Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. -Year C - Sunday, 24 August 2025 - (EPISODE: 544)
Readings for Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time.- Year C
FIRST READING: Isaiah 66:18-21
Psalm 117:1, 2. "Go out to all the world, and tell the good news."
SECOND READING: Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 14:6). Alleluia, alleluia! I am the way, the truth and the Life, says the Lord. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
GOSPEL: Luke 13:22-30
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Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year C - Sunday, 24 August 2025 - by clicking this link here:
Two versions - Brisbane Annual Catholic Campaign Mass and homily by Archbishop Mark: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-ep-544a/s-H55z5HYuAuL (EPISODE: 544a)
And
Ordinary Mass, with homily by Fr Paul: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-ep-544/s-pX1yNI0X008
(EPISODE: 544)
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This weekend, the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane holds its annual Catholic Appeal - your efforts support significant ministry in our local church.
• Help those in vulnerable situations through Centacare services
• Support the journey of Seminarians at Holy Spirit Seminary
• Provide for our unwell and retired priests through The Priests Foundation
• Help children in need access Catholic education via the Mary Mackillop Bursary Fund
• Help fund grassroots ministry through the Annual Grants Program.- a special homily by our Apostolic administrator – archbishop Mark Coleridge will feature in today's Mass –
(to support this excellent mission, visit "annual catholic campaign Brisbane" in your search engine or see the links provided
{or visit this link… https://bit.ly/3rYVR3l}
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PROLOGUE:
We can say with great confidence, "I am a member of the Christian faith. We can also say, I love Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and Saviour."
It's so important that we can say those two things. Since the readings this weekend make it clear, paper membership is not enough. We must know the shepherd and hold his values and show these values in our actions and attitudes.
On the last day, we will stand before God, the loving and merciful judge, who will know us so well, and he will not ask us how well we can recite the list of the Ten Commandments or other rules of the church. The Lord instead will judge us on how much we loved, as he loved. He will welcome those he recognises as his beloved children by the fruits of their lives.
This is a sobering message, but as we deepen our understanding and knowledge of the person of Christ, his gracious love and compassion, these are the things that bring us home to him. [FHL]
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HOMILY
The people listening to Jesus' parable, his own people, the chosen people of Israel, would have been very shocked by his message in today's Gospel. They would have said exactly what was on the lips of the people in the parable.
"But we ate with you. We heard your teaching. We are the chosen people of God."
"We have Abraham as our father, and the prophets as our divine inheritance. We are the saved people, privileged people of God's promise." The shocking reply that Jesus tells them about would be too awful for them to even contemplate.
"Sorry, I don't know you, and I don't know where you come from." The people would say, "what does he mean, 'I don't know where you come from?' We are his people. We come from the promised land."
But Jesus is really saying, very clearly and shockingly, this isn't enough. People from other nations and cultures who are not part of the chosen people, are welcomed into God's family and God's house ahead of those who have gotten very cozy and self-satisfied, presuming that their place in God's house is assured by simply being a member of the group. Jesus is warning everyone who follows him that a place in God's house is offered to all who respond, but it's to people who respond to his values and teachings and his invitation, irrespective of their background or culture.
It's a sobering reminder that we must constantly be open to God's surprising wisdom and never get self-satisfied, complacent, never take God for granted and the things God is offering us for granted. We must never fall for the trap of thinking that we've gotten the message and that we've got nothing new to learn about God's ways. Jesus, throughout the Gospels, constantly has to teach his disciples that they have an enormous amount left to learn, (a lifetime and beyond), about God's ways and wisdom.
Anyone who thinks they've already arrived at the fullness or near-fullness of what it means to be a member of God's family, a follower of Jesus, anyone who thinks they're living out the perfect example of what being a follower of Jesus should be, ought to be very humble and very careful. Discipleship in Christ demands constant vigilance, a humble openness of heart and mind, a willingness to have our attitudes challenged and changed by God's constant wisdom. Jesus also seems to be inviting us to be welcoming and have an ever-increasing group of people throughout the community, and the world, that we're open to, just as God extends this warm welcome to everyone.
To be a follower of Jesus is to be open and always ready to be surprised, respond differently to what God is doing. Being a faithful disciple of Christ also means being always alert to the dangers of taking our membership of God's family for granted or resting on our laurels. It's about being ready with an open mind and heart.
God will say, "I know you," when we have - through our lives and actions - shown that we really do truly know Jesus and at least start to comprehend the person, message and values of Jesus and his very, very different ways - by how we live it.
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References:
Homily Fr Paul W. Kelly
Image Credit- https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/6dXLBqcyLBVuRB6WuBH1/jesus-taught-his-disciples-make-every-effort-to-enter-through-the-narrow-door-because-many-i-tell-yo?ru=Paul-Evangelion
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Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year C -(Sunday, 24 August 2025) (EPISODE: 544 )
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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{{May Our Lord's empathy abide in you.}}
Coming together as brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pause and reflect upon our sins, in order to celebrate the Holy Eucharist.
Lord Jesus, you have revealed yourself as the way to the Father: Lord, have mercy//You have poured out on your people the Spirit of truth: Christ, have mercy//You are the Good Shepherd, leading us to eternal life: Lord, have mercy.//
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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Ps 117:1, 2. "Go out to all the world, and tell the good news."
