25th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 20.09.2026

Isaiah 55:6-9 / Philippians 1:20-24, 27 / Matthew 20:1-16           

The term “last minute” often evokes sudden emotions.

Because the term “last minute” is usually followed by other words like “last minute problems” or “last minute interruptions” or “last minute disruptions”. 

Such situations are certainly unpleasant surprises that immediately give rise to tension, stress, anxiety or confusion. 

This often results in strained relationships, the blame-game, and quarrels.

Simply because something bad has happened or something bad is going to happen, and so no one is happy about it.

In fact, everyone will be angry because someone or some people were irresponsible or negligent or has overlooked an important matter. 

So “last minute-whatever” are not pleasant surprises, but they might also remind us to expect the unexpected. 

In the gospel parable, there were a couple of last-minute surprises. 

In the parable, the landowner sets out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. 

There seems to be an abundance of workers as he kept hiring at the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour. 

Then at the 11th hour, the landowner found more workers standing around because no one had hired them. 

Yet, despite being the 11th hour, which means that there is only one hour of work left, the landowner still hired those workers. 

It seems like a last minute surprise, and for those workers, it was certainly a surprise. 

It was a pleasant surprise beyond their expectation. 

But for those workers who were hired at the start of the day, they grumbled because they had expected more but got the same wage as those hired at the 11th hour. 

This parable gives us an insight into the mind of God and His ways.

One of which is that length of time is irrelevant to God. 

It doesn't matter to God whether a person is a lifelong Catholic or a last-minute convert. 

God has no favourites, and He gives His blessings to those who ask for it, and to those who need it. 

And the parable also addresses our human weakness in the areas of jealousy and entitlement. 

The workers who were hired first got the same wage as those who were hired at the 11th hour. 

Instead of being thankful and grateful for their wages, they grumbled at the landowner. 

They were jealous of those last-minute workers, and they thought they should be entitled to more. 

But God's ways are not man's ways, and God's thoughts are not man's thoughts, as we heard in the first reading. 

God is truth and justice. So, all the workers were paid as agreed upon. 

The ways and the thoughts of God are not that difficult to understand, but it is man's selfish thoughts and greedy ways that cause confusion and frustration in life. 

So, while the 11th hour hiring of the workers was a pleasant surprise, the last-minute grumbling of the workers who were hired first was a sour taste of jealousy and entitlement. 

The second reading tells us this: Avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the Gospel of Christ. 

In other words, never do anything that we can't offer to God. 

Once upon a time, there was a selfish man. He liked everything to be his own. He could not share his belongings with anyone, not even his friends or the poor. 

One day, the man lost a bag of thirty gold coins. He went to his friend’s house and told him how he lost his gold coins. 

His friend was a kind man. As his friend’s daughter was coming from an errand, she found that bag of thirty gold coins.

When she arrived home, she told her father what she had found. The girl’s father told her that the bag of gold coins belong to his friend and he sent for him. 

When the selfish man arrived, the father told him how his daughter had found the bag of thirty gold coins and handed it to him. 

After counting the gold coins, the man said that ten of them was missing and had been taken by the girl, as he had forty gold coins in the bag. 

He further insisted that he will recover the remaining amount from the father. But the girl’s father refused. 

The man left the bag of gold coins and went to the court and informed the judge there about what had taken place between him and the girl’s father. 

The judge sent for the girl and her father, and when they arrived asked the girl how many gold coins did she find. She replied thirty gold coins. 

The judge then asked the selfish man how many gold coins did he lose and he answered forty gold coins. 

The judge then told the man that the gold coins did not belong to him because the girl found thirty and not forty as he claimed to have lost. The judge then told the girl to take the gold coins and that if anybody is looking for them he will send for the girl. 

The judge told the man that if anybody reports that they have found forty gold coins he will send for him. 

It was then that the man confessed that he lied and that he lost thirty gold coins, but the judge did not listen to him. 

So, the ways of man may be corrupted and dishonest, but the ways of God will prevail with justice and truth. 

The thoughts of man may be slanted in selfishness and greed, but the thoughts of God are towards love and mercy. 

Let us walk in the ways of the Lord and we will understand the thoughts of God. 

Let us never do anything that we cannot offer to God. 

And at the 11th hour, or even at the last minute, God will show us His wonderful blessings when we follow His ways.

24th Week, Ordinary Time, Saturday, 19-09-2026

1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49 / Luke 8:4-15  

It is not exactly easy to illustrate a gospel teaching by using stories or examples.

There are times when the gospel teaching is clear-cut but to find an example or story to illustrate it requires time and reflection.

The parable of the sower and the seeds is indeed an excellent story with a divine message.

It is a story in which we are invited not only to listen to it but also to find ourselves being part of it.

It is not a story that we can listen to and go away unchallenged, unchanged and unmoved by what we heard.

Even though we may not be from an agricultural background, yet we can still understand what the parable means to us.

Because every time we read the Bible or hear the scriptures being read and shared, the Word is being sown in our hearts.

How much of God's Word will take root in our hearts and bear fruits in our lives depends on how deeply we want to reflect on the gospel parable we have just heard.

When we are able to reflect upon the truth in the parable, then we will also see the truth about ourselves and also the state of our hearts.

But the fundamental truth is this: Just as God cares about what happens to His Word, He cares more about us who hear His Word.

24th Week, Ordinary Time, Friday, 18-09-2026

1 Cor 15:12-20 / Luke 8:1-3  

In life, we need to have a direction so as to keep moving forward.

And there can be a direction only when there is meaning in what we are doing here and now.

