Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year A - Sunday, August 23, 2026 (EPISODE-599)​

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year A - Sunday, August 23, 2026 (EPISODE-599)

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year A - Sunday, August 23, 2026 (EPISODE-599)

Readings for Sunday, August 23, 2026 - Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year A
FIRST READING: Isa 22:19-23 Ps 138:1-2a, 2b-3, 6+8. "Lord, your love is eternal, do not forsake the work of your hands."
SECOND READING: Rom 11:33-36
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Matt 16:18). Alleluia, alleluia! You are Peter, the rock on which I will build my Church. The gates of hell will not hold out against it.
GOSPEL: Matt 16:13-20

Image Credit- Shutterstock Licensed. Photo ID: 1937348614 - Tabgha, Galilee, Israel January 27, 2020: Interior Church of the Primacy of Peter, Tabgha, Sea of Galilee. Built in 1933 including parts of a 4th Century church. Mensa Christi is Table of Christ- Editorial Use Only.- Photo Contributor: DyziO
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Please listen to the audio recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers, and homily), for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year A - Sunday, August 23, 2026, by clicking this link here: https://on.soundcloud.com/6xr1OIdTe4Uk0ER7gr  (EPISODE-599)
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GOSPEL THIS WEEKEND
[' gospel' values included in the readings: God loves Justice, God's wisdom and thinking are beyond full human understanding, Our Lord is the Christ, the Son of God" – and it would be quite true to say that the Christian Faith is very wary about reducing the dignity of a human person only to mere labels.  We are all, ultimately, gift and mystery] {FHL}

In the Gospel, Our Lord gives St Peter—the first amongst the apostles—the keys to the Kingdom.

Our Lord builds His Church on the solid rock of the profession of faith that Peter makes, and that we all make.

The Church is built upon the solid foundation of the profession of faith that:

• “Our Lord is the Messiah, the Christ, the chosen one.

• Our Lord is the Son of God who shows us what God is like.

• Our Lord is the one who forgives our sins and sacrifices His life so that we may be saved.

• That we may be restored to God’s house.

• Our Lord is the one who invites us to share in God’s gifts and promises, and if we accept, we become Our Lord’s brothers and sisters.

• We become Our Lord’s disciples and children of God—part of God’s family forever.”

WHO AM I? … asks Our Lord of His disciples… “Who do you say I am?”

A person cannot be reduced to a mere sum of the characteristics you can use to describe them. Who a person is cannot be summed up merely by the titles they may have. Every person—not least of Our Lord Himself—is a mystery and an encounter. Our Lord must be encountered as a person before one can understand Him as a figure of doctrine and belief.

Surely one of the most common things humans try to do to each other—and it may be the most unfair thing we can do—is to try to reduce people to mere categories and labels. It may be convenient and reassuring, but it is also fraught with risk to try to file human beings into neat boxes or categories so we can understand them or feel less threatened by them—or, even worse, control or subdue them.

TO ‘LABEL’ ANOTHER PERSON

Whilst that may sometimes be helpful for practicality, it reduces the mystery, complexity, and dignity of a human being into clichés, stereotypes, and labels. When we reduce a person to a label or category, it can poorly replace dealing with the real person when using supposedly “safe”, labelled generalisations andassumptions (—assumptions that are pale shadows of who they really are). At times, these reductions may do grave injustice, and labels may be quite unlike who that person truly is.

Our jobs are important to us, but who we are is so much more than the job we do. Who we are is more than what we have achieved in life. Who a person is, goes much deeper than what they are good at doing or capable of doing. Even how we look and what we possess isn't really the core of our true identity. And when we rely too much on any one of those qualities (not that some aren’t important), but if we make one or a few qualities the sum total of what makes us “us”, then we can run into trouble—and our view can become seriously distorted.

If my job is everything I am, I might lose that job one day. Who am I then?  Am I really “nothing”? 

If my reputation is important—and for all of us, to a great degree, it is very important—but if it is absolutely everything, it can be tarnished (it can be wrongly taken away from us, or it can be taken away from us by our own folly). But if who I am is all about what I can do—my abilities, my health—then one day these things might fail me too. Yet we are still very much something in God’s eyes, and in the eyes of those who truly love and know us.

No, who we really are must be something much, much deeper than the various qualities and abilities that make up our lives.

Ultimately, who we truly are is something that neither time nor situation could ever take away. In fact, the full truth of who we really are is that we are beloved sons and daughters of our loving God, who loves us more than we could possibly understand, and who calls us into the fullness of life and union with Him. And simultaneously Jesus calls us into right relationship with everyone around us.

Who is this person, Our Lord?

Each person must discover the meaning and nature of Our Lord themselves, with the help of the Church and its more than two thousand years of tradition and experience. There is no substitute for personally encountering Our Lord as Christ; in the Scriptures, in the Sacraments, in our personal prayer life, in the teachings of the Church, and in the writings of wise and holy men and women from the Church’s history— reflecting deeply upon His presence and action in our daily lives and actions.

It is not enough to obtain merely (or only) the pre-packaged doctrines about Our Lord. For, although these doctrines and teachings are essential, (they tell us much about Our Lord—His nature and His mission, and the divine love at the very centre of His mission, values, and priorities). But, Our Lord is always going to be much more than just the things we say about Him.

