December 13, 2019 Memorial of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr
2019년 12월 13일 대림 제2주간 금요일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
제1독서
이사야서. 48,17-19
17 이스라엘의 거룩하신 분
너의 구원자이신 주님께서 이렇게 말씀하신다.
“나는 주 너의 하느님
너에게 유익하도록 너를 가르치고
네가 가야 할 길로 너를 인도하는 이다.
18 아, 네가 내 계명들에 주의를 기울였다면
너의 평화가 강물처럼, 너의 의로움이 바다 물결처럼 넘실거렸을 것을.
19 네 후손들이 모래처럼, 네 몸의 소생들이 모래알처럼 많았을 것을.
그들의 이름이 내 앞에서 끊어지지도 없어지지도 않았을 것을.”
복음
마태오. 11,16-19
그때에 예수님께서 군중에게 말씀하셨다.
16 “이 세대를 무엇에 비기랴?
장터에 앉아 서로 부르며 이렇게 말하는 아이들과 같다.
17 ‘우리가 피리를 불어 주어도 너희는 춤추지 않고
우리가 곡을 하여도 너희는 가슴을 치지 않았다.’
18 사실 요한이 와서 먹지도 않고 마시지도 않자,
‘저자는 마귀가 들렸다.’ 하고 말한다.
19 그런데 사람의 아들이 와서 먹고 마시자,
‘보라, 저자는 먹보요 술꾼이며 세리와 죄인들의 친구다.’ 하고 말한다.
그러나 지혜가 옳다는 것은 그 지혜가 이룬 일로 드러났다.”
December 13, 2019
Memorial of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr
Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass
Reading 1
Is 48:17-19
Thus says the LORD, your redeemer,
the Holy one of Israel:
I, the LORD, your God,
teach you what is for your good,
and lead you on the way you should go.
If you would hearken to my commandments,
your prosperity would be like a river,
and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
Your descendants would be like the sand,
and those born of your stock like its grains,
Their name never cut off
or blotted out from my presence.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. (see John 8:12) Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Gospel
Mt 11:16-19
Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare this generation?
It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance,
we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,
‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”
http://evangeli.net/gospel/tomorrow
«To what can I compare the people of this day?»
Fr. Antoni CAROL i Hostench
(Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain)
Today, we should be distraught before the Lord’s sigh: «To what can I compare the people of this day?» (Mt 11:16). Jesus is overwhelmed by our heart, more often than not, nonconforming and ungrateful. We are never fulfilled; we are complaining all the time. We even dare to blame Him for all the things that disturb us.
«Yet the outcome will prove Wisdom to be right» (Mt 11:19): it suffices to just look at the Christmas mystery. But what about us? how is our faith? Could it be that our complaints are actually harboring the nonexistence of our reply? A very appropriate query for the time of Advent!
God comes to our encounter, but man —especially the present-day man— hides out from Him. Some, as Herod, are really afraid of Him. Others are even harassed by his simple presence: «Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!» (Jn 19:15). Jesus «is the God-who-comes» (Benedict XVI) and we look like "the-man-who-goes away": «He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him» (Jn 1:11).
Why do we run away? Because of our lack of meekness. Saint John the Baptist recommended us to "dwindle". And the Church reminds us so, every time the Advent comes. We must, therefore, become as little children to be able to understand and receive the "Little God". He appears in front of us with the humility of his swaddling-clothes: never before a “God-wrapped-in-swaddling clothes” had been preached! We project a ridiculous image before God when we try to conceal ourselves with pretexts and dishonest explanations. Already at the dawn of humanity, Adam blamed Eve; Eve blamed the snake..., after all the centuries gone by, we remain just the same.
Jesus-God, however, is coming: in the cold and the poverty of Bethlehem he neither admonished nor rebuked us. on the contrary! He begins to load his small shoulders with the weight of all our faults. Should we, then, be afraid of Him? Will our apologies be truly worth before this "Little-God"? «God’s sign is the Baby: we learn to live with him and to practice with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love» (Benedict XVI).
«Yet the outcome will prove Wisdom to be right»
+ Fr. Pere GRAU i Andreu
(Les Planes, Barcelona, Spain)
Today, let's stop to think about how often it is that we have to go to funerals. However... it's not very often that think about our own funeral. It is just like a subconscious strategy which postpones our death sine die.
