Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection September 18, 2024

18th September 2024 (Wednesday)

Psalter: Week 4

Reading of the Day

First Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

Brethren: Earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Psalm 33:2-3, 4-5, 12 and 22 (R. 12b)

R/. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen as his heritage.

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. Your word, Lord, are Spirit and life; you have the words of eternal life.

R/. Alleluia.

Gospel: Luke 7:31-35

At that time: Jesus said, “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Daily Gospel Reflection

Wednesday – Twenty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time

Guidelines: Often the real problem is not the reality but the perspective toward the reality. Put on the perspective of Love and then you will see everything with a world of difference

1. It is natural that everyone wishes that the realities change as they wish and prefer. But nature and life have their own rhythm and rules and they do not change according to our likes and dislikes. In fact, it is our optic that must change.

2. As we see the reality, we will speak and act. Perspective and mind-set is very important. A negative outlook negativizes everything even the best positive. There are many who are so stubborn and do not accept others’ opinions or ideas, because they are so much stuck to their own mental frame.

3. They want all others to play and dance to their own tunes. They understand and interpret things according to their convenience and for their advantage. They always have something to blame and nothing can really satisfy them.

4. This was precisely the case with the Pharisees and scribes. They rejected John the Baptist because he was too austere and exigent with a demanding message of repentance and conversion.

5. They rejected Jesus too because he was too flexible and compassionate especially towards the despised and condemned lot, with a disconcerting and forgiving mission of love and reconciliation, faith and a transformed life.

6. The problem was neither John the Baptist nor Jesus but it was themselves. They were not open to see and accept the truth and the call for conversion. Their obstinacy barricaded them within their own prejudiced perspectives. They lacked the wisdom of God to discern rightly and to change humbly.

7. In our times too such closed people are numerous! It is in this context Paul’s hymn of love is highly significant. See everything from the glasses of love and everything will appear bright and understandable. Put in a little more love in whatever we think, say or do, and then life will become more meaningful and pleasant

Practice: Our negative perspectives often blind and constrict us to be responsive and responsible. Love endows us with a positive perspective and makes us joyfully charitable