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Luke 13:22-30). Alleluia, alleluia! I am the way, the truth and the Life, says the Lord. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
Memorial Acclamation
3. Save us, Saviour of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.
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PREFACE: Sundays Ordinary I
Eucharistic Prayer One
Communion side:
(theme variation: v3)
(welcome cycle- (welcome 1) Good evening/morning. Welcome to this Eucharist as we celebrate the NNN Sunday in SSSSSS. Please take a moment to welcome those around you. (Pause). Thank you. Could you please check to see that your mobile devices are switched off or turned to silent. Our Presider tonight/today is Fr…………………………. Please stand as we sing our entrance hymn: "________")
(pre+post variation: v1-short)
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{I gratefully acknoweldge and give thanks to God for your prayers at this time of prayer and reflection upon our God.}
Go in peace.(glorifying the Lord by your life)
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Archive of homilies and reflections: http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email: paulwkelly68@gmail.com
To listen to the weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks
You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by visting here:
Details relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly
Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)
Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)
"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins publishers.
Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993). (Sydney Australia).
Sung "Mass in Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.
"Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - In memory of William John Kelly (1942-2017) - Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Music by Paul W. Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.
"Quiet Time." Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.
"Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly. Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.
Sound Engineering and editing - P.W. Kelly.
Microphones: - Shure Motiv MV5 Digital Condenser. And (2024+) Rode Nt-1 + AI-1 Sound Mixer.
Editing equipment: -- MixPad Multitrack Studio Recording Software v10.49 (NCH Software).
NCH – WavePad Audio Editing Software. Masters Edition v 17.63 (NCH Software)
Sound Processing: iZotope RX 10 Audio Editor (Izotope Inc.)
Text transcription as per recorded podcast version is transcribed by TurboScribe.ai
{excellent, fast, and accurate transcription from voice to text – this is not a paid advertorial either! pwk}
[Production - KER - 2025]
May God bless and keep you.
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(episode 544a)
Homily by Archbishop Mark Coleridge for the Brisbane Annual Catholic Campaign this coming weekend:
HOMILY FOR THE ANNUAL CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN 2025
Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C
Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30
"Strive to enter by the narrow door ", says Jesus, "for many will try to enter and will not be able". Now that can sound daunting, because it seems to say that many won't make it. But Jesus doesn't say they will be excluded; he says they won't be able to enter by the narrow door. The poet Wendell Berry tells us why: "Because", he says, "you cannot pass beyond it burdened" (Sabbath V, 1985). If you're carrying a big burden, you simply can't pass through the narrow door. Therefore, if we want to pass through the narrow door, we have to leave our burdens behind or we need someone to lift them from us.
All are welcome to pass through the door, as the prophet Isaiah makes clear. "I am coming to gather all tongues and nations", he says in God's name – not just one or some but all. Jesus echoes the prophet when he says that "people will come from east and west, from north and south" to the feast in the Kingdom of God. So it's a feast that lies beyond the narrow door; and all are called to the feast. But they can come to the feast only through the narrow door; and they can't pass through the narrow door until they've left their burdens behind.
So what are the burdens we have to leave behind? For some of us it may be the pride and fear which lead us to exclude people, to shut them out because we judge them unworthy or dangerous. "Will only a few be saved?" Jesus is asked. This would've been a popular perception: that only a few virtuous people would be saved and most people who were sinners wouldn't be saved. But this isn't the way Jesus sees things. He knocks down the walls built by pride and fear, and he opens a vision of a feast to which all are called and from which there will be some surprising exclusions of those burdened by pride and fear. The Church is called to do the same, but that will require the kind of discipline of which the Letter to the Hebrews speaks: "The Lord disciplines those he loves", we are told. "Endure trials for the sake of discipline". Unburdening is hard work; it takes real discipline.
Other people, usually those excluded by the proud and fearful, are burdened by poverty, injustice, violence, frailty, disability or whatever; and they need to have these burdens lifted from them before they can pass through the narrow door. That's a crucial task of the Church: not to impose still heavier burdens but to lift the burdens that exclude many people from the feast. That too will require discipline, so that we can come to the feast ourselves.
The Annual Catholic Campaign is all about lifting the burdens so that as many as possible can pass through the narrow door and come to the feast.
The Campaign focuses on five of these works:
The MacKillop Brisbane Catholic School Fund which helps Catholic children from families in difficulty to have a Catholic education. It seeks to do now what St Mary MacKillop did years ago.
Holy Spirit Seminary which trains the priests of the future to be missionaries of mercy, going in search of the burdened and the lost whoever and wherever they may be.
The Priests Foundation which supports the pastors of the Church who have passed responsibility to others but who are still a vital part of the Church's life.
Centacare's Pastoral Ministries which reach out to lift the burdens through services like psychiatric counselling, family support, hospital chaplaincy and prison ministry.
Finally there is the Annual Grants Program which provides start-up support to creative grassroots ministries in the parishes and wider Catholic community. Each year grants are made to a wide range of initiatives in areas as diverse as service of the poor, youth ministry, faith education, and the teaching of prayer. The grants are not large but the fruits of these works are.
So this morning, I ask you to support the Annual Catholic Campaign – perhaps by making a regular monthly gift of an amount that means something to you, something more than loose change. Every dollar given will be carefully spent, I promise you – and spent for the purposes I've mentioned or the purposes which you specify when making the gift. The money isn't given to the Archdiocese; it's given to those we serve. It's not our money; it's their money. That's why we're very careful about how it's spent.
The Annual Catholic Campaign will help lift the burden from our own shoulders and from the shoulders of many others. It's a way of ensuring that as many as possible can pass through the narrow door and come to the feast of the Kingdom which God has prepared for all.
To support this excellent mission, visit "annual catholic campaign Brisbane" in your search engine or see the links provided
{or visit this link… https://bit.ly/3rYVR3l
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