And that meaning comes from our beliefs about the present and that shapes our future.

In the first reading, St. Paul emphasized on the teaching about the Resurrection.

There were some who doubted the truth of the Resurrection.

St. Paul retorted that if there is no truth about the Resurrection, then Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, and preaching and believing about the Resurrection is useless.

Furthermore, if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, then we are still in our sins, and all who have died in their sins would have perished.

But Jesus Christ has in truth been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep.

So our hope in the Risen Lord Jesus is not just in this life only, but also for an eternal future.

In the gospel, among those who followed Jesus, besides the Twelve, there were also women and others who provided for them out of their own resources.

They followed Jesus because they believed in Him, and hence they had a meaning and direction in life.

We too need to believe in the truth of the Resurrection and that Jesus is our only Saviour.

He is our hope for the present as we journey on into our eternal future.

24th Week, Ordinary Time, Thursday, 17-09-2026

1 Cor 15:1-11 / Luke 7:36-50

A person’s status and reputation are highly regarded in society.

So when someone with a high status and good reputation speaks, people will listen and believe in his words.

Even his simple and ordinary actions will be applauded because of his status and reputation.

In the first reading, St. Paul did not try to hide or deny his past reputation.

He admits that since he persecuted the Church of God, he hardly deserved the name apostle.

But by the grace of God, he worked hard in preaching the Good News.

And what he preached was what the other apostles preached.

And it is also by the grace of God that those who listened believed the message that he preached, despite his past reputation.

In the gospel, a woman who had a bad name in the town, come to the house of Simon the Pharisee where Jesus was having a meal.

She waited behind Jesus at His feet, weeping and her tears fell at His feet and she wiped them away with her hair, covered His feet with her kisses and anointed them with the ointment.

Her reputation and her action were enough to upset Simon the Pharisee as well as the others who were present.

But Jesus saw it as her act of repentance and forgave her many sins because of her faith.

As much as those with a high status and good reputation are credible in what they say and do, God will also speak through those who are outcasts and ostracized.

Whatever the status or reputation of a person, God looks at the person’s faith, humility and love.

May we also have the faith, the humility and the love to listen to those who are chosen by God to speak His message and carry out His works.

24th Week, Ordinary Time, Wednesday, 16-09-2026

1 Cor 12:31 - 13:13 / Luke 7:31-35   

As we set out into the world, there are many voices and many influences prompting us with directions.

These voices and influences are usually from famous and popular people.

They tell us and also show us how to be ambitious, to be successful, to be achievers, to be famous, to be popular, to be looked up by the world.

And so, to be looked up to by the world, we have to be like the world, because the world accepts its own kind.

In the first reading, St. Paul tells us to be ambitious, but it is to be ambitious for the higher gifts.

And he points us to the highest gift, which is love.

We may have eloquence, prophecy, understanding, faith and everything impressive and even impactful.

But without love, then we are nothing at all.

And when that love is from God, then there is nothing that the world can ever give us.

And there is nothing in this world that we would ever want to become.

Our ambition and our goal in life is not to become more like the world.

We are to become more like Jesus Christ, and when God’s love is in us, it will be possible.

Our Lady of Sorrows, Tuesday, 15-09-2026

Heb 5:7-9 / Jn 19:25-27 or Lk 2:33-35 

One of the profound teachings of the Church about suffering is that suffering can be redemptive.

Yesterday the Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a symbol of redemptive suffering.

Today we stood with Mary at the foot of the Cross to share in her sorrow.

Yet, because Christ redeemed the sinful world by His suffering on the cross, then Mary through her sorrow, also contributed to the redemption of the world.

On the Cross of suffering, Christ proclaimed Mary to be the Mother of the Church.

As we stand with Mary at the foot of the Cross, and as we share in her sorrow, we too become Mary's children, the sons and daughters of the Church.

As sons and daughters of the Church, we unite ourselves with Jesus and Mary in their sorrow and suffering.

And we have this great hope that when sorrow and suffering are placed in the hands of God, then there will come about a great new beginning.

On the Cross, the world began its journey of redemption and salvation.

At the foot of the Cross, the Church began its mission of being a witness of redemptive suffering.

When we place our own sorrow and suffering at the altar of God, let us be assured that God is creating a great new beginning for us.

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Monday, 14-09-2026

Numbers 21:4-9 or Philippians 2:6-11 / John 3:13-17    

It is only natural that we want to avoid suffering and pain.

And when we get afflicted with illnesses and diseases, we would immediately go in search of a cure.

At the same time, we would also turn to God and pray for healing.

In the first reading, the people encountered fiery serpents and their bite caused suffering, pain and even death.

But it was their own doing as they sinned against God.

They repented and Moses interceded for the people.

But what God told Moses to do was rather astonishing and puzzling. 

God told Moses to make a figure of a bronze serpent and put it on a standard.

Anyone bitten by a fiery serpent would just have to look at it and be cured.

Strange as it may seem, it made the people look at their sins and to realise that the fiery serpents were their consequences of their sin.

That figure of the fiery serpent made them realise their sinfulness and to turn to God in repentance and to ask for forgiveness.

In the gospel, Jesus referred to that event but turned it around to show how much God loves humanity and want to save mankind.

The Cross on which Jesus gave up His life was not just a reminder of the sinfulness of humanity.

Jesus turned the Cross from being an instrument of sin and death into a means of forgiveness and salvation.

The Cross is now a sign of God’s love. When we look at the Cross it is more than just asking for forgiveness.

In the Cross, God reaches out to us with His saving love. Let us respond to God’s love by accepting suffering and pain and offer it to God with love.