The Great Banquet in the Sky:
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025
August 24, 2025
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Isaiah 66:18-21; Psalm 117; Hebrews 12:5-13; Luke 13:22-30
The Gospel presents us with another hard saying of Jesus about who will be saved and who will be cast out. We certainly do not want to hear his chilling words, “I do not know where you are from.” Yikes. It seems that it is important for us to know Jesus in this lifetime – not just his words or Scripture, but the man himself. We do that through prayer and conversation, and we all need to feel more secure in this relationship.
I have heard many statements from people expressing their desire to be a good Catholic. They have much good will and heartfelt intention in their wish to be a holy disciple. Sometimes they get caught up in the mechanics of the faith – doing the rosary, praying a personal devotion, receiving the sacraments often, fasting, wearing certain clothing or placing their hands in a certain position, and it is important to remember that we cannot earn salvation. Our good works alone are not enough. Faith goes together with those works, and we are called to perform works of mercy out of care and compassion. Is being a good Catholic the same as the Kingdom of Heaven? In the passages preceding this Scripture, Jesus is describing qualities and characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven, which gives us a glimpse of our images of God.
What does our faith require? Well, first we must come to know the personal Jesus. We receive him in the sacraments, we say our proper prayers, we obey church teachings, and yet, we must develop a friendship with him. It is not always lovey-dovey, feel good. Like today, he has some hard sayings and high expectations. He has feelings just as we do, and he can see beyond our misgivings because he is practiced in forgiveness. We come closer to his way of life when we forgive ourselves, forgive others, and reconcile those broken areas that plague us. This reconciliation is challenging work and we resist it at times, but it is the tough love that he wants us to do. We may need to seek out a spiritual director to modify our prayer life.
Our faith is never individualized or a private practice. We cannot earn salvation on our own because we are bound to community. We cannot work on our perfection while neglecting the needs of those around us. The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that we must care for the widows and orphans, welcome the foreigner, provide for those on the edge of society, and treat everyone with mercy. We are to seek justice and walk humbly with God while being slow to anger, rich in charity, and full of understanding. Jesus reminds us that our salvation is based on how well we take care of the least among us. When did I see you naked, alone, afraid, hungry, without satisfaction? We cannot enter the narrow gate without tending to the needs of others. Also, as we add social sins, our national and international failings, we realize we must do a better job.
This reading reminds us that we will be surprised at who sits and eats at the heavenly table. Those we think do not have a chance may very well have a seat. Since we can never be sure, let us do our best to live gratefully, to be kind to others, to bring love to those places where our hearts are hardened, to those areas that we keep closed. Jesus is going to help us to live joyfully because he wants each of us to be with him now and in the future. Let us count our blessings, to recognize that everyone around us suffers and has unmet needs, and we can be a little more patient with ourselves and with others. From the God I know, I feel quite consoled because you will be seated at that great eschatological table of plenty. I hope I am there to enjoy it with you.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (1 Thessalonians 1) For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction. You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake. In every place your faith in God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.
Tuesday: (1 Thessalonians 2) You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our reception among you was not without effect. Rather, after we had suffered and been insolently treated, as you know, in Philippi, we drew courage through our God to speak to you the Gospel of God with much struggle.
Wednesday: (1 Thessalonians 2) Working night and day in order not to burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the Gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers.
Thursday: (1 Thessalonians 3) What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you,
for all the joy we feel on your account before our God? Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith.
Friday (1 Thessalonians 4) This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality, that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion as do the Gentiles who do not know God.
Saturday (1 Thessalonians 4) Nevertheless we urge you, brothers and sisters, to progress even more, and to aspire to live a tranquil life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.
Gospel:
Monday: (Matthew 23) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
Tuesday: (Matthew 23) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
Wednesday (Matthew 23) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,
but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.
Thursday (Matthew 24) Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.
Friday (Mark 6) John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Saturday (Matthew 25) A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one–to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
Saints of the Week
August 24: Bartholomew (First Century), according to the Acts of the Apostles, is listed as one of the Twelve Disciples though no one for sure knows who he is. Some associate him with Philip, though other Gospel accounts contradict this point. John's Gospel refers to him as Nathaniel - a Israelite without guile.
August 25: Louis of France (1214-1270) became king at age 12, but did not take over leadership until ten years later. He had eleven children with his wife, Marguerite, and his kingship reigned for 44 years. His rule ushered in a longstanding peace and prosperity for the nation. He is held up as a paragon of medieval Christian kings.
August 25: Joseph Calasanz, priest (1556-1648), was a Spaniard who studied canon law and theology. He resigned his post as diocesan vicar-general to go to Rome to live as a pilgrim and serve the sick and the dying. He used his inheritance to set up free schools for poor families with children. He founded an order to administer the schools, but dissension and power struggles led to its dissolution.
August 27: Monica (332-387) was born a Christian in North Africa and was married to a non-Christian, Patricius, with whom she had three children, the most famous being Augustine. Her husband became a Christian at her urging and she prayed for Augustine's conversion as well from his newly adopted Manichaeism. Monica met Augustine in Milan where he was baptized by Bishop Ambrose. She died on the return trip as her work was complete.
August 28: Augustine, bishop and doctor (354-430), was the author of his Confessions, his spiritual autobiography, and The City of God, which described the life of faith in relation to the life of the temporal world. Many other writings, sermons, and treatises earned him the title Doctor of the church. In his formative years, he followed Mani, a Persian prophet who tried to explain the problem of evil in the world. His mother’s prayers and Ambrose’s preaching helped him convert to Christianity. Baptized in 387, Monica died a year later. He was ordained and five years later named bishop of Hippo and defended the church against three major heresies:Manichaeism, Donatism, and Pelagianism.
August 29: The Martyrdom of John the Baptist recalls the sad events of John's beheading by Herod the tetrarch when John called him out for his incestuous and adulterous marriage to Herodias, who was his niece and brother's wife. At a birthday party, Herodias' daughter Salome danced well earning the favor of Herod who told her he would give her almost anything she wanted.
This Week in Jesuit History
- August 24, 1544: Peter Faber arrived in Lisbon.
- August 25, 1666: At Beijing, the death of Fr. John Adam Schall. By his profound knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, he attained such fame that the Emperor entrusted to him the reform of the Chinese calendar.
- August 26, 1562: The return of Fr. Diego Laynez from France to Trent, the Fathers of the Council desiring to hear him speak on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
- August 27, 1679: The martyrdom at Usk, England, of St. David Lewis, apostle to the poor in his native Wales for three decades before he was caught and hanged.
- August 28, 1628: The martyrdom in Lancashire, England, of St. Edmund Arrowsmith.
- August 29, 1541: At Rome the death of Fr. John Codure, a Savoyard, one of the first 10 companions of St. Ignatius.
- August 30, 1556: On the banks of the St. Lawrence River, the Iroquois mortally wounded Fr. Leonard Garreau, a young missionary.
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