Gospel: July 28, 2025
July 28, 2025 (Monday)
17th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 1 (Green/Red)
St. Pedro Poveda, priest & martyr
Ps 106:19-20, 21-22, 23
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
1st Reading: Exodus 32:15-24, 30-34
Moses then returned and came down from the mountain carrying in his hands the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets written on both sides, back and front. These tablets were the work of God and the writing graven on the tablets was the writing of God. When Joshua heard the noise of the people who were shouting he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.” But Moses answered, “It is not a victory song, nor the cry of defeat that I hear, but the sound of singing.” When he drew near to the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burst forth and he threw down the tablets he was holding, shattering them at the foot of the mountain. Then he seized the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, grinding it into a powder that he scattered over the surface of the water, and this he made the Israelites drink. Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you that you brought such a great sin on them?” And Aaron said, “Don’t let your anger be roused. You know these people and how evil they are. They said to me: ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ I then said to them that whoever had gold was to give it over to me. I threw it in the fire and out came this calf!” The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a very grave sin, but now I am going up to the Lord; perhaps I will obtain pardon for your sin.” So Moses went toward the Lord and said, “Ah! These people have committed a very great sin; they made a god out of gold. And now please forgive their sin… if not, blot me out of the book you have written.” The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out from my book. Go now! Lead the people where I told you. My angel will walk before you and on the day of punishment I will punish them for their sin.”
Gospel: Matthew 13:31-35
Jesus offered them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is smaller than all other seeds, but once it is fully grown, it is bigger
than any garden plant; like a tree, the birds come and rest in its branches.” He told them another parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast that a woman took, and hid in three measures of flour, until the whole mass of dough began to rise.” Jesus taught all these things to the crowds by means of parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. This fulfilled what was spoken by the Prophet: I will speak in parables. I will proclaim things kept secret since the beginning of the world.
Reflection:
“We are impatient people.”
Today’s parables all describe how the presence of God’s Kingdom can seem very slight or might even go unnoticed, and yet, its capacity to transform a person or a situation is immense, just as a small amount of yeast transforms the dough or a small seed becomes a tree to give birds shade and shelter. This change takes time, and so we need patience to see the effects of God’s grace at work in our lives. But we are impatient people. The Israelites have no patience, and so, while waiting for Moses to return from the mountain, they decide to make a god out of gold so that they can worship something they can see and control. They couldn’t even wait for Moses to return with the Law of God before rejecting the Lord and fashioning a calf of molten metal. If they didn’t have the patience to wait to receive the Law, they wouldn’t have the perseverance to see that Law bear fruit in their lives either. Do we have the patience to wait on the Lord and on his grace or are we too quick to forget his wonders?
