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The Word today, 15C

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July 14 - July 19, 2025


St Camillus of Lellis, priest


Exodus 1:8-14, 22 For the next three weeks almost, the lectionary offers readings from Exodus, including such passages as the Ten Commandments. We start today with the story of the oppression Israelites in Egypt—a common human story of aggression towards the immigrant—not unknown in our Irish experience!


Matthew 10:34-11:1 This passage can surprise and even offend. The sword, however, is not the sword of judgment but the sword of decision, as the following verses show.


St Bonaventure, bishop and doctor


Exodus 2:1-15 The story of Moses’ birth is told with delicious irony—the daughter of the Pharaoh appoints the child’s own mother as wet nurse. Moving quickly on, the adult Moses commits a crime and has to run away.


Matthew 11:20-24 In these difficult days, it is good to be aware that even Jesus himself met with refusal and rejection. His reaction may seem harsh, but it is in the line of prophetic invective, a kind of last chance call to repentance.


Our Lady of Mount Carmel


Exodus 3:1-6, 9-12 Genuine encounters with the divine can never be “told” in ordinary words and so it is that Moses’ encounter with the mysterium tremendum et fascinans must be given in symbol. Fire—both material and somehow immaterial or spiritual—is both attractive and awesome, inviting and dangerous. Tomorrow we hear the second part of the burning bush.


Matthew 11:25-27 The importance of this reading could hardly be exaggerated. It belongs with the baptism and the transfiguration, revealing something of the inner life of Jesus. At the same time, it is an invitation to us all, to be open to God’s self-disclosure in Jesus, in all simplicity and trust.



Exodus 3:13-20 We are about to hear an extra-ordinary passage, a passage of signal importance of the Jewish people and of great import for the Christian tradition. The name of God—I AM WHO I AM or YHWH— comes from the verb to be. In Jewish tradition, this holy name is never spoken out loud. In Christian tradition, we speak of God as “holy Being who lets be” (John Macquarrie). It is all, of course, deeply mysterious, yet liberating and even practical.


Matthew 11:28-30 In Jewish tradition, the Torah or the Law was regarded as a (very) welcome yoke, that is, guidance which you help the faithful plough a straight furrow in life. Jesus’ yoke or burden is, in addition, easy and light.



Exodus 11:10-12:14 Our reading from Exodus has moved quickly on and today we hear the instructions for the Passover. This memorial celebration kept alive in all subsequent generations not just the memory of the Exodus but the actual experience of it.


Matthew 12:1-8 Reading this passage, one could be naughty and ask what were the Pharisees doing in cornfield on the Sabbath!! This is Matthew’s version of a familiar story from Mark. He brings out the meaning even more strongly with this addition: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.



Exodus 12:37-42 Our image today is that of a people on the move. A pilgrim people, liberated from oppression, travels while the Lord himself keeps vigil over them.


Matthew 12:14-21 The historical Jesus did, of course, encounter opposition. (He could hardly have said what he said and done what he did and escape severe criticism.) The historical Jesus may very well have grasped his destiny of suffering in the light of the prophets, and in particular in the light of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah, as in our reading.


References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2025bj, July 13). Fifteenth Sunday in ordinary time. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071325.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings


 
 
 

The Word today, 14C

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July 07 - July 12, 2025


St Maelruain, bishop and abbot


Genesis 28:10-22 This is the story of Jacob’s “ladder”, which appealed so much to artists. Jacob finds himself between securities, and he is somehow more open to the divine, the presence of God, as a result.


Matthew 9:18-26 This is Matthew’s brisk telling of a story familiar from Mark. The “sandwich” technique here creates suspense: he can heal the sick, but can he raise the dead?


St Kilian, bishop and martyr


Genesis 32:23-33 Jacob is returning from his uncle Laban but faces the danger of his brother Esau. At this stage, he is still the “old” Jacob, sacrificing family apparently for his own well being. He has a mysterious encounter with a heavenly being and undergoes a conversion signalled by the change of name from Jacob to Israel.


Matthew 9:32-37 A sinister note is registered in the first paragraph of this reading. After that, Jesus the healer brings people God’s compassion.


St Augustine Zhao Rong and his Companions, Martyrs


Genesis 41:55-57; 42:5-7, 17-24 Joseph had been ditched by his brothers but eventually had come to high office in Egypt. There are lots of ironies in the story as they beg help from the brother they almost murdered. Even at the end, Joseph weeps privately—an unusually intense moment.


Matthew 10:1-7 The Twelve were a symbol of Jesus’ mission to Israel, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. This focus of Jesus ministry becomes really clear in the last paragraph.



