August 25, 2013

USCCB »  Bible »  Daily Readings

« August 24  |  August 26 »

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time 
Lectionary: 123

Reading 1IS 66:18-21

Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.
I will set a sign among them;
from them I will send fugitives to the nations:
to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan,
to the distant coastlands
that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory;
and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.
They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations
as an offering to the LORD,
on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries,
to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD,
just as the Israelites bring their offering
to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.

God reveals that the pagans and gentiles will repent of their sins and turn to Him.

Responsorial PsalmPS 117:1, 2

R. (Mk 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.

It is by the Catholic Church's proclamation of the Gospel throughout the world that the Gentiles and pagans have turned to God.

Reading 2HEB 12:5-7, 11-13

Brothers and sisters,
You have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:
“My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges.”
Endure your trials as “discipline”;
God treats you as sons. 
For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?
At the time,
all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,
yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. 
Make straight paths for your feet,
that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.

Remember what Scriptrue says: 

Phil 4:13, I can do all things in Christ my strength.

No matter how bad things look right now, God is always with us.  God does not forsake us.  In this world, we will have trouble (John 16:33).  But Christ is our strength.  He has overcome the world and with Him, we can also be victors:

Romans 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

GospelLK 13:22-30

Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him,
“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”
He answered them,
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate,

In my opinion, Christ is here revealing that there are two doors into heaven.

The first is the front door.  Straight in.  No stops no turns.  It is the narrow door.  Only a few people can go in this door at one time.

The second is, Purgatory.  It is a  wide door.  Most of the people that finally make it to heaven will go in through this door which does not go directly into heaven.  But stops first in Purgatory for a bath of purification with eternal fire.  Then, after the sins are burned away, then the soul is permitted into heaven.

for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door,
then will you stand outside knocking and saying,
‘Lord, open the door for us.’
He will say to you in reply,
‘I do not know where you are from.
And you will say,
‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’
Then he will say to you,
‘I do not know where you are from.
Depart from me, all you evildoers!’
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
For behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last.”

Those who are last but enter first are the Gentiles and pagans who turned to God in Christ and drank from the fountain of grace which is the Catholic Church, and therefore entered in the Kingdom of Heaven, without doing any work, so to speak.