DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth week in Ordinary Time (September 19)

"How shall I compare this generation?"

GOSPEL

Luke 7:31-35

31 "To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, `We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.' 33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, `He has a demon.' 34 The Son of man has come eating and drinking; and you say, `Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children."

The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The song and dances of the prophets, by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.

"'Therefore, wisdom is justified by all her children.' He fittingly says 'by all,' because justice is preserved around all. In order that an acceptance of the faithful may happen, a rejection of the unbelieving must occur. Very many Greeks say this, Wisdom is justified by all her works, because the duty of justice is to preserve the measure around the merit of each. It aptly says, We have piped to you, and you have not danced. Moses sang a song when he stopped the flow in the Red Sea for the crossing of the Jews (Exodus 15:1-18), and the same waves encircled the horses of the Egyptians and, falling back, drowned their riders. Isaiah sang a song of his beloveds vineyard (Isaiah 5:1-7), signifying that the people who before had been fruitful with abundant virtues would be desolate through shameful acts. The Hebrews sang a song when the soles of their feet grew moist at the touch of the bedewing flame, and while all burned within and without, the harmless fire caressed them alone and did not scorch (Daniel 3:19-25). Habakkuk also learned to assuage universal grief with a song and prophesied that the sweet passion of the Lord would happen for the faithful (Habakkuk 3:13). The prophets sang songs with spiritual measures, resounding with prophecies of universal salvation. The prophets wept, softening the hard hearts of the Jews with sorrowful lamentations" (Isaiah 46:12).

(excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6.6-7)
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FIRST READING

1 Corinthians 12:31--13:13

12 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.13 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; 10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. 13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALM 32(33):2-3, 4-5, 12, 22

Response: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten stringed lyre chant his praises.
Sing to him a new song;
pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness.

R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

For upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.

R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.

R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
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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.