Thursday, 2nd August 2018

Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
404

FIRST READING
JER 18:1-6

This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Rise up, be off to the potter’s house;
there I will give you my message.
I went down to the potter’s house and there he was,
working at the wheel.
Whenever the object of clay which he was making
turned out badly in his hand,
he tried again,
making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.
Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Can I not do to you, house of Israel,
as this potter has done? says the LORD.
Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,
so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

PSALM
PS 146:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6AB

Response:

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.

Put not your trust in princes,
in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.
When his spirit departs he returns to his earth;
on that day his plans perish.

Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God.
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.

GOSPEL
MT 13:47-53

Jesus said to the disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

“Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.”
And he replied,
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old.”
When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

Daily Reflection

2nd August 2018

Peter Julian Eymard

While we often search for spirituality in books and sacred writings, it often lies just under our noses. A case in point is that of Jeremiah who is told to “go to the potter’s house” and God would “speak (his) word” there. In observing the mundane act of the potter at his work, Jeremiah receives God’s word – O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done? God invites Israel to yield to his guidance just like clay in the hands of the potter.

Jesus, while addressing ordinary folk, spoke to them using examples from their daily life and compared them to the Kingdom of God. Paying attention to the little things, makes a big impact on our receptivity to God’s gentle voice. The people who came to Jesus had the knowledge of everyday things, but in their encounter with Him they are able to get new insights into mundane realities.

Our encounter with Jesus helps us bring out of our “storehouse” of knowledge “things both, new and old”.