＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Hosea 14:2-10

Return to your God, Yahweh,

O Israel! Your sins have caused your downfall. Return to Yahweh with humble words. Say to him, “Oh, you who show compassion to the fatherless, forgive our debt, be appeased.

Instead of bulls and sacrifices, accept the praise from our lips. Assyria will not save us: no longer shall we look for horses, nor ever again shall we say ‘Our gods’ to the work of our hands.”

I will heal their disloyalty and love them with all my heart, for my anger has turned from them. I shall be like dew to Israel, like the lily will he blossom. Like a cedar, he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow and spread.

His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance, like a Lebanon cedar. They will dwell in my shade again, they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like a vine, and their fame will be like Lebanon wine.

What would Ephraim do with idols, when it is I who hear and make him prosper? I am like an ever-green cypress tree; all your fruitfulness comes from me. Who is wise enough to grasp all this? Who is discerning and will understand? 

Straight are the ways of Yahweh: the just walk in them, but the sinner’s stumble.

 

Ps 51:3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 14 & 17

My mouth will declare your praise.

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 10:16-23

 Look, I send you out like sheep among wolves. You must be clever as snakes and innocent as doves. Be on your guard with respect to people, for they will hand you over to their courts and they will flog you in their syna­gogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of me, and so you may witness to them and the pagans. 

But when you are arrested, do not worry about what you are to say and how you are to say it; when the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it is not you who will speak; but it will be the Spirit of your Father in you.

Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved.  When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. For sure, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

 

 Gospel Reflection：

While many Christians are already enjoying religious freedom in China, millions continue to suffer under the government’s crackdown on faith-communities.

The easy targets are small churches not belonging to recognized religious institutions. These communities resist compromise with the Communist party line. Their adherents are then deprived of state welfare, their leaders tortured, their houses of worship burned.

They are like sheep among wolves-defenseless. But Bob Fu, the founder of a religious rights group, insists they will survive because they have Christ. “These campaigns have been done in Roman times, under Stalin, under Mao, yet Christ prevailed. We will prevail,”Bob Fu said in an interview.

Being hopeful of survival amid these persecutions requires the cleverness encouraged by Jesus in our Gospel. It also points to Christ’s active presence in these places. We are then challenged to animate our faith as intensely as our persecuted brothers and sisters of today.