Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection August 11, 2025

11th August 2025 (Monday)

Psalter: Week 3

Readings of the Day

First Reading: Deuteronomy 10:12-22

Moses spoke to the people, saying “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and the statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God had made you as numerous as the stars of heaven

Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20 (R. 12a)

R/. O Jerusalem, glorify the Lord!

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. God has called us through the Gospel, to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

R/. Alleluia

Gospel: Matthew 17:22-27

At that time: As the disciples were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the twodrachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” And when he said, “From others”, Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. However not to give offence to them, go to the lake and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

Daily Gospel Reflection

Monday – 19th Week in Ordinary Time

Main Point: We are tax-free but duty-bound! True it is we are free children of God, freed from all the taxes and wages of sin, but at the same time, so long as we are on this earth, we are bound by some duties on the earth

1. We are children of God. He has specially chosen the people of Israel as His own. With a mighty hand, He delivered them from the slavery of alien nations. With justice, He executes justice for the poor and the deprived. With love, He takes care of the sojourners with food and clothing. And with mercy, He condones and forgives all their iniquities. With generosity, He blesses them with abundance and prosperity.

2. Now we are the new Israel. We are free children, for, through Jesus, we are made sons and daughters of God and the heirs of the kingdom. We are no more aliens or strangers but God’s own. But as we are the citizens and heirs of heaven, we become aliens and sojourners to this earth.

3. Here rises the question of tax pay in the gospel, whether Jesus and his disciples should pay the taxes to the Roman government or not. In the legal sense, they are tax-bound because in this world we are only sojourners and heaven is our real homeland.

4. But in the spiritual sense, tax can stand for the wage and weight of sin. As redeemed people, we are freed from sin, and thus we are tax-free. In this sense, the passion and resurrection prediction in the first part of today’s gospel, Matthew 17. 22 f. can be better understood as connected to the second part of tax-pay.

5. However, while still on earth, we are duty-bound by some external duties toward the earth and society. Seen in this perspective, paying of tax or following some laws and duties of the land is not a matter of subjugation. Rather, all of them will be pointers and indicators of our being sojourners on this earth.

6. If we are free children and heirs of heaven and sojourners toward the heavenly kingdom, how then to conduct our life here and now? The first reading from Deuteronomy 10. 12-22 gives us the answers.

7. We shall fear the Lord our God. We shall circumcise our hearts and no longer be stubborn. We shall serve Him and cleave to Him. We shall love Him with whole heart and soul. We shall walk in all His ways, adhering to His commandments and statutes.

8. St Clare, the founder of the Poor Clares, whom we commemorate today is a living sacrament of such a life through her austerity, piety, and charity

My Practice: Live in this world, with a sense of duty towards heaven. However, this will not make us evasive or negligent. It will rather make us more dutiful, for one who is faithful to the highest duty will also be faithful to the smaller duties