other words, they are not to be alarmed by predictions
(false prophecies), rumours or spurious letters supposed to have come from Paul
suggesting that the “day of the Lord” is already on them.
“Shaken in mind” translates a verb often used of a ship
adrift from its moorings and suggests a lack of stability. Here it suggests a
kind of panic at the supposed imminence of the Lord’s coming. The Christians
are not to be deceived by such false alarms.
The expression “the day of the Lord” comes originally from
the prophet Amos (5:18). In the Old Testament, it is a time when God will come
and intervene with judgement and/or blessing. In the New Testament, the thought
of judgement continues, but it is also the ‘day of redemption’, the ‘day of
God’, or of Christ, and the ‘last day’, the ‘great day’ or simply ‘the day’. It
is the climax of all things. There will be some preliminary signs, but the
coming will be as unexpected as that of “a thief in the night”.
In the second and final part of the reading, the author
reminds the Christians to focus on the gospel which has been preached to them
and which has as its final purpose a sharing in the glory of Jesus Christ as
Lord:
[Jesus] called you through our gospel, so that you
may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Our gospel” is the gospel preached by Paul, Silas and
Timothy, that they themselves had received by faith. It is, of course, first of
all God the Father’s because it originates from him, and Christ’s because it
springs from his sacrificial death.
Let the Christians forget about worrying when this sharing
in glory will actually take place, and concentrate on living out the
“traditions”, i.e. the teachings which they had received from Paul and the other
Apostles, either orally or in writing. This refers to what Paul taught them
when he was in Thessalonica. Since he returned from there, what he had written
to them includes, in the message of the Good News, the principles on which a
Christian should lead his life.
Until the New Testament took its final form, essential
Christian teaching was passed on in the ‘traditions’ (a word which comes from
the Latin ‘to hand on’ or ‘hand over’), just as rabbinic law was, and it could
be either oral or written. The four Gospels which we have now are basically
built up from such written and oral ‘traditions’.
The passage ends with a lovely Pauline prayer, very similar
to one in the same place in the first letter and which also includes the words
“encourage” and “strengthen” (1 Thess 3:11-13). The prayer is for inner
strength that will produce results in both action and speech. It is a prayer we
could say often for each other and for all those we know and love (or
especially for those we find it difficult to love):
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God our Father, who loved us and through grace
gave us eternal comfort and good hope
comfort your hearts and strengthen them
in every good work and word.
At every age in the Church’s history, including our own,
there are people who are convinced that the ‘end of the world is nigh’ and that
Christ is coming in Judgement at any moment. Certain key periods, such as the
end of a century or, even more, the end of a millennium, have produced a
veritable rash of such warnings. So far, they have never proved accurate.
We would be better off listening to the advice of today’s
letter and focusing our energies on living out the gospel each and every day in
truth and love. This is the best possible preparation we can make for that time
which will come “like a thief in the night”.
And, as has been said more than once in these reflections, a
much more realistic end for us to consider is that of our own life than that of
the universe or our planet. In either case, however, the recommended advice is
the same: live the gospel day in and day out and the rest will take care of
itself.
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Commentary on
Matthew 23:23-26
We continue our reading of the ‘Seven Woes’ listed in the
commentary from Monday of Week 21. Today’s reading contains the fourth and
fifth ‘woes’.
4. …you tithe mint, dill and cumin… (vv
23-24)
In continuing his attack on Pharisaism, Jesus touches on two
issues which are certainly relevant to our Christian living today. First, he
attacks the mentality of those who are sticklers for tiny details of ritual or
doctrine while ignoring the fundamental issues of justice, compassion and good
faith. The Mosaic Law levied a tithe on agricultural produce. Some rabbis
scrupulously applied the law to the most insignificant of plants.
A strict Pharisee too would carefully filter his drinking
water in case he might swallow a small insect, which would be regarded as
unclean. But in being so careful of such minutiae, he might well overlook
matters of much deeper importance. Jesus is not criticising a conscientious
carrying out of rules and regulations, but it is the attitude of hypocritical
moral superiority which he attacks.
