The Sunday Readings and Catholic Doctrine for July 2025

The meaning of the Sunday Mass Readings for July 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, 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 always-true doctrines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that we can take away from this July’s Sunday Readings.[1]

July 6, Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus’ sending of the Seventy Two, in today’s Gospel, was not an isolated incident in His life. These “disciples share in Christ’s mission and his power . . . By all his actions, Christ prepares and builds his Church” (CCC 765). “The Church is catholic: she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation. She is [and therefore we are] sent out to all peoples” (CCC 868) – just as the Seventy Two were – to make disciples of all nations (CCC 849). More about this below in the commentary on the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Sundays in Ordinary Time.

The First Reading likens the comfort God gives His people to the comfort a mother gives her child. We should realize that while “God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes . . . the intimacy between Creator and creature (CCC 239[2]), nevertheless “Jesus revealed that God is Father” (CCC 240). “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (CCC 261). Our mother, given to us by Jesus Himself, is St. Mary, the Blessed Mother (CCC 964, 968).

• From the First Reading[3] (Isaiah 66:10-14c): Is 66:13 is cited in CCC 239 and 370.
• From the Second Reading (Galatians 6:14-18): Gal 6:15 is cited in CCC 1214.
• From the Alleluia (Colossians 3:15a, 16a): Col 3:16 is cited in CCC 2641.
• From the Gospel (Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 OR Luke 10:1-9): Lk 10:1-2 is cited in CCC 765; Lk 10:2 in CCC 2611; Lk 10:7 in CCC 2122; and Lk 10:17-20 in CCC 787.

July 13, Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Two Great Commandments affirmed by Jesus in today’s Gospel – to love God and to love our neighbor – express God’s entire will (CCC 2052, 2055). But we need to understand love. “To love is to will the good of another” (CCC 1766). To love others is to seek what Catholic Faith and Reason tell us what is good for them, not what their emotions and desires, nor our emotions and desires, tell us what is “good” for them.

The Two Great Commandments only make sense in union with all that Christ commands and all Catholic Doctrine (CCC 1824). In today’s Parable of the Good Samaritan, Our Lord tells us that loving our neighbor means loving everyone since everyone is our neighbor (CCC 1825). However, real love binds all the virtues in perfect harmony (CCC 1827). Love does not squash or obliterate any of the other virtues, such as prudence (CCC 1806), so we should love our neighbor prudently. There is an order of charity (CCC 2197) – we must have priorities in our various relationships and responsibilities. For example, we generally have a greater commitment to the members of our families than we do to strangers (CCC 2201). Only to our spouses do we promise to be faithful, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and to honor all the days of our lives. There is no doctrine spelling out just what the order of charity is.

The Second Reading provides a fairly thorough summary of Jesus’ identity. He is the Word of God (CCC 241). He had a role in Creation (CCC 291). He is the center of the angelic world (CCC 331). He actually experienced death (CCC 624). He inaugurates the new creation when He comes again (CCC 504), and He is the principle of our resurrection in that new creation (CCC 658). The Church is His Body (CCC 753).

• From the Second Reading (Colossians 1:15-20): Col 1:15-20 is cited in CCC 2641; Col 1:15 in CCC 241, 299, 381, and 1701; Col 1:16-17 in CCC 291; Col 1:16 in CCC 331; Col 1:18-20 in CCC 624; and Col 1:18 in CCC 504, 658, 753, and 792.
• From the Alleluia (John 6:63c, 68c): Jn 6:63 is cited in CCC 2766; and Jn 6:68 in CCC 1336.
• From the Gospel (Luke 10:25-37): Lk 10:25-37 is cited in CCC 2822; Lk 10:27-35 in CCC 1825; Lk 10:27 in CCC 2083; and Lk 10:34 in CCC 1293.

July 20, Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Like last week, the Second Reading tells us that the Church is the Body of Christ. And so “[i]t is in the Church that Christ fulfills and reveals his own mystery” (CCC 772). What is the Church? Christ wants one Church (CCC 813, 820). “This sole Church of Christ . . . subsists in (subsistit in) the Catholic Church” (CCC 816). This means that, on the one hand, those who have been baptized with water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit “have a right to be called Christians” (CCC 818). Their communities of faith have “many elements of sanctification and of truth” (CCC 819). They are “in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church” (CCC 838). On the other hand, their faith communities’ “power [as means of salvation] derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church” (CCC 819). The Catholic Church alone “has the fullness of the means of salvation” (CCC 816). “The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation” (CCC 845).

Even so, we should realize that not only Catholics will be saved. “Those, who through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church . . . may achieve eternal salvation” (CCC 847). However, “the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men” (CCC 848).

