The Word today, 22C
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- Aug 30
- 3 min read
September 01 - September 06, 2025
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 St Paul is answering a question of the Thessalonians: when our Lord comes again will those already dead be at a disadvantage? The response uses two kinds of language: apocalyptic and relational. It is likely that the second, relational language will speak more directly to us today.
Luke 4:16-30 Luke expands a simple, historical incident into a great tableau, thus furnishing a key to the whole Gospel, from the proclamation to Jesus through the inclusion outsiders to his death and resurrection in the Holy City.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11 The Thessalonians also had a second question: when will the end be? Paul is cautious and uses a series of metaphors: (i) a thief in the night: the second coming is unpredictable; (ii) giving birth: the Lord’s coming is inevitable; (iii) helmet and breastplate: how will we prepare. (This verse is omitted in the lectionary should be restored—this is always allowed.)
Luke 4:31-37 Following yesterday’s tableau, Luke shows us Jesus a prophet, powerful in word and deed.
St Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, doctor
Colossians 1:1-8 In this opening thanksgiving, we hear something of the life of the church in Colossae, in modern-day Turkey. We learn that Paul was not the teacher of the Colossians, but a certain Epaphras.
Luke 4:38-44 In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is help up mainly as a prophet. But his original in God is not forgotten. It falls to the demons— whose know their catechism—to remind us of the deep identity of Jesus.
St Mac Nissi, bishop
Colossians 1:9-14 How will the Colossians feel as they hear this passage? It is always a pleasure to know that someone is praying for you.
Luke 5:1-11 The call stories in Mark and Matthew are stripped of all human interest and even psychological probability, leaving the sovereign call of Jesus to stand out. However, in this great story, Luke furnishes us with a reason for the “yes” of Peter and the others. Luke also does not want us to leave the miracle in the past; instead he wants to us ask, what experience of Jesus drew me in the first place and what experience of Jesus today keeps me “in” right now?
St Teresa of Calcutta
Colossians 1:15-20 Today we hear the most famous passage in the letter to the Colossians. It is just amazing that such profound claims are made about a Galilean peasant preacher, executed by the Romans as a criminal, only a short time before.
Luke 5:33-39 The Jesus revolution was also a revolution of received ideas and practices. The great “novelty” of the Gospel—God’s untrammelled compassion and eager love—calls for novelty in how we “practice” the faith, even today. Yes, the old is good, but even more so is the new.
Colossians 1:21-23 In this reading, “foreigners and enemies” means really non-Jews or Gentiles. Now that all the Gentiles—including us today—have been included in salvation, a certain way of life is expected of us.
Luke 6:1-5 We could be bold here and ask what were the Pharisees themselves doing in a cornfield anyway on the Sabbath day? That would be to miss the point: Jesus has authority, even over the Sabbath—a mighty claim, given that the Sabbath was traced to creation itself and to the Ten Commandments.
References
-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2025bx, August 31). Twenty-second Sunday in ordinary time. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/083125.cfm
-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings
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