Liturgy for Sunday, August 17, 2025

Texts taken from the booklet “On Your Word” July-August 2025

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)  – 4th week omitted

First Reading

From the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (Jer 38:4-6, 8-10)

In those days, the officials said to the king: “Let Jeremiah be put to death, precisely because he discourages the warriors who remain in this city and discourages all the people by saying such things to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of the people, but their harm.” King Zedekiah replied: “There he is, in your hands; the king can do nothing against you.” So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, a son of the king, which was in the court of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud. Ebed-melech went out from the palace and said to the king: “O king, my lord, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah, throwing him into the cistern. He will die of hunger in there, for there is no more bread in the city.” Then the king gave this order to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: “Take three men with you from here and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.”

The word of God.

Commentary on the First Reading

Being consistent and speaking in God's name always creates hostility and conflict around us. The prophets bear witness to this, and through their lives they highlight an indisputable fact: people do not like being told the truth, especially when it is uncomfortable and exposes the inconsistencies in their lives. To be prophets today, and to suffer the same fate as they did, it is not necessary to say anything extraordinary. Simply living consistently according to the values one believes in becomes a silent warning. This is how conflicts begin, along with attempts to silence these authentic voices. But we must not give in to fear: God will accomplish his work and will still reach the hearts of many.

Second Reading

From the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 12:1-4)

Brothers and sisters, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, and have laid aside everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely, let us run with perseverance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the one who initiates and perfects our faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider carefully the one who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your struggle against sin.

The word of God.

Commentary on the second reading

L Our lives are rich in events: some joyful and important, others more ordinary and monotonous, and still others painful. But amid this wealth of experiences, we must never lose sight of the emphatic invitation of the Letter to the Hebrews: always keep the goal before us, which is Jesus Christ, toward whom we must keep our gaze fixed. When the path ahead is clear, every event takes on meaning and enriches us. Conversely, if this clarity is lacking, all the experiences we have are like wayward fragments that only contribute to making our existence chaotic.

Gospel

From the Gospel according to Luke ( Lc 12,49-53)

At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already blazing! I have a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on, if there are five people in one family, they will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

The word of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel

Jesus’ attitude toward the imminent death that awaits him demonstrates the richness of his divine and human heart. He knows that the Father’s love for all people will lead him to the cross, where the marriage between heaven and earth will be celebrated definitively. But his heart is filled with understandable anguish, which will manifest itself especially on the eve of his Passion, as he will reveal in Gethsemane; there Jesus will ask the Father to take that cup away, if possible. It is precisely this richness of feeling that makes Christ feel so close to our hopes and fears each day and makes us sense his merciful compassion.