Genesis 28:10-22 Today we hear one of the most thrilling narratives from the book of Genesis. The unrecognised Joseph interrogates the brothers who caused his exile — so full of pathos and irony that Joseph cannot contain himself. The very last line is immensely forgiving, after all they had done to him.


Matthew 10:7-15 Jesus empowers his apostles with the very same mission he had himself. This entails travelling light, as itinerant preachers. It may also bring rejection as it did for Jesus. The action with the sandals is a prophetic gesture conveying end-time judgement and thus a final appeal not to miss the moment of grace.


St Benedict, abbot and co-patron of Europe


Proverbs 2:1-9 For the feast, we interrupt the readings from Hosea and read from Proverbs. Where can we find wisdom, truth, virtue, justice, understanding and fear of the Lord? According to Proverbs—and later according to St Benedict and many other holy men and women—these things are to be found by taking the Word of the Lord to heart.


Matthew 19:27-29 The Gospel—chosen for the feast—is really about those who have followed Jesus in leaving behind all “sensible”, “normal” forms of security and happiness for the sake of the Good News.



Genesis 49:29-33,50:15-26 We arrive today at the closure of the book of Genesis with not one but two departures. Jacob, wily old patriarch comes to a pious end; Joseph, beloved son and victim also come to to the end of his life. His passing leads to the sojourn of the Israelite in Egypt and so the end of the book of Genesis takes us to the start of the book of Exodus.


Matthew 10:24-33 Under the general heading of the mission discourse, disparate sayings are offered, reflecting a variety of concerns. Sometimes, the word is threatening; other times, it is consoling. A sense of anxious urgency hangs over the whole teaching.


References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2025bf, July 6). Fourteenth Sunday in ordinary time. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070625.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings


 
 
 

The Word today, Peter and Paul, DayC

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June 30 - July 05, 2025


The First Martyrs of the See of Rome


Genesis 18:16-23 This very human way of describing God might seem “primitive” but the spirituality behind it is anything but primitive. Abraham intercedes and his intercession is effective in reducing God’s intended wrath. Of course we are very uncomfortable with aspects of the story; nevertheless, the daring intimacy of Abraham, effectively calling God back to his merciful self, can still speak to us today. We too can dare to be intimate because we know in Jesus just how loving and merciful is our heavenly father.


Matthew 8:18-22 The conditions of discipleship are daunting and, yet, the stories are unfinished and open-ended.


St Oliver Plunkett


Genesis 19:15-29 The story of Lot’s wife and the pillar of salt has entered into popular imagination and no doubt reflects a folk explanation for the columns of salt around the Dead Sea. This, however, is not the main point of the reading. It is a frightening story of punishment, from which Lot barely escapes. No looking back!


Matthew 8:23-27 Again, we have a kind of symbolic story, mirroring the experience of the early church and the church of today. How often have we felt like crying out, Save us, Lord, we are going down!



Genesis 21:5, 8-20 Although Ishmael really was indeed Abraham’s son, nevertheless domestic rivalry leads to the shocking expulsion of Hagar and her child. Fortunately, God takes the side of the refugees and, indeed, of Abraham himself.


Matthew 8:23-27 This extraordinary story works on more than one level. In Jewish tradition, pigs are ritually unclean. The demons ask for permission to reside in them, but it turns out to be only a stay of execution. The victory of Jesus over evil is total.


St Thomas, apostle


Eph 2:19-22 This short reading is rich in resonance: it presents the Christian life as a home coming (something most of us have experienced), a being built into a house of God.


John 20:24-29 It is interesting that this story survives in p o p u l a r m e m o r y a s “ d o u b t i n g Thomas.” And yet, the central point is his tremendous faith and confession: my Lord and my God.


St Elizabeth of Portugal


Genesis 23:1-4,19, 24:1-8, 62-67 We have a very human moment on today’s reading: Abraham loses his beloved Sarah and Isaac loses his mother. Rebekah—a fateful character in the stories of Isaac and Jacob—enters the narrative.


Matthew 9:9-13 The call of Matthew inspired a very famous painting by Caravaggio. It is dramatic and the subsequent scene is electrifying. The risk will be that we may think of ourselves as the virtuous whereas we are really among the sinners.


St Antony Mary Zaccaria, priest


Genesis 27:1-5,15-29 This is wonderful narrative—but diffcult: an aged father is cruelly deceived. The paradox is that even through what is done seems awkward, the blessing goes to the right person. In Genesis, the second born (Israel) is preferred to others (the nations), just as God preferred Israel over the surrounding empires.


Matthew 9:14-17 A constant question in religion is how much of the old to hold on to and how open we should be to the times we live in. Jesus resolved this tension is favour of newness and innovation.


References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2025bd, June 29). Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062925-Vigil.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings


 
 
 
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