Everyone in the Church “must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her” (CCC 820). What unifies the Church is charity, one faith, common worship in the Sacraments, and apostolic succession (CCC 815, 837). Everyone is called to holiness (CCC 2013) and evangelization (CCC 2044). Yet “[f]rom the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from both the variety of God’s gifts and the diversity of those who receive them” (CCC 814). One example of diversity is found in the rites of the Eastern Churches in union with the pope – such as the Byzantine Rite, Maronite Rite, etc. – which are “of equal right and dignity” with the Roman Rite (CCC 1203). Other examples of diversity are spiritualities, (CCC 457, 2684), offices and ministries (CCC 873), and charisms (CCC 799, 951).

In my own words, there are ways Catholics should be united and in agreement, and there are ways in which faithful Catholics may differ from and disagree with each other. All Catholics, including all those who have been ordained, should agree with every Catholic doctrine. All Catholics, including all those who have been ordained, should obey Church discipline as found in Canon Law and liturgical rubrics. Catholics may differ from each other in spirituality. Catholics need to differ from each other in office and ministry. Catholics may disagree with each other in matters of prudential judgment, which means that lay Catholics may disagree with ordained Catholics in matters of prudential judgment.

• From the First Reading (Genesis 18:1-10a): Gn 18:1-15 is cited in CCC 706 and 2571; and Gn 18:10-14 in CCC 489.
• From the Second Reading (Colossians 1:24-28): Col 1:24 is cited in CCC 307, 618, and 1508; and Col 1:27 in CCC 568 and 772.
• From the Alleluia (Luke 8:15): Lk 8:15 is cited in CCC 368 and 2668.

July 27, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s Gospel, Jesus, who is “the master and model of our prayer” (CCC 2775), gives us “the fundamental Christian prayer” (CCC 2759) – the Our Father, or Lord’s Prayer. It is “the summary of the whole gospel,” (CCC 2761). It is “the most perfect of prayers” (CCC 2774). In the Our Father, Christ teaches that “Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come” and so we should “pray first for the Kingdom, then for what is necessary to welcome it and cooperate with its coming” (CCC 2632). See my commentary on Christ the King for more on the Kingdom of God.

The Catechism notes that the only time Jesus uses the words “our Father” is when He is giving words for His followers to use when they pray. Otherwise, He “distinguished his sonship [to the Father] from that of his disciples” because He is God the Son (CCC 443). We are not children of the Father the way Jesus is the Son of the Father.

Today’s Second Reading could well serve as a Reading for the Easter Vigil, when catechumens are baptized. It is a good reminder of what our own Baptism should constantly mean for us. It tells us that “the original and full sign of [Baptism] is immersion, [which] efficaciously signifies the descent into [Christ’s] tomb by the Christian who dies to sin with Christ in order to live a new life” (CCC 628). This has three important meanings. (1) Baptism itself is a kind of, or share in, dying and rising with Christ, which makes us members of His Mystical Body, the Church (CCC 1267). (2) Baptism should lead us to lives that are dying and rising with Christ (CCC 1002, 1214), which includes living in harmony with Catholic moral doctrine (CCC 1694). (3) The fulfillment of Baptism is rising from the dead at Christ’s Second Coming to share His Resurrection in the Kingdom of God (CCC 1003).

Doctrines about Baptism remain true regardless of how the rituals of Baptism change in Church history (CCC 1229-1233). Any liturgical change is only valid if it is in harmony with Catholic Doctrine. Doctrines about Baptism are most fully accepted by accepting all Catholic Doctrine (CCC 1691-1698).

• From the First Reading (Genesis 18:20-32): Gn 18:20 is cited in CCC 1867.
• From the Responsorial Psalm (Psalms 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8): Ps 138 is cited in CCC 304; and Ps138:2 in CCC 214.
• From the Second Reading (Colossians 2:12-14): Col 2:12 is cited in CCC 628, 1002, 1214, 1227, and 1694.
• From the Alleluia (Romans 8:15bc): Rom 8:15 is cited in CCC 257, 693, 1303, 1972, 2777, and 2639.
• From the Gospel (Luke 11:1-13): Lk 11:1 is cited in CCC 520, 2601, 2759, and 2773; Lk 11:2-4 in CCC 2759; Lk 11:2 in CCC 2632; Lk 11:4 in CCC 1425 and 2845; Lk 11:5-13 in CCC 2613; Lk 11:9 in CCC 2761; and Lk 11:13 in CCC 443, 728, and 2671.

[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 239” means paragraph 239 of the Catechism.

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