Faith and Hope:
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025
August 10, 2025
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Wisdom 18:6-9; Psalm 33; Hebrews 1:1-19; Luke 12:32-48
The instructions this week have to do with the nature of faith. Faith is the complete trust or confidence in God or in God’s promise of salvation. Wisdom tells us of the blessings of faith, that those who patiently endured difficult times would receive God’s justice while adversaries would find punishment. In Hebrews, we get the Bible’s clearest definition of faith: Faith is the realization of what is hope for and evidence of things not seen. The author then outlines how the founders of our religion demonstrated their faith. Faith has a future, unfulfilled aspect to it.
Sometimes people die before one’s faith is answered. Abraham died before he could see his numerous descendants. Moses died before he could see the Promised Land occupied and settled. The reading from Hebrews tells us that there is always a future reality to our faith. We are a “now, and not yet” people called to live in a faith today that might be fulfilled after our time on earth has passed. This is what faith is all about. It is trusting that in the end, all will be okay. Faith provides us with a sense of purpose and direction, guiding us through challenges and uncertainties in life. It is tied closely to hope because faith is the actualization of our hopes. Faith becomes the foundation for hope, and it keeps us in relationship with God, whose actions are seen in a time not of our making.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel that faith require vigilance. It requires that we are not passive; we are to remain active and engaged and ready to accept God’s invitations. Faith is not sitting back and letting things happen. The Gospel tells us about the one who did not prepare well or was ignorant of doing what was right. Jesus calls us to be clever and vigorous in find out what God wants and then acting in accord with God’s desires. We cannot leave it up to other people.
Reflect for a moment. What do you hope for? What do you think faith will take care of in your life? In your death? How much do you trust in God? Faith is trust that God’s promises will come about on earth. Faith is realizing that God loves you unconditionally and that there is nothing you can do to prevent that. No sin that you have done, no failure to love, no amount of anger or addiction or mental illness, nothing that you have ever said or done can ever remove that love. You have this love for life, and it is not up to you. You cannot prevent it, so please accept it. So, faith is living in this freedom from worry or judgment.
Living one’s faith is knowing that there is no limit to God’s expansive love and forgiveness. No limit. So, please forgive yourself. If you are open to transform your life and make it much richer, more trusting, you will experience the powerful effects of forgiveness. You will understand it in ways you have not yet imagined. Forgiveness is a divine gift to humans, and we must unleash the power of the love that is contained within forgiveness. If we can experience receiving the radical power of God’s love, we can unleash a new force of love that still remains unknown and untapped. Teilhard de Chardin spoke about it well in his quote about the energies of love. He writes, “The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, humans will have discovered fire.”
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Deuteronomy 10) Moses said to the people: "And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul,
to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good?
Tuesday: (Deuteronomy 3) When Moses had finished speaking to all Israel, he said to them, "I am now one hundred and twenty years old and am no longer able to move about freely; besides, the LORD has told me that I shall not cross this Jordan. It is the LORD, your God, who will cross before you.
Wednesday: (Deuteronomy 34) The LORD then said to him, "This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I would give to their descendants. I have let you feast your eyes upon it, but you shall not cross over."
Thursday: (Joshua 3) Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know I am with you, as I was with Moses. Now command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant to come to a halt in the Jordan when you reach the edge of the waters.
Friday (Revelation 11) God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet.
Saturday (Joshua 24) Fear the LORD and serve him completely and sincerely. Cast out the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling.
Gospel:
Monday: (Matthew 147 As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were overwhelmed with grief.
Tuesday: (Matthew 18) If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
Wednesday (Matthew 18) If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Thursday (Matthew 18) Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
Friday (Luke 1) The Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
Saturday (Matthew 19) "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." After he placed his hands on them, he went away.
Saints of the Week
August 10: Lawrence, deacon and martyr (d. 258) was martyred four days after Pope Sixtus II and six other deacons during the Valerian persecution. A beautiful story is told about Lawrence's words. When asked to surrender the church's treasure, Lawrence gathered the poor and presented them to the civil authorities. For this affront, he was martyred. He is the patron of Rome.
August 11: Clare, founder (1193-1253), was inspired by Francis of Assist so much that she fled her home for his community to receive the Franciscan habit on Passion Sunday 1212. She lived in a nearby Benedictine convent until she was made superior of a new community in San Damiano. She practiced radical poverty by wearing no shoes, sleeping on the ground, and giving up meat.
August 12: Jane Frances de Chantal, religious (1572-1641), founded the Congregation of the Visitation with her spiritual advisor, Francis de Sales. This congregation was for women who wanted to live in religious life, but without the austerity of the other orders. Jane was married to a Baron with whom she had six children and she sought religious answers to her suffering. Her order established eighty-five convents dedicated to serving the poor before she died.
August 13: Pontian, pope and martyr and Hippolytus, priest and martyr (d.236). Pontian's papacy was interrupted by a persecution when the Roman Emperor Maximinus arrested him and his rival, Hippolytus, and banished them to Sardinia. Pontian resigned so another pope could succeed him. Hippolytus, who formed a schismatic group and claimed to be the real pope, reconciled with the church before he and Pontian were martyred.
August 14: Maximilian Kolbe, priest and martyr (1894-1941), was born in Russian-occupied Poland. He entered the Franciscans in 1910 and preached the gospel with his devotion to Mary in Poland and Japan. When the Nazis conquered Poland in 1939, he ministered to thousands of refugees. He was arrested, sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. When a prisoner escaped and retaliation was sought, Kolbe offered himself to replace one of the ten randomly chosen men to be executed.
August 15: The Assumption of Mary is the principal feast of Mary with her Queenship celebrated at the end of the octave. This feast celebrates that she was taken up to heaven, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life. The Council of Ephesus in 431 proclaimed her Mother of God and devotion of her dormition followed afterwards.
August 16: Stephen of Hungary (975-1038) tried to unite the Magyar families and was able to establish the church in Hungary through Pope Sylvester II's support. Rome crowed Stephen as the first king in 1001 and he instituted many reforms in religious and civil practices. He built churches and trained local clergy.
This Week in Jesuit History
- August 10, 1622. Blessed Augustine Ota, a Japanese brother, was beheaded for the faith. He had been baptized by Blessed Camillus Costanzi on the eve of the latter's martyrdom.
- August 11, 1846. The death of Benedict Joseph Fenwick. He was the second bishop of Boston, twice the president of Georgetown, and the founder of the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.
- August 12, 1877. The death of Fr. Maurice Gailland. He was an expert in languages and spent many years at St Mary's Mission in Kansas. He wrote a 450.page dictionary and grammar of the Potawatomi language.
- August 13, 1621. The death in Rome of St John Berchmans. He died while still in studies, preparing for a public disputation.
- August 14, 1812. Napoleon I and his army arrived at Polosk, in White Russia. They plunder the property of the Society and violate the tombs of the Generals.
- August 15, 1821. Fr. Peter DeSmet sailed from Amsterdam to America. He hoped to work among the Native Americans. He became the best known missionary of the northwest portion of the United States.
- August 15, 1955: The Wisconsin Province was formed from the Missouri Province and the Detroit Province was formed from the Chicago province.
- August 16, 1649: At Drogheda, Cromwell's soldiers shot Fr. John Bath and his brother, a secular priest, in the marketplace.
