XXI Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C)  [24 August 2025]

May God bless us and the Virgin protect us. It is useful in these times to reread these biblical texts in light of what is happening in the Middle East.

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (66:18-21)

The prophets speak in the name of God, and their listeners know this well, but when they want to emphasise the importance of their statements, they remind them that these are the very words of the Lord, and therefore something very important. In this passage, there are at least two great announcements: the universal dimension of God's plan, 'I will come to gather', and the role of the small remnant of believers, 'the survivors', those who have escaped and who, amid general discouragement, preserve their faith.  While the first Isaiah or Micah (8th century BC) announced only the salvation of the 'little remnant of Israel', during and after the exile (6th century) Israel discovered the universal dimension of God's plan and learned to consider its election not as an exclusive privilege but as a vocation. This is a new discourse because it highlights the missionary role that God entrusts to Israel in the service of all humanity, the universal dimension of God's plan: "I will gather all nations and all languages" and even more surprising: "they will come and see my glory" (v. 18). The term glory indicates the splendour of God's presence (literally in Hebrew 'weight'). God does not need us to glorify him; rather, it is we who become happy when we live in a covenant of love with him. "They will see my glory" means recognising Him as the only God, freeing humanity from all forms of idolatry. And the text continues: "I will send their survivors to the farthest nations... these messengers will proclaim my glory among the nations... they will bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord... to my holy one in Jerusalem" (v. 20). Here is the fulfilment of the vocation of the chosen people: to be a light to the nations, so that salvation may reach to the ends of the earth (cf. Is 49:6). This is also the vocation of the Church, the people of God called to bear witness to the truth of God in the world, even if it does not replace Israel: to proclaim the glory of God to all peoples, to bear witness to the Gospel that enlightens life: 'I will put my sign upon them' (v. 19), and in this light we understand what Jesus will say: 'When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself' (Jn 12:32). The last sentence is a third important announcement: not only will the peoples draw near to the Lord, but 'I will take priests and Levites from among them' (v. 21), which means that the usual conditions for the priesthood will no longer be required and every human being can draw near to the living God. We can understand why, a few verses before this Sunday's reading, Isaiah invited all those who love Jerusalem to rejoice because the Lord will make "peace flow towards it like a river, and the glory of the nations like a torrent" (Isaiah 66:10-12).

Some notes *St Augustine writes: 'Who would be so foolish as to believe that God needs the sacrifices offered to him? The worship given to God benefits man and not God. It is not the source that benefits us if we drink from it, nor the light if we see it' (The City of God, X, 5-6).

*In Third Isaiah (the prophet after the exile), we find the theology of the "saving remnant," of which we read a trace in Psalm 39/40: "Many will see and fear and trust in the Lord" (Ps 39/40:4), which can be compared to the announcement we find here in Isaiah (vv. 20-21). 

*In the Bible, nations are not always spoken of in a positive way, and the term is sometimes loaded with decidedly negative meanings: The book of Deuteronomy, for example, speaks of the "abominations of the nations" (18:9-12) because of their religious practices in general and human sacrifices in particular. In biblical pedagogy, the chosen people are guided to remain faithful to God, to discover the face of the one God, avoiding all contact with nations at risk of idolatrous contagion. This positive vision is already present in Abraham: "All the families of the earth shall be blessed in you" (Genesis 12:3). With firmer faith, Israel will discover the universalism of God's plan, gradually understanding that it is the older brother, not the only child, with the role of opening the way to its God for all humanity: if God is the only true God, he is the God of all.

