The Sunday Readings and Catholic Doctrine for August 2025

The meaning of the Sunday Mass Readings for August 2025 is made clearest by Catholic Doctrine. God speaks most clearly through Catholic Doctrine. Catholic doctrines are the essentially unchangeable clarifications of Revelation and Faith that only the pope and bishops have the God-given authority to make and that must be accepted as objectively true in order to be Catholic, and that not even the pope and bishops may contradict.

Let’s learn the always-true, never-to-be-contradicted doctrines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that we can take away from this August’s Sunday Readings.[1]

August 3, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Verses from the Second Reading and the Gospel share a theme: essential to Catholic Faith is to “look eagerly for the Lord’s return” (CCC 2772[2]) at His Second Coming when, as we say in the Creed, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Key ways we look for the Lord’s return are in the Our Father and at Mass. The seven petitions of the Our Father – which comprise all of it after “Our Father who art in heaven” – “express the groanings of the present age, this time of patience and expectation [until the Second Coming]” (CCC 2772). In effect, all the petitions are different ways of praying “Thy Kingdom come.” It is “the Banquet of the kingdom which sacramental communion [at Mass] anticipates” (CCC 2770). For explanation of the Kingdom, see my commentary on the Solemnity of Christ the King.

When we keep the Second Coming in mind, we understand better that Jesus “did not come to abolish all evils here below [during His First Coming]” (CCC 549), a point the Catechism makes by citing today’s Gospel. Jesus came to make it possible for us to enter the Kingdom by His Crucifixion and by His institution of the Catholic Church, and He came to reveal to us what life in the Kingdom will be like by His Resurrection. He will come again to abolish all evils here below.

• From the Second Reading[3] (Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11): Col 3:1-3 is cited in CCC 655; Col 3:1 in CCC 1002; Col 3:3 in CCC 665, 1003, 1420, and 2796; Col 3:4 in CCC 1003 and 2772; Col 3:5 in CCC 2518; and Col 3:10 in CCC 2809.
• From the Alleluia (Matthew 5:3): Mt 5:3 is cited in CCC 544 and 2546.
• From the Gospel (Luke 12:13-21): Lk 12:13 is cited in CCC 549; and Lk 12:14 in CCC 549.

August 10, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

As they did last week, today’s Readings remind us of our need to be prepared as we await our inevitable face-to-face encounter with the Lord either at our death or at the Second Coming if it happens before we die.

The Catechism cites today’s Alleluia to teach: “Since the Ascension Christ’s coming in glory has been imminent, even though ‘it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority’” (CCC 673). As the First Reading says, we await the salvation of the just. Citing the Gospel, the Catechism tells us Christ “urges us to vigilance of the heart in communion with his own. . . . The Holy Spirit constantly seeks to awaken us to keep watch” (CCC 2849). The best way to vigilantly unite our hearts to Christ’s is to think and live in harmony with Catholic Doctrine. The Holy Spirit never moves us to contradict Catholic Doctrine.

The Second Reading gives us a model of faith and hope: Abraham, the “father of all who believe” (CCC 145).

• From the Second Reading (Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 OR Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-12): Heb 11:1 is cited in CCC 146; Heb 11:2 in CCC 147; Heb 11:8 in CCC 145; Heb 11:17 in CCC 145 and 2572; and Heb 11:19 in CCC 2572.
• From the Alleluia (Matthew 24:42a, 44): Mt 24:44 is cited in CCC 673.
• From the Gospel (Luke 12:32-48 OR Luke 12:35-40): Lk 12:32 is cited in CCC 764; and Lk 12:35-40 in CCC 2849.

August 15, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Vigil

The only verse from all of today’s Readings that is cited by the Catechism is from the Second Reading: “The sting of death is sin.” It supports the doctrine that “Man’s sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death” (CCC 602). Death and suffering entered the world only because the first human beings freely chose to disobey God, as every human being has chosen since then. God always has wanted and always will want human beings to be free of all suffering and death (CCC 54).

None of the verses in the Readings for either the Vigil or the Mass of the Day is used by the Catechism to support the dogma (the infallible and unreformable doctrine expressing Divine Revelation) of the Assumption: “when the course of her earthly life was finished, [Mary] was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory . . . so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death” (CCC 966). In eternity, Mary has the same kind of resurrected existence as Jesus has had since His Resurrection – a supernatural existence that transcends death and earthly limitation but that still includes a body as well as a soul (CCC 645).

• From the Second Reading (1 Corinthians 15:54b-57): 1 Cor 15:56 is cited in CCC 602.

August 15, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary during the Day

The woman described in the First Reading (Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab) is Mary (CCC 1138).

The Second Reading essentially means that “Christ’s Resurrection – and the risen Christ himself – is the principle and source of our future resurrection” (CCC 655). Christ is the principle of our resurrection because we will be transformed on the Last Day like He was transformed at His Resurrection – to have a mode of supernatural existence that still includes a physical body. Christ Himself is the source of our resurrection because we will only experience resurrected bodies thanks to Christ’s Resurrection.