One can meet Catholics too who tie themselves in knots
trying to observe the most petty regulations and can end up becoming the
prisoner of scruples. What is more, they can be highly critical of others whom
they regard as ‘lax’. An example might be people who are more worried about not
having observed a full 60 minutes of fast before Communion than focusing on
what the wider implications of participating in the Eucharist really mean.
5. …you clean the outside of the cup and of the
plate… (vv 25-26)
The second point that Jesus makes is to criticise those who
concentrate on the tiniest details of external behaviour while totally ignoring
the inner spirit. There are certain Christians who speak and write at length
about all the things that are not being done right in the liturgy of the
Catholic Church, and who claim for themselves a level of doctrinal and moral
orthodoxy to which even Rome does not attain. Sometimes even the Pope does not
come up to their expectations.
What is striking about these people is the almost total
absence of a sense of love and compassion in their writings and actions. They
are only interested in ‘truth’ and ‘orthodoxy’, as if these things could exist
outside of the nitty-gritty of human living. They can be more concerned about
the tiniest rubrical details of the liturgy than about the Eucharist as truly a
sacrament of a loving community prayerfully centred on the Person of Christ.
On the outside, the behaviour is impeccable, but inside
there is a total lack of a true gospel spirit—the spirit of love and integrity,
of compassion and a sense of justice for all. Instead, there can be a heart
full of self-righteousness, criticism, anger, resentment or contempt for those
who do not think the same, all cloaked in this outer veneer of moral and ritual
rectitude.
The two attitudes are closely related and all of us can be
touched by them in one degree or another. Let him or her who has never
criticised another fellow-Christian cast the first stone!
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/
Tuesday,
August 25, 2026
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, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 23: 23-26
Jesus said:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint
and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without
neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the
camel! "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the
outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and
self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that
the outside also may be clean."
Reflection
The Gospel today presents two
other times when this expression is used: “Alas for you...” Jesus speaks
against the religious leaders of His time. The two uses today denounce the lack
of coherence between word and attitude, between exterior and interior. Today we
continue our reflection which we began yesterday.
•
Matthew 23: 23-24: The fifth “Alas for you...”
is against those who insist on observance and forget mercy. “You pay your tithe
of mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:
justice, mercy and fidelity.” This fifth “Alas for you...” of Jesus is against
the religious leaders of that time and can be repeated against many religious
of the following century even up to our time. Many times, in the name of Jesus,
we insist on details and forget mercy. For example, Jansenism reduces lived
faith to something arid, insisting on the observance and penance which led
people away from the way of love. The Carmelite Saint Therese of Lisieux grew
in the Jansenist environment which marked France at the end of the XIX century.
Beginning from a personal painful experience, she learned how to reclaim the
gratuitous of love of God, a force which should animate the observance of the
norms from within, because, without love, the observance makes an idol of God.
•
Matthew 23: 25-26: The sixth “Alas for you...”
is against those who clean things on the outside and are dirty inside. “You
clean the outside of the cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion
and intemperance.” In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus criticizes those who
observe the letter of the law and transgress the spirit of the law. He says,
"You have heard how it was said to our ancestors, ‘You shall not kill, and
if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court.’ But I say to you anyone
who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court. Anyone who
calls his brother ‘fool’ will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and anyone
who calls him ‘traitor’ will answer for it in hell fire. You have heard that it
was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ but I say this to you, if a man
looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his
heart” (Mt 5: 21-22, 27-28). It is not enough to observe the letter of the Law.
It is not sufficient not to kill, not to rob, not to commit adultery, not to
swear in order to be faithful to what God asks of us. The one who observes
fully the law of God is the one who, besides observing the letter, goes deeply
to the root and pulls out from within “the desires of extortion and intemperance”
which may lead to murder, theft, and adultery. The fullness of the law is
realized in the practice of love.
Personal Questions
•
There are two declarations of “Alas for you...”,
two reasons to receive criticism from Jesus. Which of these two applies to me?
•
Observance and gratuity: Which of these applies
to me?
•
Do these admonitions paint for me a bigger
picture of not only avoiding sin, but of internal purification and a life of
virtue?
Concluding Prayer
Proclaim God’s salvation day after day, declare His glory
among the nations, His marvels to every people! (Ps 96: 2-3)
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