Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection August 27, 2025
Wednesday – 21st Week in Ordinary Time
27th August 2025 (Wednesday)
Psalter: Week 1
Readings of the Day
First Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
You remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
Psalm 139:7-8, 9-10, 11-12ab R. (1)
R/. O Lord, you search me and you know me.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. Whoever keeps Christ’s word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.
R/. Alleluia
Gospel: Matthew 23:27-32
At that time: Jesus said “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
Daily Gospel Reflection
Wednesday – 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Main Point: The integrity of a person is harmony between the interior disposition and thought, and the exterior behaviour and action
1. The tirade of Jesus continues against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes. Before dwelling on their hypocrisy, we shall divert our attention to the person of Jesus himself. What makes him denounce it? Two reasons can be: one is his own integrity and honesty. The other is, he is completely free from self-interest or ulterior motives.
2. These make him intolerant toward hypocrisy. He cannot be at home and at ease with any lack of integrity. He feels disturbed and anguished. It is this integrity that makes him truthful and courageous. He not only feels bad and sad about hypocrisy but also speaks and acts against it. He is not afraid to displease them or become unpopular. For he has no other motive than upholding the truth and pleasing God.
3. Today, many are quite aware of the dominance of hypocrisy. It is their own and also that of others. But many are not honest and humble enough to accept it. Instead, they try to hide it or cover it up.
4. And many are also not ready and bold enough to denounce its prevalence in the persons or communities, or the system itself. They are afraid. The reasons can be many: they have their own loads of loopholes that can be tools for a counter-attack. Or, they are afraid of consequences that can be testing or penalising. Or, they are afraid of losing some favours.
5. But with integrity and a selfless motive, Jesus defies two notable ingredients of hypocrisy. One is a dichotomy between the exterior and the interior. They appear externally beautiful, like the whitewashed tombs, but are internally so ugly and unclean. Externally, they are so righteous, but internally, they are full of iniquity and falsity.
6. The second trace of hypocrisy is self-righteousness. This means they rate themselves better than others. They claim that they would not have resisted or killed the prophets of the old like their forefathers.
7. But actually, they are worse than those before. Because in their own time, they persecute and murder prophets like John the Baptist, and later Jesus himself. Further, so devoutly they build tombs and erect monuments in honour of the dead prophets. This is more to cover up their guilt and to project themselves as devout and just persons.
8. St Monica, the mother of St Augustine, was a person totally authentic. There were no traces of hypocrisy. She not only lived a life of integrity by herself but also converted her deviant son as well into a saint.
My Practice: No doubt there is much evil and hypocrisy. This is certainly worth denouncing and worth combating. But such criticism must proceed only from the integrity of life and a selfless motive
