The Gospel of December 1, 2025

Monday of the 1st Week of Advent

First Reading

The Lord gathers all nations in the eternal peace of his kingdom.

From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah
Is 2:1-5

The vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In the days to come,
the mountain of the Lord’s temple
shall be established as the highest of the mountains;
it shall be exalted above the hills,
and all nations shall stream toward it.
Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob,
that he may instruct us in his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For from Zion shall go forth instruction
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and arbitrate between many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
one nation shall not raise the sword
against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Word of God.

Responsorial Psalm

From Psalm 121 (122)

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

I rejoiced when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem. R.

Jerusalem is built as a city
that is united and compact.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord. R.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
May peace abide in your walls,
and security in your towers.” R.

For the sake of my relatives and friends,
I will say, “Peace be with you!”
For the sake of the house of the Lord, our God,
I will seek your good. R.

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia.

Lord, our God, come and set us free:
let your face shine, that we may be saved. (Cf. Ps 79 (80):4)

Alleluia.

The Gospel of the day, December 1, 2025

Many will come from the east and the west and will recline at table in the kingdom of heaven.

From the Gospel according to Matthew
Mt 8:5-11

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and pleaded with him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”
The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; but only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from the east and the west and will recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Saint Bernard (1091-1153)

Cistercian monk and Doctor of the Church

6th discourse on Advent

The whole earth shall be filled with the majesty of God

One day the Savior must return to restore strength to our body, as the Apostle Paul says: “We await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body” (Phil 3:20-21)… Then, God Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts, the King of glory will come down from heaven in person, to transform our bodies to conform them to his glorified body. What glory, what joy when the Creator of the universe, who hid himself under humble appearances when he came to redeem us, appears in all his glory and majesty…, to every gaze, to glorify our lowly bodies! Who will then remember the humility of his first coming, when we see him descend in light, preceded by the angels who, at the sound of the trumpet, will draw our body from the dust, to then bring it before the Lord? (1Thess 4:16ff)… Therefore, let our soul rejoice, and let our body rest in hope, awaiting Christ the Savior, who will transform it to conform it to his body of glory! “My soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water!” (Ps 62:2 Vulgate). The prophet called with his prayers for the first coming of the Savior who came to redeem him. But his flesh called even more ardently for the last coming in which it would be glorified. Then all our desires will be fulfilled: the whole earth shall be filled with the majesty of God. May God’s mercy deign to lead us to this glory, this blessedness, this peace which surpasses all understanding (Phil 4:7) and may our Lord Jesus Christ not allow our ardent expectation of the Savior to be disappointed.

THE WORDS OF THE POPES

The Lord, in the word we have heard, was amazed at this centurion: he was amazed at the faith he had. He had made a journey to meet the Lord, but he did it with faith. Because of this, not only did he meet the Lord, but he felt the joy of being met by the Lord. And this is precisely the encounter we want: the encounter of faith!” (…) “When we only meet the Lord, we are—in quotation marks, let’s say—the masters of this encounter; but when we allow ourselves to be met by Him, it is He who enters into us, it is He who makes everything new again for us, because this is the coming, that is what it means when Christ comes: to make everything new again, to remake the heart, the soul, life, hope, the path. We are on a journey with faith, with the faith of this centurion, to meet the Lord and mainly to let ourselves be met by Him!”(Pope Francis – Homily Santa Marta, December 2, 2013)