Wonderful Love in Today’s Readings (July 24, 2018)

Key:

What these passages tell us about God

What these passages tell us to do

Commentary

 Reading 1 MI 7:14-15, 18-20

Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, that dwells apart in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old; as in the days when you came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs.

Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sinfor the remnant of his inheritance; who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt? You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins; You will show faithfulness to Jacob, and grace to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers
from days of old.

Responsorial Psalm PS 85:2-4, 5-6, 7-8

R. (8a) Lord, show us your mercy and love.
You have favored, O LORD, your land; you have brought back the captives of Jacob. You have forgiven the guilt of your people; you have covered all their sins.
You have withdrawn all your wrath; you have revoked your burning anger.
R. Lord, show us your mercy and love.
Restore us, O God our savior, and abandon your displeasure against us.
Will you be ever angry with us, prolonging your anger to all generations?
R. Lord, show us your mercy and love.
Will you not instead give us life; and shall not your people rejoice in you?
Show us, O LORD, your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
R. Lord, show us your mercy and love.

Alleluia JN 14:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 12:46-50

WhileJesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you." But he said in reply to the one who told him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother."

1.    Today’s readings wonderfully exemplify the truths summarized in the very first paragraph of the Catechism of The Catholic Church:

“God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Saviour. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.” (emphasis assed.)

            That is consistent with the themes in this past Sunday's readings. 

2.    How do we respond to that wonderful love?

A.   “rejoice in” Him (psalm).

B.    “keep [His] word” (alleluia verse).

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C.     Do “the will of my heavenly Father” (gospel).