Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection August 25, 2025

25th August 2025 (Monday)

Psalter: Week 1

Readings of the Day

First Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5, 8b-10

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. But your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Psalm 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b R.(see 4a)

R/. The Lord takes delight in his people.

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. My Sheep hear my voice, says the Lord, and I know them, and they follow me.

R/. Alleluia

Gospel: Matthew 23:13-22

At that time: Jesus said “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

Daily Gospel Reflection

Monday – 21st Week in Ordinary Time

Main Point: Hypocrisy is not a capacity but a weakness; it is not a virtue but a disease

1. We have a series of rebukes of Jesus against the Pharisees and Scribes. Why? For their hypocrisy. We can trace out some of the components of this hypocrisy: as leaders and teachers, they are supposed to be guides for the people.

2. They would show them the way to the kingdom and guide them on the same. Instead, with their empty knowledge and incongruent and dishonest life, they shut the kingdom. They themselves do not enter, nor allow others to enter. They even become a hindrance.

3. Then there is their shallow practice of religion: they convert someone to religion, but do not nurture and sustain them in the real converted life; instead, they make him worse than before.

4. They forget the essential truth that evangelisation is not a matter of adding to the number of believers. It is adding to the quality of life. Conversion is not a matter of changing one’s religion, but a matter of changing one’s person.

5. Further, their hypocrisy is seen in their falsity in twisting the practice of swearing to their advantage. Swearing by the gift on the altar and by gold in the temple would become more binding than the altar, the temple, God, and heaven. But in fact, it is the altar, temple, God, and heaven that give value to the gift and gold.

6. In contrast to this pharisaic hypocrisy, we have authenticity and integrity of life in the apostles and believers of the early church, depicted in the first reading from 1 Thessalonians 1. 2-10.

7. They were indeed men known for their “work of faith, a labour of love and steadfastness in hope”. They proved themselves to be “men of the word of God and faith”. They “turned to God to serve Him who alone is living and true”.

8. There is no use of volumes of reflection on the hypocrisy of those Pharisees and scribes. It is better to see the very same branches of hypocrisy well-spread in the present followers as well, especially the leaders and authorities.

9. Serious questions can be disturbing: whether we are opening wide the doors of the kingdom or shutting them? Are we guiding the people to God or misleading them away from God? Whether we diminish the sacredness of the holy altar, the temple, God, and heaven for monetary gains? Have we reduced the practice of religion to quantity and numbers?

My Practice: It is better to be simple followers than to be acclaimed guides who are foolish and blind.