Scripture Reflection - August 24, 2025

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: Isaiah 66:18-21

Second Reading: Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13

Gospel: Luke 13:22-30

Strength for the Struggle

The readings for this Sunday carry a message that feels deeply relevant for our world today, caught between conflict, division, and the longing for peace.

In the letter to the Hebrews we hear:

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.                             

Make straight paths for your feet,

that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed. (Hebrews 12: 11-13)

These words acknowledge our weariness and despair. They speak to the fatigue of those who long for reconciliation but are met with violence, to those who hope for justice but encounter indifference, and to communities worn down by endless conflict. Yet, the letter to the Hebrews does not leave us in despair—it calls us to rise, to take courage, to walk in God’s will and way. Our God is not a God of dread or anxiety but a God of hope.  

The Gospel passage from St. Luke adds another layer. Jesus tells his disciples: Strive to enter through the narrow gate. (Matthew 7:13-14) The narrow gate suggests that the way of peace and healing is not the easy way—it is about choosing love when it costs us something. Walking the narrow way requires the discipline of humility, self-sacrifice, and a willingness to choose love over fear, forgiveness over vengeance, and unity over division. In our time, this means resisting the wide gate of hatred, polarization, and violence that seems so much easier.

Our consciences must be pricked by the suffering around us: the war in Ukraine that drags on with mounting loss of life; starving families in Gaza, and the suffering hostages whose lives hang in the balance, too often treated as collateral damage. These are not abstract tragedies—they are today’s drooping hands and weak knees, the brokenness that cries out for healing. The Word of God urges us not to turn away, not to grow numb, but to take the harder path of solidarity, truth-telling, non-violent resistance, and prayer.

The Gospel’s image of the locked door can sound sobering, but Jesus’ message is ultimately one of hope: “People will come from the east and the west and from the north and south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.” This is God’s dream—an abundant table where every nation, language, and people are gathered in peace. That vision feels far away in our fractured world, but it remains Jesus’ promise that strengthens us when we falter.

Today, as wars rage and people suffer, we are invited to trust that healing is stronger than disjointedness, and that God’s door is never shut to those who strive, however falteringly, for peace. Every effort—an honest word, a courageous act of mercy, a persistent call for justice, a stance with the marginalized—is part of the narrow but hope-filled path that leads to the reign of God.  

Sr. Theresa Rickard, OP