DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

JUNE 20, 2025

FRIDAY OF THE ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

FIRST READING

2 CORINTHIANS 11:18, 21-30

18 since many boast of worldly things, I too will boast. 21 To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that! But whatever any one dares to boast of I am speaking as a fool I also dare to boast of that. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one I am talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? 30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

The Word of the Lord
_

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALMS 33(34):2-7

Response: From all their distress God rescues the just.

I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and be glad.

R. From all their distress God rescues the just.

O magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
I sought the LORD, and he answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.

R. From all their distress God rescues the just.

Look to him, and be radiant;
so your faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him,
and saved him out of all his troubles.

R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
_

GOSPEL

Lay up treasure in heaven

MATTHEW 6:19-23

19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

The Gospel of the Lord
_

REFLECTION

DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS

Seeking the right intention, by Augustine of Hippo, 430-543 A.D.

"We know that all our works are pure and pleasing in the sight of God if they are performed with a single heart. This means that they are performed out of charity and with an intention that is fixed on heaven. For 'love is the fulfillment of the law'(Romans 13:10). Therefore in this passage we ought to understand the eye as the intention with which we perform all our actions. If this intention is pure and upright and directing its gaze where it ought to be directed, then unfailingly all our works are good works, because they are performed in accordance with that intention. And by the expression 'whole body,' Christ designated all those works that he reproves and that he commands us to put to death. For the apostle also designates certain works as our 'members.' 'Therefore,' Paul writes, 'mortify your members which are on earth: fornication, uncleanness, covetousness' (Colossians 3:5), and all other such things."

(excerpt from SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.13.45)
_

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.