St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊ 

Isaiah 41:13-20

 For I, Yahweh, your God,

 

Take hold of your right hand and say to you: “Fear not, I am your assistance.”  Fear not, Jacob, poor worm, and you, people of Israel, so frail. I am your redeemer, says Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, your helper.

 I will make you a thresher, new and with sharp double teeth: you will thresh hills and mountains, crushing them and reducing them to chaff. You will winnow them, the wind will carry them off and the storm will scatter them. But you will rejoice in Yahweh and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

The poor and the afflicted seek water, and find none. Their tongues are parched with thirst. But I, Yahweh, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

 I will open up streams over the barren heights and let the rivers flow through all the valleys; I will turn the desert into lakes and brooks and the thirsty earth

into a land of springs.

 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle and the olive; I will plant in the wasteland fir, cypress and pine –  that all may see and know, consider and understand, that the hand of Yahweh has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

 

Ps 145:1 & 9, 10-11, 12-13ab

The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 11:11-15

 I tell you this: no one greater than John the Baptist has come forward among the sons of women, and yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven is something to be conquered and the unyielding seize it.

 Up to the time of John, there was only prophesy: all the prophets and the Law; and if you believe me, John is this Elijah, whose coming was predicted. Let anyone with ears listen!

 

 Gospel Reflection：

John the Baptist holds preeminent place among those born of a woman. Jesus acknowledges this as much. After all, it takes extraordinary spiritual strength to cede the limelight to an upstart who comes from nowhere and asks to be baptized by him.

The greatness of John lies in his mastery of the virtue of humility. He knows when it is time to go having done his part  successfully. That is the best way to exit. But surprisingly, the least in the kingdom of heaven is very far greater than John. This is surprising.

It seems that the honor one gathers here on earth pales in comparison to the honor one gets in heaven. And why is this so? For even if John is an exemplar of humility.

Those who are in heaven are masters of the virtue of charity. And as St. Paul affirms in his letter to the Corinthians on his definition of love, the greatest among all the virtue is charity.