Gospel: July 5, 2025
July 5, 2025 (Saturday)
13th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Genesis 27:1-5, 15-29*
Gospel: Matthew 9:14-17
Then the disciples of John came to him with the question, “How is it, that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not your disciples?” Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, they will fast. No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for the patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole in the coat.
In the same way, you don’t put new wine into old wine skins. If you do, the wine skins will burst and the wine will be spilt. No, you put new wine into fresh skins; then both are preserved.”
Reflection:
“God never leaves us.”
The events of today’s first reading might leave us somewhat uncomfortable. Jacob disguises himself as his brother to receive his father’s blessing: the conclusion of Esau’s loss of his birthright, which began with Esau thoughtlessly giving it away on oath to Jacob for a meager bowl of lentil stew. It’s only after Jacob receives the fullness of Isaac’s blessing that Esau realizes what he has lost, and he wants to kill Jacob. The story is challenging for us, as it contains an apparent casual disregard for God’s blessings on the part Esau, but also deceit on the part of Jacob. And yet, God’s saving plan was still able to unfold. It shows that God is at work even in the midst of the sin and imperfection of human existence. He never leaves us but is with us every moment of our lives. God has the final victory over sin and death, and, with all our imperfections, we share in that victory if we choose to live a life that’s in union with his will.
