Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
426

FIRST READING

2 THES 2:1-3A, 14-17

We ask you, brothers and sisters,
with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our assembling with him,
not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly,
or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement,
or by a letter allegedly from us
to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.
Let no one deceive you in any way.

To this end he has also called you through our Gospel
to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm
and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught,
either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement
and good hope through his grace,
encourage your hearts and strengthen them
in every good deed and word.

PSALM

96:10, 11-12, 13

Response: The Lord comes to judge the earth.

Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He has made the world firm, not to be moved;
he governs the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult.

Before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.

GOSPEL

MT 23:23-26

Jesus said:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may be clean.”

Daily Reflection

Even in ordinary liturgical time, the Christian life is an Advent — a patient waiting for the Lord. It is not easy to wait, and so the readings today offer us a warning, an assurance and an instruction as we look to the Parousia.

The first reading warns us that while waiting on God, we must remain calm. One must not let any longing reach so much excitement that we get swayed by the wrong people making the wrong predictions. A non-vigilant heart is easily swayed by deception.

St. Paul complements the warning with an assurance — that our waiting is not in vain, because God’s inexhaustible comfort and strength is present in this daily Christian vigil we make.

Finally, Jesus, by unveiling the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, seeks to offer an important instruction to his disciples — that external purity is hypocritical without internal purity.

As we wait upon the Lord in our lives, let us calmly draw comfort and strength from God, by performing good deeds with good intentions.