FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 48:17-19)
“O that you had listened to my commandments!”
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.”
The word of the Lord.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM (Psalm 1:1-2.3.4 and 6 (R. see John 8: 12)
R. He who follows you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Blessed indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the path with sinners,
nor abides in the company of scorers,
but whose delight is the law of the LORD,
and who ponders his law day and night. R
He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper. R
Not so are the wicked, not so !For they,
like winnowed chaff,
shall be driven away by the wind.
For the Lord knows the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked will perish. R
ALLELUIA
Alleluia. Alleluia The Lord is coming,
run out to meet him; he is the prince of peace
Alleluia.
GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Matthew 11:16-19)
They listened neither to John nor to the Son of man.
At that time: Jesus said to the crowds, “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Today’s Reflection
In the first reading those who fail to live in the way of the Lord are blamed. Their painful situation is due to the fact that they have abandoned the way of the Lord. The second reading exposes further the fate of those who fail to follow the Lord. They are always complaining, no matter what. At the end however, wisdom, which is the fear of the Lord, will vindicate the innocent. Lesson: stop complaining. Face reality and face your own existential situation, always trusting in the Lord.
Lord, grant that our thoughts, words and actions will always testify to the fact that the only way to be happy is to trust and obey.