26 July 2025 (Saturday)
Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday of week 16 in Ordinary Time.
Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, Parents of the Virgin Mary Obligatory Memorial.
Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:
First Reading : Exodus 24:3‐8
Moses went and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. In answer, all the people said with one voice, ‘We will observe all the commands that the Lord has decreed.’ Moses put all the commands of the Lord into writing, and early next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve standing‐stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he directed certain young Israelites to offer holocausts and to immolate bullocks to the Lord as communion sacrifices. Half of the blood Moses took up and put into basins, the other half he cast on the altar. And taking the Book of the Covenant he read it to the listening people, and they said, ‘We will observe all that the Lord has decreed; we will obey.’ Then Moses took the blood and cast it towards the people. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you, containing all these rules.’
Responsive Psalm : Psalm 49(50):1‐2,5‐6,14‐15
Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.
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.
Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.
‘Summon before me my people who made covenant with me by sacrifice. The heavens proclaim his justice, for he, God, is the judge.
Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.
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.’
Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.
Gospel : Matthew 13:24‐30
Jesus put another parable before the crowds: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, the darnel appeared as well. The owner’s servants went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” “Some enemy has done this” he answered. And the servants said, “Do you want us to go and weed it out?” But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn."
For our reflection today:
One of the parables told by Jesus about the growth of the Kingdom of God on earth reveals, with great realism, the nature of the struggle that the Kingdom involves due to the presence and action of an “enemy” who “sows weeds (or tares) among the wheat.” Jesus says that when “the harvest bloomed and bore fruit, behold, the weeds also appeared.” The servants of the master of the field would like to pull them up, but the master does not allow them to do so, “lest, while pulling up the weeds, you also uproot the wheat.” This parable explains the coexistence and often intertwining of good and evil in the world, in our lives, and in the very history of the Church. Jesus teaches us to see things with Christian realism and to deal with every problem with clarity of principles, but also with prudence and patience. (Saint John Paul II, General Audience, 25 September 1991)
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