Who Our Lord is, is about encountering God (and that encounter with God occurs in relationship, and is not merely an intellectual exercise). Knowing Jesus is not just a mental exercise. It is about engaging with Christ and His good news in our lives, in the people we meet, and in ourselves—and in our life story.

Perhaps the second reading holds the key. In it, Saint Paul reminds us that, although there is much we can and need to know and search for to understand Our Lord and God in general, God is still far more than we could ever truly comprehend in this life.

God has many knowable aspects, but infinitely more of God’s nature and thoughts are utterly beyond our human comprehension. But here is what makes that wonderful: it can also be said of every human being. The person sitting next to you—even if you know them very well—ultimately is (still) very much a gift and a mystery. They cannot truly be reduced to a list of facts about them, or to a description of characteristics and traits. They are much, much more than the mere sum of their parts. They are deeper than their past ways of relating and behaving. 

We are a mystery. And God is infinite mystery.

It is surely disrespectful—and an error—to take anyone for granted, reducing them to a set of labels and minimal characteristics. And how much more does that principle apply to the God of all heaven and earth?

And it is not as much about knowing more, but rather about engaging respectfully, and with awe, in this divine mystery. 

We jump into the deep, and we have ongoing prayer, reflection, listening, dialogue, and discussion—and, of course, encounter in the unfolding events of each day.

Christ reminds us that it is all really about a loving relationship. It is so much less about categorisation and definitions. Relationship with God; relationship with each other; relationship with who we truly are ourselves. This is an ongoing, never-ending journey.

Each one of us is called upon to reflect personally on Our Lord’s question: “Who do YOU say I am?”

Our Lord means absolutely everything to us as Christians. We not only admire Him as a person, but also love His message of inclusion, mercy, justice, and unconditional love with reverence. We love Our Lord’s offer of welcome to all people.

We adore the way Jesus always put people first. We worship the Heavenly Father’s “law of love” in its proper perspective—as a life-giving source of fruitfulbess, for the benefit and help of all humans. 

God’s law was never meant to be used as a millstone around the neck of others.

We love the fact that Our Lord is God who has become human— one just like us— which, in turn, makes humanity, and the physical world, blessed, holy, and sacred.

We are in absolute awe of the fact that Our Lord is so sensitive and protective of every one of His Heavenly Father’s children, that He even goes as far as to say: “I regard that what you do to even the least of these little ones, you are doing it to Me personally.”

And so, Our Lord throws His powerful cloak of protection, care, and inclusion over each and every one of us. This is beyond measure. It is too wonderful to fully comprehend.

Jesus is the perfect revelation of what God is truly like. He powerfully shows us how God acts toward us and what God feels toward each of us. Jesus even shows us how God really treats us when we sin, stray from the path of life, or turn away and endanger our lives. And it is very good news indeed.

We not only worship Jesus as the Son of God and our Messiah, but we also admire Him and like Him as Teacher, mentor, friend, and Lord.

Can we ever really get our fill of the still fresh and challenging message (after more than two thousand years) found in His words, parables, and actions?

 I believe (like Peter) we are only just starting to comprehend the radicality of His message. And although we have already begun to apply it very deeply in our lives and attitudes, we are only just beginning to explore its infinitely rich depths.

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References:

Fr Paul W. Kelly

Break Open the Word. Liturgical Commission. 2011.

Image Credit- Shutterstock Licensed. Photo ID: 1937348614 - Tabgha, Galilee, Israel January 27, 2020: Interior Church of the Primacy of Peter, Tabgha, Sea of Galilee. Built in 1933, including parts of a 4th-century church. Mensa Christi is the Table of Christ- Editorial Use Only.- Photo Contributor: DyziO

 
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year A (Sunday, August 23, 2026) (EPISODE-599)

The Lord be with you.
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{{Goodness and faithfulness to you all}}

Brothers and sisters, the Lord is full of love and mercy. And so, as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries, let us acknowledge our sins.
Lord Jesus, you are mighty God and Prince of peace. Lord, have mercy

You are Son of God and the Son of Mary. Christ, have mercy

You are Word made flesh, the splendour of the Father. Lord, have mercy.
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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Ps 138:1-2a, 2b-3, 6+8. "Lord, your love is eternal, do not forsake the work of your hands."

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Matt 16:18). Alleluia, alleluia! Let your face shine on your servant. And teach me your laws

Memorial Acclamation
1. We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.
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PREFACE: Sundays Ordinary IV
Euch prayer III
Communion side:

(theme variation: full)

(pre+post variation: v2-long)
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{I pray this week brings you an ever deeper experience of his compassion and love.}

Go forth, the Mass is ended.

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Archive of homilies and reflections: http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email: paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to my weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins Publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers (1993). (Sydney, Australia).

Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

- "Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - in memory of William John Kelly - Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Music by Paul W. Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

"Quiet Time." Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

- "Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly. Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

Sound Engineering and editing - P.W. Kelly.

Microphones: Shure MV5 Digital Condenser (USB)

Editing equipment: NCH software - MixPad Multitrack Studio Recording Software
NCH – WavePad Audio Editing Software. Master's Edition v 12.44

Sound Processing: iZotope RX 6 Audio Editor

[Production - KER - 2026]
May God bless and keep you.
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