First reading Isaiah 48:17-19
If you had been alert to my commandments, your happiness would have been like a river
Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you,
I lead you in the way that you must go.
If only you had been alert to my commandments,
your happiness would have been like a river,
your integrity like the waves of the sea.
Your children would have been numbered like the sand,
your descendants as many as its grains.
Never would your name have been cut off or blotted out before me.
Responsorial Psalm 1:1-4,6
Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the light of life.
Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day and night.
He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper.
Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind:
for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom.
Gospel Matthew 11:16-19
They heed neither John nor the Son of Man
Jesus spoke to the crowds: ‘What description can I find for this generation? It is like children shouting to each other as they sit in the market place:
“We played the pipes for you,
and you wouldn’t dance;
we sang dirges,
and you wouldn’t be mourners.”
‘For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He is possessed.” The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet wisdom has been proved right by her actions.’
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Faithful to the end
In today’s gospel, Jesus identified John the Baptist with the prophet Elijah. Jesus said that Elijah, whom the people expected to come before the Messiah, had come in the figure of John the Baptist. However, John the Baptist was taken for granted and beheaded by Herod. Jesus knew that He would face a similar ending as John the Baptist. He came to call people into a loving relationship with God, a loving Father. Many refused to accept His message and rejected Him. Thus, the child in the manger in Bethlehem would one day suffer and die on the cross in Calvary because He remained faithful to God’s mission.
This Advent, let us not get so caught up with all the festivities that we forget that we too are called to follow Jesus by having the courage to share the Good News of God’s love with those around us through our words and deeds. Even when we face rejections and misunderstandings, let us remain faithful to the work God has given to us.
Reflective question:
Am I open to accept the consequences of proclaiming the Good News in word and deed?
Am I open to accept the consequences of proclaiming the Good News in word and deed?
Acknowledgment: Reflections are based on “Prayer for Living: The Word of God for Daily Prayer Year B” by Sr Sandra Seow FMVD.
