Reading 1 2 Kgs 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36
with this message:
“Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:
‘Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you
by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over
to the king of Assyria.
You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done
to all other countries: they doomed them!
Will you, then, be saved?’”
Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it;
then he went up to the temple of the LORD,
and spreading it out before him,
he prayed in the LORD’s presence:
“O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim!
You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth.
You have made the heavens and the earth.
Incline your ear, O LORD, and listen!
Open your eyes, O LORD, and see!
Hear the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.
Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations
and their lands, and cast their gods into the fire;
they destroyed them because they were not gods,
but the work of human hands, wood and stone.
Therefore, O LORD, our God, save us from the power of this man,
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know
that you alone, O LORD, are God.”
Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent this message to Hezekiah:
“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel,
in answer to your prayer for help against Sennacherib, king of Assyria:
I have listened!
This is the word the LORD has spoken concerning him:
“‘She despises you, laughs you to scorn,
the virgin daughter Zion!
Behind you she wags her head,
daughter Jerusalem.
“‘For out of Jerusalem shall come a remnant,
and from Mount Zion, survivors.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.’
“Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:
‘He shall not reach this city, nor shoot an arrow at it,
nor come before it with a shield,
nor cast up siege-works against it.
He shall return by the same way he came,
without entering the city, says the LORD.
I will shield and save this city for my own sake,
and for the sake of my servant David.’”
That night the angel of the LORD went forth and struck down
one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.
So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, broke camp,
and went back home to Nineveh.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 10-11
Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, fairest of heights,
is the joy of all the earth.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Mount Zion, Athe recesses of the North,”
is the city of the great King.
God is with her castles;
renowned is he as a stronghold.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
O God, we ponder your mercy
within your temple.
As your name, O God, so also your praise
reaches to the ends of the earth.
Of justice your right hand is full.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Alleluia Jn 8:12
R. Alleluia, alleluia.I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever follows me will have the light of life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mt 7:6, 12-14
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the Law and the Prophets.
“Enter through the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction,
and those who enter through it are many.
How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.
And those who find it are few.”
"MAGNIFY THE LORD" (see Lk 1:46)
"You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth." –2 Kings 19:15
As I write this, I am nearly 30,000 feet in the air, flying home to Cincinnati. From this height, as I look down upon clouds and fields, I can clearly see and experience that the Lord alone is God "over all" the earth (2 Kgs 19:15). My problems back home seem tiny and my God seems huge. In a short time, I will be back on land, unable to see more than a few hundred feet. My problems will suddenly loom larger, because my vantage point has been altered.
King Hezekiah was surrounded by a vicious enemy whose strategy was to attempt to take Hezekiah's focus off of God and divert it to his problems. If only Hezekiah could fly 30,000 feet above his problems, he could readily see how mighty God is and how temporary his problems are. Yet that's exactly what Hezekiah did! Hezekiah "went up to the temple of the Lord" (2 Kgs 19:14) and "prayed in the Lord's presence" (2 Kgs 19:15).
When we come into God's presence, we realize how large and powerful He is, and the world and its problems become small (see Ps 73:25). But when we take our eyes off the Lord and focus on our problems, they threaten to swallow us up (see Mt 14:29-30ff). "Fix your eyes on Jesus" (Heb 3:1).
| PRAYER: | Father, I will gaze upon Your loveliness constantly (Ps 27:4). May I never take my eyes off of You. |
| PROMISE: | "The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it." –Mt 7:13-14 |
| PRAISE: | St. Aloysius received his first Communion from St. Charles Borromeo and last rites from St. Bellarmine. |
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