This week’s Gospel message for Sunday, December 11th is from Matthew 11:2-11.
“When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus with this question, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’. . . Jesus said to them . . . ‘Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.’”
“In the Gospel, Jesus reminds John’s disciples of the wonders he has done. He lists quite a few, including healing lepers and raising the dead. Jesus has transformed people’s lives. Perhaps his prophetic preaching intrigued them. Jesus tells them that they encountered ‘more than a prophet in John’. He states that ‘the least in the kingdom of heaven’ are even greater than John. Who are the least? They are the ones who have been touched by encounter with Jesus, they are his disciples.” SOURCE: Workbook for Lectors, Gospel Readers, and Proclaimers of the Word, 2023 and Pastoral Patterns, Winter 2022-2023
DAILY READINGS FOR THE WEEK
Monday Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; Luke 1:39-47
Our Lady of Guadalupe – “Today’s feast commemorates the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin in 1531 at Guadalupe to Juan Diego. She left her image on a cloak that is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”
Tuesday Zephaniah 3:1-2, 9-13; Matthew 21:28-32
Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr (Memorial) – “Lucy was martyred in the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. During the Middle Ages, people suffering from eye trouble began invoking Lucy’s aid because her name is derived from the Latin word for ‘light’ (lux).”
Wednesday Isaiah 45:6c-8, 18, 21c-25; Luke 7:18b-23
Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Memorial)/Carmelite Feast Day – “Born into poverty, John entered the Carmelites and was ordained. With St. Teresa of Avila, he helped reform his order and create the reformed (Discalced) Carmelites. But his reforms were opposed, and he was imprisoned for almost a year. His writings are both classics of spirituality and of Spanish literature. John pictured the spiritual life as a journey of the soul to divine union.”
Thursday Isaiah 54:1-10; Luke 7:24-30
Friday Isaiah 56:1-3a, 6-8; John 5:33-36
Saturday Genesis 49:2, 8-10; Matthew 1:1-17
SOURCE: Living With Christ, December 2022