Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection August 03, 2025
Sunday – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
03rd August 2025 (Sunday)
Psalter: Week 2
Readings of the Day
First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. Sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17 R. (1)
R/. O Lord, you have been our refuge, from generation to generation
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Brethren: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
R/. Alleluia
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
Sunday – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Main Point: Intelligence, knowledge, competence, wealth, position, and fame are no guarantees of wisdom. They can often lead one to vanity and shallowness
1. In the gospel, Jesus narrates a parable of a rich fool. The parable of the rich fool is not just one story among many, narrated by Jesus. But it is a live story because there are many such fools today, and none of us is exempt from such foolishness to some degree or other.
2. It is not a soft lesson but a serious warning! It is not only the fate of the rich man in the parable but the fate of each present fool. Jesus is evident and stern: “It is the fate of those who are rich in the sight of the world, but not in the sight of God”.
3. Just imagine the miserable fate of the rich fool: He toiled so hard but could not enjoy the fruits of his labor; he made fantastic plans but did not have the future to implement them; he had abundance for generations but had no life to enjoy it; he had the intelligence to acquire for the passing world but failed to procure for the eternal life; he thought all for himself to possess and enjoy but had to leave to others to own and enjoy.
4. How similar is the life and fate of many in our times! So many are slaves to money and pleasure. So many spend their whole time and energies with the least concern for family and good human relationships. So many scorn the right values for the sake of profit and self-interest. So many defraud and cheat to amass wealth and to maintain shallow and false status and dignity. So many are much bothered about the temporary and temporal, but neglect the spiritual and eternal. Are these not traces of folly?
5. How to eliminate such signs of folly? Grow wise. First and foremost, realise that the worth and beauty of life do not consist in greedy accumulation or material abundance, or economic affluence. Rather, life is beautiful and meaningful in the richness of heart, in the abundance of goodness, in the growth in virtues, in the orientation toward heaven and eternity. Not goods but good, not greed but the need for good, should be the motto of life.
6. St Paul reminds us clearly, “The Kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but peace and righteousness” (Rom 14. 17). Jesus too challenges us squarely: “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world but lose the soul” (Mt 16. 26), for, nothing can be equal to the well-being and saving of the soul.
7. Now, how to grow wise? The answer, too, is given in the parable: “Become rich in God’s sight”. Become acceptable and pleasing to God. It is better to obey and surrender to God rather than succumb to evil. The answer is quite straightforward in the Wisdom spirituality: “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 1. 7). So the more one has a loving reverence towards God, the more one becomes wise. The more devotion increases, the more wisdom increases. The more spirituality, the less temporality.
8. Therefore, the crucial reason for the misery of today’s society is very clear: on one hand, the increase of greed and materialism; and the decrease of God and altruism, on the other hand. Let us not evade the issue or find temporary solutions or shallow remedies in worldliness. The only solution, remedy, and antidote is God and good!
My Practice: Those who set their hearts on higher things will also live higher lives. To be practical and to be concerned about the present life does not mean to be earth-bound and to be guided by lesser motives
