DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
JUNE 14, 2023
WEDNESDAY OF THE TENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
FIRST READING
2 CORINTHIANS 3:4-11
4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, 6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 Now if the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such splendor that the Israelites could not look at Moses' face because of its brightness, fading as this was, 8 will not the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor? 9 For if there was splendor in the dispensation of condemnation, the dispensation of righteousness must far exceed it in splendor. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had splendor has come to have no splendor at all, because of the splendor that surpasses it. 11 For if what faded away came with splendor, what is permanent must have much more splendor.
The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 98(99):5-9
Response: Holy is the Lord our God.
Extol the LORD our God;
worship at his footstool!
Holy is he!
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
they kept his testimonies,
and the statutes that he gave them.
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
O LORD our God, thou didst answer them;
thou wast a forgiving God to them,
but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
Extol the LORD our God,
and worship at his holy mountain;
for the LORD our God is holy!
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
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GOSPEL
Great are those who teach and obey the commandments
MATTHEW 5:17-19
17 "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away,not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
What you teach, you should do, by Chromatius (died 406 AD)
"While it is sinful to abolish the least of the commandments, all the more so the great and most important ones. Hence the Holy Spirit affirms through Solomon: 'Whoever despises the little things shall gradually die' (Sirach 19:1b). Consequently nothing in the divine commandments must be abolished, nothing altered. Everything must be preserved and taught faithfully and devotedly that the glory of the heavenly kingdom may not be lost. Indeed, those things considered least important and small by the unfaithful or by worldly people are not small before God but necessary. For the Lord taught the commandments and did them. Even small things point to the great future of the kingdom of heaven. For this reason, not only words but also deeds are important; and you should not only teach, but what you teach, you should do."
(excerpt from TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 20.2.3)
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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.