He Will Not Contend Or Cry Out

JULY 16, 2022, SATURDAY

Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Green)

CYCLE C - YEAR II

Lectionary: 394

N.B: For the mass readings for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, kindly see on the next separate post.

Reading 1 

MI 2:1-5

Woe to those who plan iniquity,

and work out evil on their couches;

In the morning light they accomplish it

when it lies within their power.

They covet fields, and seize them;

houses, and they take them;

They cheat an owner of his house,

a man of his inheritance.

Therefore thus says the LORD:

Behold, I am planning against this race an evil

from which you shall not withdraw your necks;

Nor shall you walk with head high,

for it will be a time of evil.

On that day a satire shall be sung over you,

and there shall be a plaintive chant:

“Our ruin is complete,

our fields are portioned out among our captors,

The fields of my people are measured out,

and no one can get them back!”

Thus you shall have no one

to mark out boundaries by lot

in the assembly of the LORD.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 10:1-2, 3-4, 7-8, 14

R. (12b) Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

Why, O LORD, do you stand aloof?

Why hide in times of distress?

Proudly the wicked harass the afflicted,

who are caught in the devices the wicked have contrived. 

R. Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

For the wicked man glories in his greed,

and the covetous blasphemes, sets the LORD at nought.

The wicked man boasts, “He will not avenge it”;

“There is no God,” sums up his thoughts. 

R. Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

His mouth is full of cursing, guile and deceit;

under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

He lurks in ambush near the villages;

in hiding he murders the innocent;

his eyes spy upon the unfortunate. 

R. Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

You do see, for you behold misery and sorrow,

taking them in your hands.

On you the unfortunate man depends;

of the fatherless you are the helper.

R. Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

Alleluia 

2 COR 5:19

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,

and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel 

MT 12:14-21

The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus

to put him to death.

When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place.

Many people followed him, and he cured them all,

but he warned them not to make him known.

This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet:

Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,

my beloved in whom I delight;

I shall place my Spirit upon him,

and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not contend or cry out,

nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break,

a smoldering wick he will not quench,

until he brings justice to victory.

And in his name the Gentiles will hope.

GOSPEL REFLECTION:

In spite the Pharisees desire to destroy him Jesus did not take flight out of fear or fight out of anger. Instead Jesus focuses on revealing his Father’s love as the truth and the justice he lives by. This he did in a quiet and persistent way and not in a strident one. He is sensitive to and gently fosters all the signs of life in us and especially where we are ready to push out its boundaries.

Jesus is on the side of the weak. His message, demanding thought it may be, does not crush people. Justice comes through compassion - like care for the bruised reed - not through the exercise of power and violence. In this way Jesus is pleasing to his Father. Prayer strengthens the soul and personality, making us ever-more pleasing to God.

PRAYER:

Let me make the words of Isaiah my own! ‘Lord, I am here as your servant. You chose me: I am your beloved and you are well pleased with me. Put your Spirit in me so that I may lovingly bring justice to victory.’