God wants His people to treat others as they want to be treated. 

St. Aloysius Gonzaga, religious

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

2 Kings 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36*

 Again Sennacherib sent messengers

To Hezekiah with these words, “Say to Heze­kiah, king of Judah that his God in whom he trusts may be deceiving him in saying that Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

  Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands they have destroyed! And will you be spared?  

  Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, and when he had read it he went to the house of Yahweh where he unrolled the letter   and prayed saying, “O Yahweh, God of hosts and God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim! You alone are God over all the king­doms of the earth; you have made the heavens and the earth. (….)  

 O Yahweh our God, save us from his hand and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that you alone, Yahweh, are God.”

  Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent word to Hezekiah: “You have called upon Yahweh and he has heard your prayer regarding Sennacherib, king of Assyria. (……)

  That is why Yahweh has said this concerning the king of Assy­ria: He shall not enter this city nor shoot his arrows. He shall not raise a shield to oppose it nor build a siege ramp against it. (…..)

  It happened that the angel of Yahweh went out that night and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.

 So Sennacherib, king of Assy­ria, departed, returned home and lived in Nineveh. While he was worshiping in the temple of his god, Nisroch his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer slew him with the sword and then escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, succeeded him as king.

    

Ps 48: 2-3ab, 3cd-4, 10-11

God upholds his city forever.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 7:12-14

Do not give what is holy to the dogs, or throw your pearls to the pigs: they might trample on them and even turn on you and tear you to pieces.

So, do to others whatever you would that others do to you: there you have the Law and the Prophets.

 Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many go that way.  How narrow is the gate that leads to life and how rough the road; few there are who find it.

 

 Gospel Reflection：

Golden Rule

Matthew begins the Golden Rule with the word “so,” thus indicating to us that the Rule is, in fact, the summary of the whole Sermon on the Mount, which began in the fifth chapter. Everything Jesus said before is concluded here: That we must do to others what we would normally expect others to do for us.

This is not the same as the converse of it, which had existed in some ancient civilizations: That we shall not do to others what we do not want done to us. That negative rule can leave us pretty cold to the needs of others and totally absorbed in ourselves. We just refrain from doing anyone any harm…..and any good either!

That would be too easy, as a walk through a wide gate. What Jesus demands is a narrow gate a harder path: of consciously taking the lead to act, to do good for others. It is a harder challenge, because, in doing so, there is no guarantee that our act would be reciprocated.