Gospel: August 3, 2025
August 3, 2025 (Sunday)
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 2 / (Green)
Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 & 17
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts
1st Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
2nd Reading: Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd spoke to Jesus, “Master, tell my brother to share with me the family inheritance.” He replied, “My friend, who has appointed me as your judge or your attorney?” Then Jesus said to the people, “Be on your guard and avoid every kind of greed, for even though you have many possessions, it is not that which gives you life.” And Jesus continued, “There was a rich man, and his land had produced a good harvest. He thought, ‘What shall I do, for I am short of room to store my harvest? Alright, I know what I shall do: I will pull down my barns and I will build bigger ones, to store all this grain, which is my wealth. Then I will say to myself: My friend, you have a lot of good things put by for many years. Rest, eat, drink and enjoy yourself.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you. Tell me, who shall get all you have put aside?’ This is the lot of the one who stores up riches for himself and is not wealthy in the eyes of God.”
Lectio Divina:
“Life has a real meaning in God.”
Read: The Preacher of Ecclesiastes teaches us that our activity is vain and meaningless if it is without God. Saint Paul teaches, us therefore, to seek heavenly realities instead. Similarly, Jesus tells the parable of the rich man who thinks his life is made secure by what he has amassed, rather than by his relationship with God.
Reflect: Human beings search for meaning to their existence, and yet at the same time, modern culture has often denied that there is an ultimate meaning. If life has no meaning, there is a frustrated pointlessness to activity, which we hear echoed in the language of Ecclesiastes. Nietzsche said that without God there is a void in human life. The rich man in the parable is trying to fill the void with things and distractions. Yet, ultimately this fails to satisfy and at death is shown to be empty selfishness. Nietzsche, Sartre and other philosophers would propose that we embrace meaninglessness and make ourselves into the ultimate meaning. But life has a real meaning, rooted in the God who created us and we are to build our lives on a relationship with him, instead.
Pray: What are my preoccupations and frustrations? Pray to see God’s hand at work in these.
Act: Visit a friend who is struggling at the moment.
