Friday's Readings

Fr Ged shares his thoughts on the readings

First Reading: Isaiah 48:17-19

Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you,
I lead you in the way that you must go.
If only you had been alert to my commandments,
your happiness would have been like a river,
your integrity like the waves of the sea.
Your children would have been numbered like the sand,
your descendants as many as its grains.
Never would your name have been cut off or blotted out before me.

This is the word of the Lord.

Psalm 1:1-4, 6. R cf. Jn 8:12

Response: Anyone who follows you, Lord,
Will have the light of life.

Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day and night.

He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper.

Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind.
For the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom.

Gospel: Matthew 11: 16-19

Jesus spoke to the crowds: ‘What description can I find for this generation? It is like children shouting to each other as they sit in the market place:
“We played the pipes for you,
and you wouldn’t dance;
we sang dirges,
and you wouldn’t be mourners.”
‘For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He is possessed.” The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet wisdom has been proved right by her actions.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Reflections
It can be hard to know that what God teaches is what is good for us, spend a while thinking and praying about something that God teaches that is hard for you to believe or follow. Maybe you can pray for the grace to follow Him despite the difficulties.
In what ways have you seen the fruit of following God?
Pope John Paul II called this generation the saints of the new millennium, how can you live that out?