Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.
~~Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.
~~Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
MONDAY OF THE TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Lectionary: 372
Reading I
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent envoys to Hezekiah
with this message:
“Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:
‘Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you
by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over
to the king of Assyria.
You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done
to all other countries: they doomed them!
Will you, then, be saved?’”
Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it;
then he went up to the temple of the LORD,
and spreading it out before him,
he prayed in the LORD’s presence:
“O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim!
You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth.
You have made the heavens and the earth.
Incline your ear, O LORD, and listen!
Open your eyes, O LORD, and see!
Hear the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.
Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations
and their lands, and cast their gods into the fire;
they destroyed them because they were not gods,
but the work of human hands, wood and stone.
Therefore, O LORD, our God, save us from the power of this man,
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know
that you alone, O LORD, are God.”
Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent this message to Hezekiah:
“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel,
in answer to your prayer for help against Sennacherib, king of Assyria:
I have listened!
This is the word the LORD has spoken concerning him:
“‘She despises you, laughs you to scorn,
the virgin daughter Zion!
Behind you she wags her head,
daughter Jerusalem.
“‘For out of Jerusalem shall come a remnant,
and from Mount Zion, survivors.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.’
“Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:
‘He shall not reach this city, nor shoot an arrow at it,
nor come before it with a shield,
nor cast up siege-works against it.
He shall return by the same way he came,
without entering the city, says the LORD.
I will shield and save this city for my own sake,
and for the sake of my servant David.’”
That night the angel of the LORD went forth and struck down
one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.
So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, broke camp,
and went back home to Nineveh.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 9d) God upholds his city for ever.
Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, fairest of heights,
is the joy of all the earth.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Mount Zion, “the recesses of the North,”
is the city of the great King.
God is with her castles;
renowned is he as a stronghold.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
O God, we ponder your mercy
within your temple.
As your name, O God, so also your praise
reaches to the ends of the earth.
Of justice your right hand is full.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever follows me will have the light of life.
R. Alleluia
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the Law and the Prophets.
“Enter through the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction,
and those who enter through it are many.
How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.
And those who find it are few.”
******************************
THE GOLDEN PATH
What do you do when you humbly and lovingly try to help someone understand a spiritual or moral truth, but your words are rejected? In today's Gospel reading, Jesus tells us to stop trying.
When we offer pearls to "pigs", they don't recognize it as a treasure, and since it seems unfitting for their pigsties, they respond in the only way that makes sense to them: They trample on it. Or if they want to please us, they try to eat the pearls but they choke. Under these circumstances, it's actually more loving to keep the pearls away from them.
Let's analyze an incident when you tried to help someone change and that person rejected your advice. At what point would it have been best to quit trying because you were casting pearls before swine? We have to become good at discerning when to try and when to quit, and we can only do this well through the help of the Holy Spirit. Timing is everything, and only God knows when the timing is perfect.
Isn't this how we like to be treated? Don't we prefer that others keep their mouths shut when we're not ready for their advice? In our Gospel reading today, Jesus gives us the "Golden Rule" as a sign-post that keeps us on the narrow road (to the "narrow gate") of unconditional love. The precursor to this was the "Silver Rule", the ancient Jewish maxim that said: "Do not do to others what you don't want them doing to you." But this is not love! Enemies can follow the Silver Rule; it takes love to follow the Golden Rule: "Treat others the way you'd like to be treated."
Sometimes we think the Golden Rule goes like this: "Treat others the way you want them to treat you, in order to get them to treat you the same way." But this is not love. This is bribery.
Love is: "I'll do a good deed for this jerk who's irritating me, regardless of how he treats me back, because I care about him more than he deserves."
Love is: "Why am I arguing with this guy? The way I'd like to be treated is for him to stop fighting with me, so that's how I'll treat him. He's not accepting my pearls of wisdom anyway, so I'll become quiet."
Love is: "I'm not getting as much love and attention and concern from my spouse (or adult child or friend or ---) as I should, but God gives me all that I need, so I'll give away the love that I wish I was getting and be satisfied with God alone."
If we live by the Golden Rule, we walk in the footsteps of Christ who leads us all the way to the Golden Gate of heaven.
Today's Prayer
Beloved Jesus, today I want to ask You for Your Holy Spirit to teach me how to truly love. May Your Holy Spirit's power touch my heart and empower me to love my neighbors and myself as Jesus taught us. I ask this through the intercession of Your Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Amen.
God Bless You.....
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