Responsorial Psalm 116/117

This psalm is shorter than the psalter and could be summed up in a single word: Alleluia, the last word of the psalm, but also the first, since Praise the Lord (v. 1) is equivalent to Alleluia: 'Allelu' is an imperative: Praise, and 'Ia' is the first syllable of God's name. The purpose of the entire psalter, which means 'Praises' (in Hebrew Tehillim), derives from the same root as Alleluia. Here is the rabbis' commentary on Alleluia: 'God has led us from slavery to freedom, from sadness to joy, from mourning to celebration, from darkness to splendour, from slavery to redemption. For this reason, we sing Alleluia before him." "God has led us from slavery to freedom": this is what God has done for his people, but it is also God's plan for all humanity. The salvation of his people is the beginning and promise of what God will do for all humanity when he announced to Abraham: "All the families of the earth will be blessed in you" (Gen 12:3). Solomon had already dreamed of this: 'All the peoples of the earth will recognise your name and worship you, as your people Israel do' (1 Kings 8:41-43; cf. the first reading). Hence the structure of this psalm, which is very simple but evocative: 'Praise God' (v. 1); "For he has shown his love" (v. 2). Looking more closely, we read: "Praise God, all you nations" (v. 1); For his work on behalf of his people: "For he has shown his love for us". Here the "for" is very important: when the nations see what God has done for us, they will believe. In other words, because God has proven himself by saving his people, other nations will be able to believe in him. The same reasoning is found in Psalm 39/40 (20th Sunday of the year C) where the psalmist says: "God has brought me out of the pit of death... seeing this, many will fear and put their trust in the Lord" (Ps 39/40:4). Similarly, Psalm 125/126 sings of the exile in Babylon: "Then it was said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them'" (Ps 125/126:2). This idea is found several times in the prophets: when the people are in misfortune, other nations may doubt God's power. It is in this sense that Ezekiel dares to say that the exile in Babylon is a disgrace to God and even goes so far as to say that the exile of God's people "desecrated" God's name, while liberation, on the contrary, will be proof of his liberating power before all. This leads him to proclaim, in the midst of the Babylonian exile: "I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them; then the nations shall know that I am the Lord... when I have shown my holiness in you before their eyes" (Ezekiel 36:23; 36:36). Recognising God's Name in biblical language means discovering the God of tenderness and faithfulness revealed to Moses (Ex 34:6): tenderness and faithfulness that Israel has experienced throughout its history. This is the meaning of the second verse of the psalm: "His love for us is strong, and the Lord's faithfulness endures forever."  One final observation: this psalm is part of the Hallel (from Psalm 112/113 to 117/118) and occupies a special place in the liturgy of Israel because it is recited after the Passover meal. Jesus himself sang it on Holy Thursday evening, and the Gospels of Matthew and Mark echo it (cf. Mt 26:30; Mk 14:26). We too can repeat: "He has shown his love for us" by listening to Jesus: "No one has greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (Jn 15:13) and "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).

Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (12:5-7, 11-13)

The recipients of the Letter to the Hebrews, Christians going through a period of severe persecution, have already suffered greatly for their faith, as is clear in chapter 10:32-34. To console them and instil courage, the author tells them not to forget the exhortation addressed to them and delves into the Old Testament, taking up what the prophet Isaiah said to his compatriots exiled in Babylon: "Strengthen your limp hands and your weak knees" (v. 12). He speaks to them as if they too were living in exile and addresses the problem of suffering not to justify or explain it, but to give it meaning. He calls for perseverance, an indispensable virtue in times of trial when God, like a Father, shows his love even in seemingly absurd ways. The dominant image is therefore that of the pedagogical father of God present in the wisdom literature of the Bible, where suffering can become a journey, a test of the believer's faith, who knows that, whatever happens, God is silent, but is neither deaf nor indifferent. On the contrary, like a father, he accompanies us on this difficult path and helps us to emerge stronger from every evil. What you endure is therefore a 'correction' with references to the book of Proverbs: 'Do not despise the Lord's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, for the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father disciplines the child he delights in' (Pr 3:11-12). This theme was familiar to the early Christians, who knew well the book of Deuteronomy, which compared God to a teacher who accompanies the growth of those he educates (cf. Dt 8:2-5). Lived in trust in God, suffering can become an opportunity to bear witness to the hope and inner peace that the Spirit gives. Suffering can thus become a school in which we learn to live in the Spirit everything that happens because, as St. Paul writes, tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance a proven virtue, and proven virtue the hope that does not disappoint thanks to the love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:3-4). Suffering is therefore part of the human condition: even in such a situation, God entrusts us with the honour and responsibility of bearing witness to the faith, and if persecution is part of the journey of life, it is not because God wants it, but for reasons linked to human behaviour. When Jesus said that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer, he was not speaking of a demand from God, but of the sad reality of human opposition. St. Paul, addressing the early communities in Asia Minor, which were also persecuted, reminded them that we must enter the Kingdom of God through many tribulations (cf. Acts 14:22).

