Virtual Homily: August 24, 2025, From Isaiah to Luke, God Calls All Peoples
Readings and Virtual Homily for August 24, 2025, Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time; A Major Ministry (Maybe) Revived; LA-bound for San Gabriel Media; And...We Are at 300,000 Subscribers
Readings for Mass this Sunday:
· Isaiah 66:18-21
· Psalm 117:1-2
· Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
· Luke 13:22-30
Dear Friends and Family,
This week, I am happy to report, the readings share an easily identifiable theme; the theme of the conversion of the Gentiles, the realization on the part of the pagan nations that the God of Israel IS God.
Isaiah 66, after naming several ancient pagan nations and declaring that they shall come to recognize Israel's God as their God, goes on to predict the conversion of "the distant coastlands which have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory" (vs. 19). Old Testament references to "the islands" and "the coastlands" are generally understood to be references to the "island continents," at the time, of course, undiscovered; these are references to the Americas and Australia. Though undiscovered, the Spirit knew they were there, and prophesied through Isaiah and others their far-distant-future conversion.
Psalm 117, at two verses, is easily the shortest of the psalms, and its joyful message of praise encourages "all you nations...all you peoples" to extol and praise the Lord (vs. 1).
The second reading, from the Letter to the Hebrews, and selected by "the committee in Rome" according to the principle of continuous reading, has nothing whatever to do with the conversion of the Gentiles. As I have mentioned in past homilies, the principle of continuous reading aims simply to get us through each book of Scripture, over the course of a number of Sundays. Right now, the book we are getting through is the marvelous Letter to the Hebrews.
In the passage from Luke, Jesus assures us that many "will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God" (vs. 29). This bright prophecy follows a warning from Jesus of the possibility of eternal damnation (vss. 24-28). This warning seems aimed particularly at religious Jews of his time, for Jesus speaks of those shut out as saying that they "ate and drank" with him, and that they listened to Jesus when he "taught in our streets" (vs. 26). The subject of Hell is not the subject of this homily, so other than to say that any warnings from Jesus on this subject should be taken as seriously by today's Christians as they were by first-century Jews, I will say no more on the subject.
The part of the Gospel passage that picks up on the theme set forth by Isaiah 66 and Psalm 117 is that Jesus, too, prophesies the conversion of the nations; foresees the day when people from the east, the west, the north and the south will come to know that the God of Israel is God. We are the people who fulfill these prophecies. We (and our ancestors, of course) are "the people who dwelt in darkness" who "have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:1). It's kind of cool to meditate, now and then, on that!
Many of you no doubt remember the Parish Day-of-Reflection ministry I used to present, for several years with Mom, later on my own, in Alameda (while I was still a seminarian), and subsequently in my various parishes. You may remember, too, that Mom and I had a LOT of help with this ministry, given its expansive aims -- we featured a genuinely free lunch, and in time came to incorporate a continental breakfast, as well. Fellowship, community-building and faith-sharing were a large part of our aims with the Day-of-Reflection ministry.
In ten years in Hayward, St. Clement has never known this ministry -- our gym/main hall is almost always taken up on Saturday with CYO. Somehow, McCollum Hall was available this past Saturday and the St. Clement Knights reserved it and asked me to give a parish-wide talk on Mary, the day before being the Feast of the Assumption.
I dusted off my five-part talk All About Mary (developed for a Day-of-Reflection in Brentwood over a decade ago). Lisa Fisher, who quarter-mastered the ministry's meals for a decade, stepped up to the plate to organize the hospitality part of the day. Lisa even found a couple members of her original team to assist; though St. Clement was eager to supply volunteers.
It was "only" a continental breakfast in that we served nothing hot, except coffee, but it was one huge continental breakfast and a good thing, too -- we had 230 people in attendance. The lunch was, by both my estimate and Lisa's, the largest we have ever done; our parishioners (and quite a few folks from beyond the parish) "ate and were filled." to borrow from Scripture. Hugely satisfied at being empowered to present this ministry to St. Clement at last, as Lisa put, "Hayward now knows what a Day of Reflection is."
And Hayward wants more. Lisa, the team and I would LOVE to give three or four such events a year, as we did in Brentwood, in Fremont, in Pleasanton. It is entirely a matter of our facilities and their availability. If we get another date in the hall, I will let you know about it. Friends in Brentwood, taking me to dinner that same night, and hearing about the day, assured me they would have attended, had they known about it!
And...oh yeah...folks told me they learned a LOT about Our Blessed Mother!
Well, to wrap up on a thematic note (the conversion of the Gentiles) San Gabriel Media continues to barrel on ahead, with this summer's You Tube promotion. The connection to the readings is that our subscribers are from around the globe; India above all heavily represented. India is the largest Catholic nation on earth, and most people there speak English, so this does not really surprise me.
I will be in SoCal this coming week on SGM business. Marketing meetings. Book meetings. YouTube content meetings. The need to be in LA and San Diego regularly is part of what necessitated my request for the sabbatical...
Meanwhile, we this weekend are at 300,000 subscribers. We are gaining on average, 3000-4000 subscribers a day. The YT promotion is only one marketing stratagem we are rolling out this year, and as we prepare to launch others, I have to reiterate that no one at San Gabriel considers 300,000 YouTube subscribers anything other than a good, a solid, a promising start.
I have used a flight analogy here before, I will employ it again today. As far as any of us at San Gabriel are concerned, 300,000 subscribers says that we have (FINALLY) pushed back from the gate, and gotten onto the taxi-way. The runway is not yet in sight, let alone lift-off. As I have said before, our ambitions are not small. There is no reason they should be. This is not about us. It is about the "Good News of great joy which shall be for all people" (Lk. 2:10). None of us knows where the limit lies; but all of us feel obligated to reach it.
I'll wrap it here.
Take care and God bless.
Fr. Brawn