Just observing the rhythm of what surrounds us in nature reminds us of this fact. We deduce that —in a certain way— we are not that different from a plant, or any other living thing... We are bound by, whether we like it or not, the same natural law as all the other creatures surrounding us. With a very important difference!: The origin of our life, a life in the image and likeness of God, made for eternity.
Advent is infused with this idea. The Lord comes, in great splendor, and visits His people, with peace, talking of eternal life. It is a warning: «Yet the outcome will prove Wisdom to be right» (Mt 11:19). Let's have a receptive attitude to Lord!
«Prepare the way of the Lord, level his paths» (Mk 1:3), the Dominican II of Advent (cycle B) reads. Be careful how you behave socially! it seems to suggest today. It is as though it were saying: —Do not be an obstacle to God's loving communication.
It is necessary to smoothen out our character. It is necessary to reform our way of acting. We have to change all things that make our responsibility false: pride, ambition, revenge, unforgivingness, etc. Those attitudes that make us gods in our world, which prevent us from seeing that we are not at all the owners of it. We are miniscule in the extensive history of Humanity.
John's disciples experienced the purification of their errors. We, Jesus' disciples, can live the insuperable experience of purification from all our sins, with the hope eternal life: another Christmas!
Let's renew our dialog with him. Let's say our prayer of hope and love, without paying attention to the noisy world that surrounds us.
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
Being a teacher by training, I find myself pondering the notion of enduring understandings, or how it is that we acquire knowledge that lasts a lifetime. It is an interest of mine because I see so many examples in society of where enduring knowledge eludes us. Sometimes, it is because we are not ready to learn the lesson. Other times, it might be that the teacher was ineffective. But, in so many cases, it is simply because the truth of the lesson makes us uncomfortable.
When I reflect on today’s passage from the Gospel of Mark, I am reminded of that third scenario. In this passage, Jesus shares his observations of the crowds and how quickly they rejected the truth because of an insincere critique of the teacher. It was easier to dismiss John’s truths because John lived a life of austerity. Conversely, the truth of the path to salvation was set aside because Jesus was so public with his encounters with sinners and tax collectors. The truth is not always easy to hear, and it is human nature to find reasons to reject the lesson.
In today’s culture and contemporary society, it is not hard to find examples of how we similarly reject the hard truth. Whether it be with the current sex abuse crisis that is tightening its icy grip on the Church and its faithful, or with the intense misunderstandings that arise about the Church’s position about divisive social issues, it becomes all too easy dismiss our faith in favor of the very same brand of ignorance about which Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel. Such behavior leads us down a treacherous road that imperils our very souls.
Our faith journey is organic and dynamic. It varies from person to person, and we bring our collective experience to bear when we confront the challenges of accepting the hard truth. For me, today’s psalm reveals answers about how we prepare ourselves to be more accepting of those hard lessons:
He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade (Ps 1:3).
Let us consider the source of our faith. Do we sink our roots deep into the shores near the living waters, striving for a sure foundation that will allow us to confront the challenges of the day? Or, perhaps, we find our roots seeking stability in a dry and shifting sand that provides little stability against the storm. Faith, after all, is “vindicated by her works” (Mt 11:19). Let us commit to strengthen our foundation in faith, to accept the truth for what it is despite our critique of the teacher, and to work together to set the world ablaze with the Glory of God’s love. For this process, after all, is the best recipe for enduring knowledge that will not only last this lifetime, but will prepare us for the next.
