December 13, 2013

Memorial of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr 
Lectionary: 185
Reading 1 IS 48:17-19

Thus says the LORD, your redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel:

The Lord is speaking to Isaiah.

I, the LORD, your God,
teach you what is for your good,
and lead you on the way you should go.

God has taught us how to live righteously if we follow his commandments.

If you would hearken to my commandments,
your prosperity would be like a river,
and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
Your descendants would be like the sand,
and those born of your stock like its grains,
Their name never cut off
or blotted out from my presence.

If we had followed his commandments and lived according to his word the world would be at our fingertips and life would be very good.

Responsorial Psalm PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6

R. (see John 8:12) Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

God's grace is with the man who obey God's word and does what is good and righteous. But God's anger is poured out upon the man who disobeys God and does what is bad and wicked.

Gospel MT 11:16-19

Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare this generation?
It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance,
we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,
‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”

This generation is the same as the generation to which Jesus came. In modern parlance Jesus would've said, "I can't win for losing."

We see it all the time in the media's persecution of the Catholic Church. Take for example the Catholic Church's role in the saving of Jews during the Hitler era. When I was growing up it was widely known that the Catholic Church rescued more Jews from German persecution than any other state or organization in the world.

But today, history has been twisted to turn the Catholic Church into an accomplice of Hitler.

It doesn't matter how much good the Catholic Church does, her enemies will try to smear anything that she does.