Sunday, 17 August 2025 – Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year C - (EPISODE-543)

Readings for Sunday, August 17, 2025 - Twentieth Sunday of the Year.. Year C

FIRST READING: Jer 38:1-2ab, 4-6, 8-10

Ps 40:1, 2, 3, 17. "Lord, come to my aid"

SECOND READING: Heb 12:1-4

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Luke 12:49-53). Alleluia, alleluia! My sheep listen to my voice, says the Lord. I know them, and they follow me.

GOSPEL: Luke 12:49-53

jesus-says-from-now-on-there-will-be-five-in-one-family-divided-against-each-other-three-against-two?ru=Paul-Evangelion

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Please listen to the audio recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for the Twentieth Sunday of the Year.. Year C - Sunday, August 17, 2025, by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-ep-543/s-Y3EJNSvyffL - (EPISODE-543 )

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PROLOGUE:

We believe that the Lord is the King of Peace, the Lord of Love. His Kingdom values are about compassion, service, self-forgetting love, mercy and inclusion. Which is why this reading, this weekend, seems more than a little jarring.

Our Lord says, "I've come to start a fire, and oh how I wish it was blazing already." He warns then of divisions, even in the closest relations. But of course, it's not our Lord who desires division and strife. God wants harmony, God wants love.

Yet, the Lord needs to warn his followers that conflict in values will come, and they will lead to terrible persecution and estrangements. The price of peace would be to water down God's message, telling people what they want to hear instead of the truth, and that is unacceptable.

The values that Christ represents are life-giving and beautiful, and well worth the cost. [FHL]

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HOMILY:

Poor Jeremiah the prophet.

It could not get any worse for him. He's being faithful to God, and he is suffering for it terribly. The enemy is holding Jeremiah's people to siege.

There's no way out. God tells his faithful prophet, Jeremiah, this is what you must tell the people, and also tell the king. Surrender! Leave the city. If you don't, you will surely perish.

To say the least, this is definitely not what the king and his people want to hear. They want to keep resisting. They want to win. They want God to achieve what they want.

But Jeremiah will not tell them what they want to hear. There are plenty of others who will tell them what they want to hear, if not just to save their skin, or so as not to annoy, or to climb up the ladder of influence, or so they think.

Jeremiah, however, is faithful to God alone. He only speaks God's words, and he does so at an enormous cost.

So what do the king and his people do to Jeremiah for simply keeping his job faithfully? They say, let this prophet, this so-called prophet Jeremiah, be put to death. He is unquestionably disheartening the remaining soldiers in the city, and all the people too, by talking like this.

This fellow doesn't have the welfare of these people at heart, so much as it's ruin. It makes one wonder how often people have been accused of disloyalty, lack of care for the welfare of others, just because they see a major disaster coming, and try to stop it by saying the truth, by pointing out the danger. The problem for poor Jeremiah is that he can do nothing else but speak the truth, irrespective of the response he gets.

And so what happens? He gets thrown down a muddy well for his troubles, and sinks deep into the mud, and gets hopelessly stuck. He will die there unless someone helps him. As it is, someone does feel sorry for him, and manages to drag him out of that muddy well before he dies.

There's a name in the Bible for people who tell others what they want to hear, instead of the truth. They're called false prophets. False prophets get very short shrift from God.

Then we've got, by contrast, the likes of Jeremiah, who steadfastly and devoutly speaks God's word, in and out of season, irrespective of popularity. And it's irrelevant whether people want to hear it or not. He simply must speak the truth, and speaks it, without fear or favor.

But here's the thing, just as there are false prophets who tell people things they want to hear, even when the truth is different, there are also false critics. These people who go around telling people unpleasant things, and so-called telling things as they are, in a way that just divides and hurts people. These people are not necessarily real prophets either.

Just because they're getting rejected and causing divisions, doesn't mean that they're a true prophet. It would be a mistake to assume that too. There may be people walking around, even in this day and age, with a big kick-me sign on their back, and their words and behavior constantly provoke or invite rejection or uproar.

The test of whether a person is speaking God's words, like a prophet, is not that they're causing trouble, or having to hire a security guard. And the test of being a true prophet is not merely because they've ruffled everyone else's feathers. These people may just be self-defeating stirrers.

In modern terms, we call that someone who's just trolling others to get them fired up, or being passive aggressive. The true test of a prophetic person is consistency of their words and behavior with that of Christ and his kingdom. And that is consistency with Christ's whole picture of his kingdom, not just selectively chosen elements of Christ's message.

Jeremiah spoke what God asked him to speak, not just his own personal hobby horses. And he didn't speak just so that he could say, look, everyone hates me because I'm God's servant. No, there is a major difference.

Sometimes it's subtle too. I also think if we're tempted to be challenging, we ought to start, of course, with ourselves, and challenge and unsettle the deep-seated elements in our own lives first, such as pride, selfishness, enmeshment, that we can find in our own hearts before we start to try and change the world and get offside with others. Also, no matter how true something is, no matter how much we might want to fix up a situation or a person, if we do not act or speak with love, as Saint Paul says, it will do us no good whatsoever.

I doubt our words will have any effect if we spoke the truth without love. We must speak the truth in a loving way, in the true interests of others, and out of respect and love for that person. Also, another big error is true prophets are not self-proclaimed.