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
ERASED | ||
| "Their name never cut off or blotted out from My presence..." �Isaiah 48:19 | ||
When we decide to commit our lives to Jesus and express our faith through Baptism, our names are inscribed in the book of the living. This decision to accept Christ is more important than anything else in life. Jesus said: "Do not rejoice so much in the fact that the devils are subject to you as that your names are inscribed in heaven" (Lk 10:20). On Judgment Day, anyone whose name is "not found inscribed in the book of the living" will be hurled into the pool of fire (Rv 20:15). However, once our names are in the book, they can be erased. Our names can be cut off and blotted out from His presence (cf Is 48:19). "The Lord answered, 'Him only who has sinned against Me will I strike out of My book' " (Ex 32:33; see also Ps 69:29). However, if we are victorious over the temptations of the evil one, our names will never be erased. Jesus promised: "The victor shall go clothed in white. I will never erase his name from the book of the living, but will acknowledge him in the presence of My Father" (Rv 3:5). Twelve days from today will be Christmas. Will you celebrate Christ and Christmas eternally or choose by sin to be erased? Make this Christmas last forever. "Be solicitous to make your call and election permanent, brothers; surely those who do so will never be lost. on the contrary, your entry into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for" (2 Pt 1:10-11). | ||
| Prayer: Jesus, may I never erase You from any part of my life. | ||
| Promise: "Time will prove where wisdom lies." —Mt 11:19 | ||
| Praise: St. Lucy, who lived in Sicily, bravely won a martyr's crown under the yoke of Emperor Diocletian's persecution. |
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
The Lord will lead you in the way you should go
Do you seek God's way of peace and wisdom for your life? The prophets remind us that God’s kingdom is available to those who are teachable and receptive to the word of God. Through their obedience to God's word and commandments, they receive not only wisdom and peace for themselves, but they, in turn become a blessing to their children and their offspring as well. Jesus warns the generation of his day to heed God's word before it is too late. He compares proud teachers and vain scholars with stubborn playmates who refuse to follow wise counsel and instruction.
Jesus parable about a group of disappointed musicians and their stubborn friends who refuse to sing or dance at the appropriate occasion challenge us to examine whether we are selective to only hear and do what we want to hear. The young music players in Jesus' parable react with great dismay because they cannot get anyone to follow their instruction. They complain that if they play their music at weddings, no one will join in their festive song and dance; and if they play mournful tunes and songs at funerals, no one will join in at all. This parable echoes the wisdom of Ecclesiastes 3:4 - "there is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance." Are you in tune with the message of God's kingdom? And do you heed God's word of wisdom and truth as if your life depended on it?
Spiritual indifference and deaf ears can block God's word for us
Jesus' message of the kingdom of God is a proclamation of good news that produces great joy and hope for those who listen and obey - but it is also a warning of bad consequences and disaster for those who refuse to accept God's gracious invitation. Why did the message of John the Baptist and the message of Jesus meet with resistance and deaf ears? It was out of jealously and spiritual blindness that the scribes and Pharisees attributed John the Baptist's austerities to the devil and they attributed Jesus' table fellowship as evidence for pretending to be the Messiah. They succeeded in frustrating God's plan for their lives because they had closed their hearts to the message of John the Baptist and now they close their ears to Jesus, God's anointed Son sent to redeem us from bondage to sin and death.
What can make us spiritually dull and slow to hear God's voice? Like the generation of Jesus' time, our age is marked by indifference and contempt, especially in regards to the things of heaven. Indifference dulls our ears to God's voice and to the good news of the Gospel. only the humble of heart can find joy and favor in God's sight. Is you life in tune with Jesus' message of hope and salvation? And do you know the joy and blessing of believing and obeying God's word?
"Lord Jesus, open my ears to hear the good news of your kingdom and set my heart free to love and serve you joyfully. May nothing keep me from following you wholeheartedly."
Psalm 1:1-6
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The river of forgiveness washes us clean, by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.
"This water is good, then. I mean here the grace of the Spirit. Who will give this Fountain to my heart? Let it spring up in me, let that which gives eternal life flow on me. Let that Fountain overflow on us and not flow away. For Wisdom says, 'Drink water out of your own vessels and from the fountains of your own wells, and let [not] your waters flow abroad in your streets' (Proverbs 5:15-16). How shall I keep this water so that it does not seep out or glide away? How shall I preserve my vessel, lest any crack of sin penetrating it should let the water of eternal life exude? Teach us, Lord Jesus, teach us as you taught your apostles, saying, 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where rust and moth destroy and where thieves break through and steal (Matthew 6:19)...
"If you seek Jesus, forsake the broken cisterns, for Christ did not make it his custom to sit by a pool but by a well. There that Samaritan woman (John 4:6) found him, she who believed, she who wished to draw water. Although you ought to have come in early morning, nevertheless if you come later, even at the sixth hour, you will find Jesus wearied with his journey. He is weary, but it is because of you, because he has long looked for you, your unbelief has long wearied him. Yet he is not offended if you only come now. He asks to drink who is about to give. But he drinks not the water of a stream flowing by, but your salvation. He drinks your good dispositions. He drinks the cup, that is, the passion that atoned for your sins, that you, drinking of his sacred blood, might quench the thirst of this world." (excerpt from ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 1.16.182–84)
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