September 19th 2018

Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
445

FIRST READING
1 COR 12:31-13:13

Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.

But I shall show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in human and angelic tongues
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, love is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.
If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

PSALM
PS 33:2-3, 4-5, 12 AND 22

Response: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten stringed lyre chant his praises.
Sing to him a new song;
pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness.

For upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.

Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.

GOSPEL
verses

Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?
What are they like?
They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’

For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine,
and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

Daily Reflection

19th September 2018

“Love never fails.” Paul is adamant about this. Love is the lodestar of his message to the Corinthians – and to us – till the end of time and beyond.

Look at what Paul says - not just the part about being patient and kind, but the whole approach to Love. It is what gives meaning to prophecy and to works of charity and self-sacrifice. Our faith may be enough to move mountains but, without Love, it is nothing. When everything else ceases, love will still endure.

Jesus gives us a simple definition of Love: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Love is the surrender of all we hold dear and all we have, the surrender of our very selves. Today’s Gospel has Jesus telling us about the contrariness of the people and their inability to recognise the presence of goodness and of God when they see it and experience it!! The children of Wisdom always recognise her work, and when we see with the eyes of love, we are wise.

Will you accept the invitation to live and be guided by Love?