Christ is the principle and source of Mary’s Assumption, which is her resurrection. “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians” (CCC 966).

• From the First Reading (Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab): Rv 12 is cited in CCC 1138.
• From the Second Reading (1 Corinthians 15:20-27): 1 Cor 15:20-22 is cited in CCC 655; 1 Cor 15:20 in CCC 632; 1 Cor 15:21-22 in CCC 411; 1 Cor 15:24-28 in CCC 2855; 1 Cor 15:24 in CCC 668; 1 Cor 15:26 in CCC 1008; and 1 Cor 15:27-28 in CCC 668.
• From the Gospel (Luke 1:39-56): Lk 1:41 is cited in CCC 523, 717, and 2676; Lk 1:43 in CCC 448, 495, and 2677; Lk 1:45 in CCC 148 and 2676; Lk 1:46-55 in CCC 722, 2619, and 2675; Lk 1:46-49 in CCC 2097; Lk 1:48 in CCC 148, 971, and 2676; Lk 1:49 in CCC 273, 2599, 2807, and 2827; Lk 1:50 in CCC 2465; Lk 1:54-55 in CCC 706; and Lk 1:55 in CCC 422.

August 17, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The cloud of witnesses mentioned in today’s Second Reading are those who have preceded us into eternity. “They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. . . . We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world” (CCC 2683). There are “three states of the Church . . . some of [Our Lord’s] disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified [in Purgatory], while others are in glory [in Heaven]” (CCC 954). This is the “communion of saints” we acknowledge in the Apostles’ Creed (CCC 946).

When Jesus says in the Gospel that He came to set the earth on fire, He means that He came to send the Holy Spirit (CCC 696). The Spirit is found in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, the Magisterium, the Sacraments, prayer, the charisms and ministries of the Church, apostolic and missionary life, and the witness of the saints (CCC 688) – when these are in harmony with Catholic Doctrine (Fidei Depositum 3). (Fidei Depositum is the Apostolic Constitution at the beginning of the Catechism.)

• From the Responsorial Psalm (Psalms 40:2, 3, 4, 18): Ps 40:2 is cited in CCC 2657.
• From the Second Reading (Hebrews 12:1-4): Heb 12:1 is cited in CCC 1161 and 2683; Heb 12:2 in CCC 147; and Heb 12:3 in CCC 569 and 598.
• From the Gospel (Luke 12:49-53): Lk 12:49 is cited in CCC 696; and Lk 12:50 in CCC 536, 607, 1225, and 2804.

August 24, Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Only one verse from today’s Readings is cited by the Catechism, and it is in the Alleluia. It is a fitting introduction to the Gospel, which shares a theme with the First Reading. (The First Reading and the Gospel almost always have a common theme.)

The doctrine supported by today’s Alleluia, and thus the First Reading and the Gospel, is that “God ‘desires all [humans] to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’: that is, [to the knowledge] of Jesus Christ” (CCC 74).

• From the Alleluia (John 14:6): Jn 14:6 is cited in CCC 74, 459, 1698, 2466, and 2614.

August 31, Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Catechism adds to Jesus’ assertion in today’s Gospel that He came to save sinners: “since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind to themselves” (CCC 588). Yes, Jesus “shows [sinners] in word and deed his Father’s boundless mercy for them.” But Jesus also “invites [sinners] to that conversion without which one cannot enter the kingdom [of God]” (CCC 545). How do we know if we have sinned? Catholic Doctrine tells us. How do we know to what we should covert? Catholic Doctrine tells us.

Today’s Gospel provides a good example – when Jesus says we should hold a meal only for the poor, crippled, lame, and blind and not for our relatives and friends – of how Catholics are not fundamentalists who take the Bible literally. We do not sin when we invite relatives and friends to a meal! Rather than Scripture not needing interpretation because it is always literally true and thus its meaning is always obvious, it needs interpretation. “The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God . . . has been entrusted to the living, teaching office of the Church alone. . . . This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted [by Christ] to the bishops in communion with the [pope]” (CCC 85). They alone hold this teaching office. Catholic Doctrine is the ultimate interpretation of Sacred Scripture.

• From the Responsorial Psalm (Psalms 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11): Ps 68:6 is cited in CCC  238.
• From the Second Reading (Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a): Heb 12:22-23 is cited in CCC 2188; and Heb 12:23 in CCC 1021.
• From the Alleluia (Matthew 11:29ab): Mt 11:29 is cited in CCC 459.
• From the Gospel (Luke 14:1, 7-14): Lk 14:1 is cited in CCC 575 and 588.

[1] There are too many citations, or references, in the Catechism to the verses in a month of Sunday Mass readings to identify all the pertinent doctrines, so I will use my best judgment to select which verses and doctrines to cover in a column that may not exceed 2,000 words. The bullet points allow you to explore further the Biblical basis of Catholic Doctrine.

[2] CCC abbreviates Catechism of the Catholic Church. Any number after it is the number of a paragraph in the Catechism. For example, “CCC 2772” means paragraph 2772 of the Catechism.

[3] If a Reading is not listed, then none of its verses is cited by the CCC.