26 July 2025 – Saturday of Week 16
26 July 2025 – Saturday of Week 16
Memorial: Ss Joachim and Anne, grandparents of Jesus. Special readings: Lect 11:1115. See bottom of this page.
Link to Catholic Grandparents Association: https://www.catholicgrandparentsassociation.org/
1st Reading: Exodus 24:3-8
Moses offers sacrifice, and the people accept the book of the covenant
Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, “See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Responsorial: Psalm 49:1-2, 5-6, 14-15
R./: Offer to God a sacrifice of praise
The God of gods, the Lord,
has spoken and summoned the earth.
From the rising of the sun to its setting
out of Zion’s perfect beauty he shines. (R./)
‘Summon before me my people
who made covenant with me by sacrifice.’
The heavens proclaim his justice,
for he, God, is the judge. (R./)
Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God
and render him your votive offerings.
‘Call on me in the day of distress.
I will free you and you shall honour me.’ (R./)
Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30
Parable of the weeds sown among the wheat
Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
A Covenant of Justice
Exodus ends with the “Book of the Covenant,” which is the very heart of the Mosaic Torah. In a solemn ceremony presided over by Moses, the the covenant union between God and the people is celebrated. A little later in the chapter, a sacred meal is added to signify the same result, a lasting bond between God and the people. This symbolism is repeated, with some modification, in our Eucharistic service. Over the chalice the priest repeats Jesus’ words: “This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.”
Today’s gospel advises patience and hope in face of wrongdoing by others. If weeds are detected in a wheat field and the prophet-servants want to go out and pull them up, the master says, “No! If you pull up the weeds and you might take the wheat along with them.” It is not that God tolerates evil forever, but allows plenty of time for the harvest to be properly brought home.
The tolerant farmer
The farmer (who sowed wheat seed in a field) had a different outlook from that of his servants. When weeds appeared among the wheat the servants wanted to dig up the weeds so as leave only pure wheat. The farmer’s instinct was different. In a sense, he was more tolerant of the weeds. He suggested letting both wheat and weeds grow until the harvest time, and then they can be separated. A patient man; he knew he would get his wheat without the weeds eventually. Meantime, he could let them be.
Jesus seems to be saying something here about ours attitudes too – and about our church and all the individual disciples in it. He seems to be acknowledging that the church will be a mixture of the good and the not-so-good up until the end of time, when all that is not of God will disappear.
As individuals, we too are a mixture of light and shade until we are fully conformed to the image of God’s Son in the next life. Yes, we are all the time trying to grow more fully into God’s Son. Yet, we have to accept that sin will always be part of our lives, this side of eternity. Like the farmer in the parable, the Lord is patient with us. We need to be patient with ourselves and with each other. This is not complacency; it is simply the realistic recognition that we are all a work in progress. God has begun a good work in our lives, and even if it is not perfect in this life, God will bring his good work to completion in eternity.
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July 26. Saints Joachim and Anne |
1st Reading: Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 44: 1, 10-15
Their name lives on for all generations
Let us praise illustrious people,
our ancestors in their successive generations.
Here is a list of generous men
whose good works have not been forgotten.
In their descendants there remains
a rich inheritance born of them.
Their descendants stand by the covenants
and, thanks to them, so do their children’s children.
Their offspring will last for ever,
their glory will not fade.
Their bodies have been buried in peace,
and their name lives on for all generations.
The peoples will proclaim their wisdom,
the assembly will celebrate their praises.
Responsorial: Psalm 131: 11, 13-14, 17-18
R./: God will give him the throne of David, his father
The Lord swore an oath to David;
he will not go back on his word:
‘A son, the fruit of your body,
will I set upon your throne.’ (R./)
For the Lord has chosen Zion;
he has desired it for his dwelling:
‘This is my resting-place for ever,
here have I chosen to live. (R./)
‘There David’s stock will flower:
I will prepare a lamp for my anointed.
I will cover his enemies with shame
but on him my crown shall shine.’ (R./)
Gospel: Matthew 13:10-17
Many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see
Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: ‘You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn — and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.
Jesus had grandparents
For a vivid 2nd-century account of the Virgin Mary’s parents and her earliest days, see the Protevangelium of James. This devotional text is worth reading on the feast. While the account is clearly legendary, formed in deliberate parallel to some biblical prototypes, and borrowing themes from the Gospel Infancy Narratives, it probably contains elements of early oral tradition, to help us form a mental picture of the kind of family life lived by Jesus’ grandparents. The childlessness and anguish of the elderly couple, Joachim and Anna, are vividly described in the opening paragraphs:
“Joachim was very grieved, and went to consult the registers of the twelve tribes of the people, saying: “I will see whether I am the only one not to have procreated in lsrael.” He searched and found that all the righteous in lsrael had raised up posterity. He called to mind about the patriarch Abraham, how at the very end God granted him a son, Isaac. And Joachim was very grieved, and did not come into his wife’s presence but he retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying to himself: “I will take neither food nor drink until the Lord my God looks upon me, and prayer will be my food and drink.”
Anna his wife mourned twice as much, and doubly lamented, saying: “I will grieve for being a widow as well as being childless.” But … though she was still very grieved, she put off her mourning garments and washed her head, and put on her finery and went down to the garden to walk. There she saw a laurel tree, under which she sat and said this prayer to the Lord, “O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as you blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son, Isaac.”
As preparation for the homily, one might browse the rest of the Protevangelium, which was read with devotion by many generations of Christians, to indicate the special circumstances surrounding Our Lady’s birth, according to pious early tradition.