St. Camillus de Lells, priest

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊ 

Micah 6:1-4, 6-8

 Listen to what Yahweh said to me,

“Stand up, let the moun­­­­­tains hear your claim, and the hills listen to your plea.”

Hear, O mountains, Yah­weh’s complaint! Foundations of the earth, pay attention! For Yahweh has a case against his people, and will argue it with Israel.

 “O my people, what have I done to you? In what way have I been a burden to you? Answer me.

 I brought you out of Egypt; I rescued you from the land of bondage; I sent Moses, Aaron and Miriam to lead you.

“What shall I bring when I come to Yahweh and bow down before God the most high? Shall I come with burnt offerings, with sacrifices of yearling calves?  Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, with an overabundance of oil libations? Should I offer my firstborn for my sins, the fruit of my body for my wrongdoing?”

 “You have been told, O man, what is good and what Yahweh requires of you: to do justice, to love mer­cy, and to walk humbly with your God.

 

Ps 50:5-6, 8-9, 16bc-17, 21 & 23

To the upright, I will show the saving power of God.

  

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 12:38-42

 Then some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees spoke up, “Teach­er, we want to see a sign from you.”   Jesus answered them, “An evil and unfaithful people want a sign, but no sign will be given them except the sign of the pro­phet Jonah.  In the same way that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the monster fish, so will the Son of Man spend three days and three nights in the depths of the earth.

 At the judgment, the people of Niniveh will rise with this generation and condemn it, because they reformed their lives at the preaching of Jonah, and here there is greater than Jonah.  At the judgment, the Queen of the South will stand up and condemn you. She came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here there is greater than Solomon.

 

      Gospel Reflection：

Sight vs Hearing

“Faith is the conviction of thing not seen” (Heb 11:1). Sight has nothing to do with faith. Hence, the demand of the leaders that Jesus work a sign for them to see and believe has nothing to do with faith. It is just plain stubbornness. Consequently, Jesus refuses to work any sign for them – they have had enough signs already if they cared to read history through the eyes of faith.

When it comes to faith, what matters is not sight, but hearing. The Ninevites turned to the Lord not because they saw any signs from Jonah, but because they listened to God’s words announced by Joah. The queen of the South came to hear Solomon; not to see his works. Through Micah, this is what Yahweh asks of his people: to hear him and do what God tells them to do. The signs can wait.

 

 

 

       

       

 

 "I don't put a penny's value on this life if only our Lord will give me a tiny corner in Paradise."            

                                    

                                       ￭￭￭ ST. CAMILLUS DE LELLIS   ￭￭￭             

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