Wednesday, July 22, 2015
THURSDAY, 16th Week in Ordinary Time /
July 23, 2015 THURSDAY, 16th Week in Ordinary Time /
St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious
Green
Ex 19:1 – 2, 9-11, 16-20b / Mt 13:10 - 17
[St. Bridget of Sweden (1303 – 1373), a mother of eight children one of whom is canonized as St. Catherine of Sweden, became a Franciscan tertiary and founded a religious order.]
Reading: Ex 19:1 – 2, 9-11, 16-20b
Exactly two months after the Israelites had left Egypt, they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai. They arrived there coming from Rephidim and camped in the wilderness of Sinai.
Yahweh spoke to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people may hear me speaking with you and trust you always." Then Moses related to Yahweh what the people had said.
Again Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Go to the people and have them sanctified today and tomorrow; let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day Yahweh will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning and a dense cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast was heard. All the people in the camp trembled. Moses then made the people leave the camp to meet God and stand at the foot of the mountain.
Mount Sinai was completely covered in smoke because Yahweh had come down in fire, and the smoke rose as from a furnace. The whole mountain shook violently, while the blast of the trumpet became louder and louder. Moses spoke and God replied in thunder.
When Yahweh had come down to the summit of Mount Sinai, God called Moses who went to the summit where Yahweh said to him, "Go down and give this warning to the people, lest they rush to see Yahweh and many of them perish.
Gospel: Mt 13:10 – 17
Then his disciples came to him with the question, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"
Jesus answered, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but not to these people. For the one who has, will be given more and he will have in abundance. But the one who does not have will be deprived of even what he has. That is why I speak to them in parables, because they look and do not see; they hear, but they do not listen or understand.
"In them the words of the prophet Isaiah are fulfilled: Much as you hear, you do not understand; much as you see, you do not perceive. For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears hardly hear and their eyes dare not see. If they were to see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their heart, they would turn back and I would heal them.
"But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears, because they hear. For I tell you that many prophets and upright people would have longed to see the things you see, but they did not, and to hear the things you hear, but they did not hear it."
Reflection:
How come God reveals Himself to some people and to others he does not? Because it is God who chooses and not man. In the first reading, God chose Moses to receive the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai and not any of the other Israelites. He chose Israel to be his covenanted people, not because Israel was a great nation; he chose Israel because he loved them.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus reveals the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to his disciples and not to the crowd coming to see him everyday. Why only to some, and not to all? God always chooses a select few because his teachings are sacred and not to be given to just any curious onlooker. He also chooses the humble ones, those who are weak and nobodies in men's eyes, in order to confound the proud and the powerful. The choice of God is his and his alone. What we can do is to heed his call to follow him if and when he calls us.
WE PRAY FOR MTQ DAILY PRAYER DIARY INTENTIONS:
BIRTHDAY
FR. ANWAR MARI L. ADONA
FR. SIGMUND B. DE GUZMAN, SJ
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
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# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 6:22 AM 