They're not self-appointed. And they've been throughout history, and even today, many people who do proclaim themselves to be prophets and appoint themselves to be prophets. But are they really? Really, I think we need to live the gospel more than go around pointing out errors.

Putting the gospel values into action in our lives is one of the greatest acts of discipleship and preaching we could possibly do. Proclaiming the gospel by our actions. It's always struck me that Jesus went around doing good and living the gospel.

Others were the ones following him, saying, why did you do that? Or, stop doing that. Jesus wasn't going around saying, why did you do that? Or stop doing that. It was his critics who were doing that.

Meanwhile, our Lord was active. He'd already moved on to the next project, or the next person, for the building up of the kingdom, and the next set of good works and actions. He did preach, that's for sure.

But even more than that, he acted. And mostly it was doing things, whilst the questioning and the criticism and the finger wagging was the other side of it, not Christ's side. Jesus is definitely not encouraging or desiring conflict.

He doesn't want to promote opposition and division. He simply knows that you can't be a fence-sitter in the kingdom of God. You're either with him, or you're against him.

So Jesus is declaring the sad reality, sad to him and sad for us, that he and the good news he's proclaiming, and the kingdom of God he's building up, will become like a lightning rod to all who hate what the kingdom represents. Despite Christ deeply desiring peace and love, he knows that people will line up on either one side or the other, which will create division, which he doesn't want, but knows will happen. This division that he's predicting, which is based on conflicting values, will even cut through traditional political, religious, or even family lines.

The irony and the tragedy of all of this is that the divisions Jesus was warning about are over values that we cherish so deeply, they're values worth fighting for. The divisions occurred because Jesus taught us to be gentle, to reach out to the outcast, and offer a hand of forgiveness to the sinner. The conflict and division occurred because Jesus was living that message of true peace and the fullness of the new image of God's kingdom, which included all people.

This led to the most violent opposition by those whose interests were not best served by Jesus's otherworldly view. Our Lord turned on its head the unjust and un-kingdom-like standards which kept some on the inner and many hopelessly on the outer, with no way of getting back in. Naturally, those who were inside were very happy and cozy.

They didn't care about those who were outside, and they didn't want them coming in, lest it affected their well-being. Of course they were going to oppose Jesus and his new world order. Those few who were inside wanted things to stay just as they were, thanks very much.

It was very cozy and profitable for them on the inside. No wonder our Lord went to great lengths to prepare his disciples for trouble. He taught them, be wise as serpents, but at the same time as gentle as lambs.

As Jesus reminds us in the gospel, neither family ties nor fear of submitting to rejection, ridicule or persecution should stand in the way of salvation, which comes from an uncompromising but costly proclamation of the good news, standing up for the truth as taught by Christ.**

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References:

Fr Paul W. Kelly

THE DAILY STUDY BIBLE. GOSPEL OF LUKE. (REVISED EDITION). BY WILLIAM BARCLAY.

Image Credit: https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/h1i3NmNR41IkQwlhSH3g/jesus-says-from-now-on-there-will-be-five-in-one-family-divided-against-each-other-three-against-two?ru=Paul-Evangelion

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PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL:

We offer up our prayers for the Church and for the world.

For the Church, that it will find ever more effective ways to convince us that we can do something about the ills of our world, we pray to the Lord.

For those in authority, that they may treat all those under their care with patience and compassion, we pray to the Lord.

For those among us who are suffering, that their example may inspire us to commit ourselves more deeply to the Lord's work, we pray to the Lord.

For our community, that it may be a sign to all of the unifying love of Christ, we pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died in God's love, that their witness may help us to live our faith, especially those for whom we now pray, we pray to the Lord.

God of mercy, in your compassion hear us and grant our petitions. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

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Twentieth Sunday of the Year.. Year C (Sunday, August 17, 2025) (EPISODE- 543)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (or/ The Lord be with You)

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My brothers and sisters, to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries, let us call to mind our sins.

Lord Jesus, you were lifted up to draw all people to yourself: Lord, have mercy//You shouldered the cross, to bear our suffering and sinfulness: Christ, have mercy// You open for your people the way from death into 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 40:1, 2, 3, 17. "Lord, come to my aid"

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Luke 12:49-53). Alleluia, alleluia! My sheep listen to my voice, says the Lord. I know them, and they follow me.

Memorial Acclamation

2. When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.

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PREFACE: Sunday Ordinary III

Eucharistic Prayer II

(pre+post variation: v2-short)

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{Many thanks for participating in this time of praise and reflection upon our loving 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

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Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:

"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).

- "Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - in memory of William John Kelly - 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 MV5 Digital Condenser (USB)

Editing equipment: NCH software - MixPad Multitrack Studio Recording Software

NCH – WavePad Audio Editing Software. Masters Edition v 12.44

Sound Processing: iZotope RX 6 Audio Editor

[Production - KER - 2025]

May God bless and keep you.

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Roman Catholic Reflections and Homilies

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Sunday, 17 August 2025 – Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year C - (EPISODE-543)

Image Credit- https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/h1i3NmNR41IkQwlhSH3g/jesus-says-from-now-on-there-will-be-five-in-one-family-divided-against-each-other-three-against-two?ru=Paul-Evangelion

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