19 December 2025 (Friday) / Advent Weekday / Friday of the Third Week of Advent

19 December 2025 (Friday)

Advent Weekday / Friday of the Third Week of Advent.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church: 

First Reading: Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 71: 3-6 16-17
Gospel: Luke 1: 5-25

First Reading: Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25

2 Now there was a certain man of Saraa, and of the race of Dan, whose name was Manue, and his wife was barren.
3 And an angel of the Lord appeared to her, and said: Thou art barren and without children: but thou shalt conceive and bear a son.
4 Now therefore beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing.
5 Because thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall touch his head: for he shall be a Nazarite of God, from his infancy, and from his mother’s womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
6 And when she was come to her husband she said to him: A man of God came to me, having the countenance of an angel, very awful. And when I asked him who he was, and whence he came, and by what name he was called, he would not tell me.
7 But he answered thus: Behold thou shalt conceive and bear a son: beware thou drink no wine, nor strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite of God from his infancy, from his mother’s womb until the day of his death.
24 And she bore a son, and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.
25 And the spirit of the Lord began to be with him.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 71: 3-6, 16-17

R. (8) My mouth shall be filled with your praise, and I will sing your glory!

3 Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of strength: that thou mayst make me safe. For thou art my firmament and my refuge.

4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the sinner.

R. My mouth shall be filled with your praise, and I will sing your glory!

5 For thou art my patience, O Lord: my hope, O Lord, from my youth;
6 By thee have I been confirmed from the womb: from my mother’s womb thou art my protector.

R. My mouth shall be filled with your praise, and I will sing your glory!

16 I will enter into the powers of the Lord: O Lord, I will be mindful of thy justice alone.
17 Thou hast taught me, O God, from my youth: and till now I will declare thy wonderful works.

R. My mouth shall be filled with your praise, and I will sing your glory!

Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
O Root of Jesse’s stem, sign of God’s love for all his people: come to save us without delay!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Luke 1: 5-25

5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia; and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elizabeth.
6 And they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame.
7 And they had no son, for that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years.
8 And it came to pass, when he executed the priestly function in the order of his course before God,
9 According to the custom of the priestly office, it was his lot to offer incense, going into the temple of the Lord.
10 And all the multitude of the people was praying without, at the hour of incense.
11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the alter of incense.
12 And Zachary seeing him, was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
13 But the angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John:
14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his nativity.
15 For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
16 And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.
17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people.
18 And Zachary said to the angel: Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.
19 And the angel answering, said to him: I am Gabriel, who stand before God: and am sent to speak to thee, and to bring thee these good tidings.
20 And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be able to speak until the day wherein these things shall come to pass, because thou hast not believed my words, which shall be fulfilled in their time.
21 And the people were waiting for Zachary; and they wondered that he tarried so long in the temple.
22 And when he came out, he could not speak to them: and they understood that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he made signs to them, and remained dumb.
23 And it came to pass, after the days of his office were accomplished, he departed to his own house.
24 And after those days, Elizabeth his wife conceived, and hid herself five months, saying:
25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he hath had regard to take away my reproach among men.

For our reflection today:

In order to truly be “mother”, the Church must “let herself be startled by the newness of God”, who through the Holy Spirit is able to “make all things new”. Otherwise she risks becoming barren, afflicted by Pelagianism, selfishness, power, by the desire to “take over consciences” or becoming an “entrepreneur”. Pope Francis pointed out this temptation during the Mass at Santa Marta celebrated on Friday.

Francis’ reflection was inspired by the day’s Readings: the births of Samson and John the Baptist announced by angels, as told in the Book of Judges (13:2-7, 24-25a) and the Gospel according to Luke (1:5-25). “Today, the word that the Church makes us reflect on, prior to Christmas, the most important word today, is ‘barren’”, the Pontiff explained. The liturgy, in fact, “presents to us these two barren women who had no children, they weren’t able to have any”. The Pope recalled that “in the people of Israel, barrenness was borne with difficulty: one could probably say that the inability to give life was considered almost a curse, because not having children prevented the fulfillment of the Lord’s commandment to fill the earth with new lives”.

Yet, he noted, “there are many barren women in the Bible, and always for important reasons”. Starting with “Sarah, our mother: barren” but “the Lord performs a miracle”. And “the mother of Samuel was barren too”: and in this situation as well, “the Lord performs a miracle”. And again, “the daughter of Jephthah went to the mountain bewailing her virginity, because she was not able to have children before she died”.

Thus, Francis explained, “barrenness was a bad, bad thing”. And today, the Church “shows us this symbol of barrenness, just before the birth of Jesus, through a woman unable to have a child”. This “is the sign of a humanity unable to take one more step: so many barren women were old, their wombs were no longer fertile”. And “the Church wants us to reflect on this barren humanity”, on the humanity that “had reached the point where it could no longer go on”. Recalling that “the law of Moses provided for the offspring of a dead man, because it was so important to have descendants, to give life”, the Pope remarked that “these barren women receive a miracle, they receive the grace of the Lord and they are able to conceive”.

“From barrenness”, the Pontiff continued, “the Lord is capable of reopening a new lineage, a new life: this is today’s message”. Therefore, “when humanity is exhausted, it can no longer go onward, grace comes and the Son comes, and salvation comes”. And in this way, "that exhausted creation makes way for the new creation, and thus we can call it a ‘re-creation"Therefore, the truly “marvelous miracle of creation leaves room for an even more marvelous miracle: re-creation, as the prayer says today: ‘You, Lord, who marvelously created the world, and more marvelously recreated it’”.

Thus, it is precisely “this ‘second’ creation when the earth is exhausted, and today’s message: we await the ‘master’, capable of recreating all things, of making things new”. And hence “we await the newness of God”. This, after all, is Christmas: “the newness of God who remakes creation, all things, in a more marvelous way”. The Pontiff then emphasized that “it’s curious” that “in both texts, both that of Manoah’s wife and that of Elizabeth, in order to explain how He will do this, how this will come about, the Holy Spirit is spoken of: ‘the Spirit of the Lord stirred him’, it says”. And “this ‘re-creation’ is possible only with the Spirit of God”. What then is the message? “Let us open ourselves to the Spirit of God. We can’t do it alone. It is He who is able to do things”.

The issue of barrenness, the Pope said, “also makes me think of our Mother Church, of the many kinds of barrenness that afflict our Mother Church when, due to the importance of hope in the Commandments, that Pelagianism that we all carry in our bones, she becomes barren: she believes she is able to give birth”, but can’t. Instead, “the Church is a mother and becomes a mother only when she opens herself to the newness of God, to the power of the Spirit”. It is “when she says to herself: ‘I do everything, but I’m done, I can’t give any more’” and then the Spirit comes.

Francis then asked to pray “for our Mother Church, for so much barrenness in the People of God: the barrenness of selfishness, of power”. For “the Church is barren when she believes she can do it all, that she can take over the consciences of the people, going the way of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees, on the path of hypocrisy”. This is why we need to pray. And to do so in a way that this Christmas also renders “our Church open to the gift of God”, able to let herself be “startled by the Holy Spirit”: a Church “which has children, a Mother Church”.

However, the Pope indicated, “I have thought so many times that the Church, in some places, is more an entrepreneur than a mother”. Therefore, he concluded, “looking at this history of the barrenness of the People of God, and the many stories in the history of the Church that have made the Church barren, let us ask the Lord, today, looking at the Nativity scene, for the grace of fruitfulness for the Church”. The grace that “the Church may be a mother, first of all, like Mary: a mother! (Pope Francis - The time of re-creation, Friday, 19 December 2014).

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed  and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)