In the Roman Catholic Church, August 25 is the annual feast of Saint Louis IX, King of France. Churches in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, may observe the feast, even on a Sunday. One liturgical authority there, in 2024, says churches should proclaim the readings of the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Click here for Lector's Notes on those readings.
See below, on this page, for readings ordained for the feast by another local liturgical authority.
August 25, 2024, Feast of Saint Louis, in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis
Former exiles returned to Jerusalem were disappointed that it was taking so long to restore their city. Isaiah told them it was their fault because they were not sharing. Then he gives them an alternative.
Earlier chapters of this letter explain how baptism makes Christians into a new creation in Christ. This chapter explains how the recreated person should now live.
The scriptures of the Jews contained over 600 laws, of varying detail. It was customary to argue over how to summarize them, and how to weigh their relative importance. Here they are the subject of a contest between Jesus and one of the groups that would later persecute Matthew's community.
The Historical Situation: The book we know as Isaiah is really the work of three authors, written at different times. Chapters 56-66, what scholars call Third Isaiah or Trito-Isaiah, is from the time the Jews were recently returned from exile in Babylon. The Exile had been very, very traumatic for the people, and led to some serious re-thinking of their theology, at least on the part of some. The former exiles had hoped for a quick restoration of their beloved capital Jerusalem, but that project was frustratingly slow. The people wondered why their suffering was so prolonged. The prophet's response is unsympathetic: it's your own fault; it's because you're not sharing.
The specific problem seems to have been trasactional. The people were doing ritual fasts, as their priests ordered, but God was not fulfilling his part of the bargain by making them prosper.
Here's the whole of Isaiah, chapter 58. It's in the form of a rant by God, shouted at the prophet, who is to relay it to the people. In some verses, God mockingly quotes the private thoughts of the people. The verses for liturgies on the feast of Saint Louis IX, King of France, are in red.
1. Shout for all you are worth, do not hold back, raise your voice like a trumpet. To my people proclaim their rebellious acts, to the House of Jacob, their sins. 2. They seek for me day after day, they long to know my ways, like a nation that has acted uprightly and not forsaken the law of its God. They ask me for laws that are upright, they long to be near God: 3. 'Why have we fasted, if you do not see, why mortify ourselves if you never notice?' Look, you seek your own pleasure on your fastdays and you exploit all your workmen; 4. look, the only purpose of your fasting is to quarrel and squabble and strike viciously with your fist. Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high. 5. Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a day when a person inflicts pain on himself? Hanging your head like a reed, spreading out sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh? 6. Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes? 7. Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin? 8. Then your light will blaze out like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Saving justice will go ahead of you and Yahweh's glory come behind you. 9. Then you will cry for help and Yahweh will answer; you will call and he will say, 'I am here.' If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words, 10. if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkest hour will be like noon. 11. Yahweh will always guide you, will satisfy your needs in the scorched land; he will give strength to your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never run dry. 12. Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt; you will build on age -- old foundations. You will be called 'Breach-mender', 'Restorer of streets to be lived in'. 13. If you refrain from breaking the Sabbath, from taking your own pleasure on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath 'Delightful', and the day sacred to Yahweh 'Honourable', if you honour it by abstaining from travel, from seeking your own pleasure and from too much talk, 14. then you will find true happiness in Yahweh, and I shall lead you in triumph over the heights of the land. I shall feed you on the heritage of your father Jacob, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.
Proclaiming It: This suggests that disappointment is not an acceptable excuse for failing to care for those worse off than ourselves. God's demand that we share with the hungry and homeless is uncompromising.
So you should read this with great authority in your voice. And notice this structure:
Hey, this is our patronal feast! Does that change how we should proclaim the readings? That's a good question. This is special. Saint King Louis IX was an exceptional person. If we claim him as patron, then his virtues have a claim on us.
As a lector, you bring your humanity to the act of reading. So it's okay to sound as if Isaiah has persuaded you to break unjust fetters, to share food with the hungry. And it's okay to try to sound like you imagine Isaiah speaking. But Isaiah knew nothing of a future saint named Louis or of a future church that would beg his patronage. That's not how scripture is inspired. The lector's job in this liturgy is to make the prophet and his struggle with his community come alive. Then the burden of melding this with temporal, festal concerns belongs to the homilist, and to the music-director who chooses hymns.
The Historical Situation: Prior chapters of Colossians have explained how the Christian is made a new creation by baptism into Christ. The letter winds up, as Paul's letters often do, with ethical exhortations. He's saying, in effect, "Because you're recreated, here's how you should now behave." Here are the verses:
12. As the chosen of God, then, the holy people whom he loves, you are to be clothed in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and humility, gentleness and patience. 13. Bear with one another; forgive each other if one of you has a complaint against another. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same. 14. Over all these clothes, put on love, the perfect bond. 15. And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it is for this that you were called together in one body. Always be thankful. 16. Let the Word of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you. Teach each other, and advise each other, in all wisdom. With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs to God; 17. and whatever you say or do, let it be in the name of the Lord Jesus, in thanksgiving to God the Father through him.
Proclaiming It: Read this quietly a few times and imagine how nice it would be to live among people who try to live this way (maybe you already do). Think gratefully about the compassionate, forgiving people you do know. Steep your soul in that gratitude for a few minutes. When you go to the lectern to proclaim this passage, remember those feelings. You want your listeners to say "I'm in!" when they hear your description of the healthy Christian community, so you have to sound like you want in, too.
Sainte Chapelle, Paris, built by 13th-century King Saint Louis IX to house the relics he acquired from the Holy Land. Photo from the informative and engaging website Snippets of Paris.
This page updated August 17, 2024