From the Gospel according to Luke (13:22-30)

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and, visibly, does not miss an opportunity to teach, but what he says is not always what one would expect. Here, for example, someone asks a question concerning salvation, and he does not answer directly: 'Lord, are there few who are saved?' (v. 23). The answer does not concern who will be saved, as if there were those who were chosen and those who were excluded in advance, but what is the condition for entering the kingdom: to pass through the door! "Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able to" (v. 24). The image of the narrow gate is evocative and eloquent: someone who is excessively obese or laden with bulky packages cannot pass through a narrow gate unless they undergo a drastic weight-loss programme or decide to abandon all their baggage. The text that follows allows us to understand what spiritual obesity is and what baggage prevents us from passing through.  Knocking at the door, they will say, 'We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets' (vv. 25-26). Here Jesus denounces the self-assurance of his interlocutors, who are convinced that, simply because they were born of the chosen people, they are entitled to salvation and that the door will open for them. Jesus, however, points out that the door is the same for everyone, so why will they not be able to pass through it? Indeed, the master will specify: "I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you who practise lawlessness' (v. 27). It is true that Jesus is one of them, that he ate and drank with them and taught among them; it is true that their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets are in the Kingdom of God, but all this does not give them any rights. Spiritual obesity and burdensome weights are their certainties: they do not welcome the kingdom of God as a gift, convinced that they have rights. Then the last sentence becomes clear: 'there are those who are last who will be first, and there are those who are first who will be last' (v. 30). The first in God's plan, as St Paul says, are the children of Israel, to whom belong adoption, glory, the covenants, the Law, worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and it is from them that Christ was born. (cf. Rom 9:4-5). The Jewish people are the people of the Covenant by God's sovereign choice, as we read in Deuteronomy: 'The Lord did not set his heart on any nation but your own, to be his people, as he promised to your ancestors and as he promised to you, because you were the people who were a stony ground and a dry rock, where no one lived, and he brought you out of the desert to give you a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey' (Deut 10:15). And with good reason, the people of Israel were happy and proud to be chosen by God, as it is said in Psalm 32/33: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Blessed are the people he has chosen as his inheritance... We wait for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. The joy of our hearts comes from him, and our trust is in his holy name." (Ps 32/33:12, 20-21). But, like every vocation, God's choice is a mission: the first ones invited to the kingdom had the task of bringing all humanity into it, as Isaiah reminded us several times (cf. Is 42:6; 49:5-6) so that salvation might be achieved for all. When Jesus speaks, they reject his teaching because it disturbs their certainties and their self-satisfaction, and when Jesus tells them to go away because they are doing evil, he does not mean evil actions, but refers to this closure of the heart. Shortly before, he had healed a sick woman in a synagogue on the Sabbath, and instead of rejoicing at her healing, they criticised the place and the time. This same spiritual obtuseness and selfish view of faith can mark our lives as Christians. By closing our hearts to Grace, we become blind and spiritually obese because, like some of Jesus' contemporaries who were closed in their certainties, we fail to recognise him and follow him as the Messiah. Pope Francis repeated that a closed heart does not hear the voice of God nor recognise the face of our brothers and sisters. Let us therefore accept the Lord's invitation to remove hardness from our hearts, so that we may receive the gift of a heart of flesh: only in this way will we be able to understand his will and proclaim his Gospel with joy.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole