A Life on Fire: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025

A Life on Fire:

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 

August 17, 2025

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Jeremiah 38:4-10; Psalm 40; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53

 

We must be aware of whom we associate because we want friends and family to nourish us and to call us to be our best. Listen to what happened to Jeremiah. The princes spoke with evil intent and claimed Jeremiah was demoralizing the soldiers and the townspeople. These princes were not honorable men and meant harm for many, not just Jeremiah. A righteous man petitioned the king to rescue Jeremiah from the cistern for he realized the prophet spoke well and was sincere. Hebrews then talks about the cloud of witnesses who are part of our support system, and Jesus, in the Gospel, speaks about purifying the hearts of those who are righteous and sustaining them with zeal and passion.

 

Who is in your cloud of witnesses? We have friends and acquaintances who are good people. Do they feed you with passion and make you come alive? We need people who make us better and call us to live our God’s dreams for us. We are sometimes in relationships that drain us or are convenient or are dictated by others on their own terms and there is no mutuality. It may require a lot of time and energy to sustain those relationships. Think about it this way: A dead battery cannot jump another dead battery. Stay away from people who cannot charge your spirit when you need a jump. This is the passion and zeal that Jesus requires of us in our faith. 

 

We must consider whether we need a jumpstart in our faith or with relationships. Many people at this time of year make spiritual retreats so that they know God or their spiritual director listens to their story. It is helpful to get some time in silence with a professional who can direct your prayer patterns. Spiritual direction is another ministry within the church to help people discern the voice of Jesus amidst the cacophony of other competing voices. Spiritual guides help people discern the movement of good and evil spirits that vie for one’s attention. We have people who are skilled in pastoral counseling. In a nutshell, we have a great cloud of witnesses at our disposal to keep us committed and passionate.

 

I often ask retreatants to watch a video called, “Celebrating What’s Right with the World,” in which there is a scene where a young boy with a toy camera filled with orange juice accompanies a seasoned National Geographic photographer on his quest to capture a magnificent shot. When the older man exclaims to the young boy that he is satisfied with his work, the boy asks, “But does your camera have juice?” The man is startled by the question and left unbalanced, and he recognizes that in his work, he must always be supplied with the juice. The same goes for us. We need to be juiced, jumpstarted, jolted in our faith every once in a while. It sometimes means making bolder decisions about our relationships or the work we do. Do I do it with juice? Do I reach for God’s greater glory? Do I seek the best I can be? 

 

Surround yourself with those who can help you be your best self. Move away from those who complain all the time or drag you down. Many people will help you to be your best. Jesus wants passion. Jesus wants your wholehearted commitment. Jesus want you to discern how to make the most of your time and energy. Let’s remember the words spoken by Pope Leo upon his election: “God cares for us. God loves all of us, and evil will not prevail. We are all in God’s hand. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, let us move forward.” 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Judges 2) The children of Israel offended the LORD by serving the Baals. Abandoning the LORD, the God of their fathers, who led them out of the land of Egypt,
they followed the other gods of the various nations around them, and by their worship of these gods provoked the LORD.

 

Tuesday: (Judges 6) Gideon said to him, “My Lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are his wondrous deeds of which our fathers told us when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’

 

Wednesday: (Judges 9) "Hear me, citizens of Shechem, that God may then hear you!
Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves. So they said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us.' But the olive tree answered them, 'Must I give up my rich oil, whereby men and gods are honored, and go to wave over the trees?'

 

Thursday: (Judges 11) “If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,” he said, “whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the LORD. I shall offer him up as a burnt offering.”

 

Friday (Ruth 1) Once in the time of the judges there was a famine in the land; so a man from Bethlehem of Judah departed with his wife and two sons to reside on the plateau of Moab. Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons, who married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other Ruth.

 

Saturday (Ruth 2) Naomi said to her, "Go, my daughter," and she went. The field she entered to glean after the harvesters happened to be the section belonging to Boaz of the clan of Elimelech. 

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 19) “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good.
If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

 

Tuesday: (Matthew 19) “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”

 

Wednesday (Matthew 20) The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.'

 

Thursday (Matthew 22) The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed.

 

Friday (Matthew 22) "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.

 

Saturday (Matthew 23) The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.

 

Saints of the Week

 

August 18: Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, S.J., priest (1901-1952), was a Chilean Jesuit priest, lawyer, writer and social worker who was born in the Basque region in Spain. He established Hogar de Cristo, that housed at-risk children, whether orphaned or not, and provided them food and shelter. Hurtado also supported the rise of labor union and labor rights in Chile.

 

August 19: John Eudes, priest (1601-1680) preached missions, heard confessions, and assisted the sick and dying. He founded a new religious order for women, which includes Our Lady of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters. He eventually left the Oratorians to found the Congregation of Jesus and Mary.  

 

August 20: Bernard, Abbot and Doctor (1090-1153) became a Benedictine abbey in Citeaux because of its strict observance. He was sent to set up a new monastery in Clairvaux with 12 other monks. He wrote theological treatises, sermons, letters, and commentaries that dominated the thought of Europe. His writings had a tremendous influence of Catholic spirituality.

 

August 21: Pius X, pope (1835-1914), was an Italian parish priest for 17 years before he became bishop of Mantua, the cardinal patriarch of Venice, and eventually pope. He urged frequent communion for adults, sacramental catechesis for children, and continued education for everyone. He is known for rigid political policies that put him at odds with a dynamically changing world that led to World War I.

 

August 22: The Queenship of Mary concludes the octave of the principal feast of Mary as she celebrates her installation as queen and mother of all creation. This feast was placed on our calendar in 1954 following the dogmatic proclamation of the Assumption. 

 

August 23: Rose of Lima (1586-1617) was the first canonized saint of the New World. She had Spanish immigrant parents in Lima. Rose joined the Dominicans and lived in her parents' garden to support them while she took care of the sick and the poor. As a girl, she had many mystical experiences as she practiced an austere life. She also had many periods of darkness and desolation.

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• August 17, 1823: Fr. Van Quickenborne and a small band of missionaries descended the Missouri River to evangelize the Indians at the request of the bishop of St. Louis. On this date in 1829, the College of St. Louis opened. 
• August 18, 1952: The death of Alberto Hurtado, writer, retreat director, trade unionist and founder of "El Hogar de Christo," a movement to help the homeless in Chile. 
• August 19, 1846: At Melgar, near Burgos, the birth of Fr. Luis Martin, 24th General of the Society. 
• August 20, 1891: At Santiago, Chile, the government of Balmaceda ordered the Jesuit College to be closed. 
• August 21, 1616: At Pont a Mousson in Lorraine died Fr. William Murdoch, a Scotchman, who when only 10 years of age was imprisoned seven months for the faith and cruelly beaten by the order of a Protestant bishop. St. Ignatius is said to have appeared to him and encouraged him to bear the cross bravely. 
• August 22, 1872: Jesuits were expelled from Germany during the Bismarckian Kulturkampf. 
• August 23, 1558: In the First General Congregation, the question was discussed about the General's office being triennial, and the introduction of Choir, as proposed by Pope Paul IV, and it was decreed that the Constitutions ought to remain unaltered.