Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
396

FIRST READING

MIC 7:14-15, 18-20

Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
That dwells apart in a woodland,
in the midst of Carmel.
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead,
as in the days of old;
As in the days when you came from the land of Egypt,
show us wonderful signs.

Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt
and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance;
Who does not persist in anger forever,
but delights rather in clemency,
And will again have compassion on us,
treading underfoot our guilt?
You will cast into the depths of the sea
all our sins;
You will show faithfulness to Jacob,
and grace to Abraham,
As you have sworn to our fathers
from days of old.

PSALM

PS 85:2-4, 5-6, 7-8

Response: Lord, show us your mercy and love.

You have favored, O LORD, your land;
you have brought back the captives of Jacob.
You have forgiven the guilt of your people;
you have covered all their sins.
You have withdrawn all your wrath;
you have revoked your burning anger.

Restore us, O God our savior,
and abandon your displeasure against us.
Will you be ever angry with us,
prolonging your anger to all generations?

Will you not instead give us life;
and shall not your people rejoice in you?
Show us, O LORD, your kindness,
and grant us your salvation.

GOSPEL

MT 12:46-50

While Jesus was speaking to the crowds,
his mother and his brothers appeared outside,
wishing to speak with him.
Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside,
asking to speak with you.”
But he said in reply to the one who told him,
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father
is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Daily Reflection

When we say we are doing God’s will, does it mean that we forfeit our own free will? The words of Jesus in Gethsemane, “…let your will not mine be done” and the words of Mary, “… be it done to me according to your will” are not passive submissions to God’s desire. Both, Jesus and Mary show us that doing God’s will is a discerned wilful submission of our ‘free will’ to what we believe God calls us to, because we are convinced.

In today’s Gospel, by saying that all who ‘do God’s will’ are his mother and brothers, Jesus is actually praising his mother and brothers for being true disciples. He is also clarifying that relationship with Him comes not from being a blood relative, but from hearing the Word and living it!

The hymn of Micah in the first reading is an invitation to God to once again lead His people, as in the past. And even though the people in the past had not always submitted their will to His, God remained faithful to the covenant!