Thursday, August 18, 2011 (Weekday)

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Judges 11:29-39
29 Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh and returned to Mizpah in Gilead and went on to Ammon. 
30 Jephthah promised the Lord: “If you will give me victory over the Ammonites, 
31 I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me, when I come back from the victory. I will offer that person to you as a sacrifice.”
32 So Jephthah crossed the river to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him victory. 
33 He struck at them from Aroer to the area around Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as Abel Keramim. There was a great slaughter, and the Ammonites were defeated by Israel.
34 When Jephthah went back home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, dancing and playing the tambourine. She was his only child.   
35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes in sorrow and said, “Oh, my daughter! You are breaking my heart! Why must it be you that causes me pain? I have made a solemn promise to the Lord, and I cannot take it back!”
36 She told him, “If you have made a promise to the Lord, do what you said you would do to me, since the Lord has given you revenge on your enemies, the Ammonites.” 
37 But she asked her father, “Do this one thing for me. Leave me alone for two months, so that I can go with my friends to wander in the mountains and grieve that I must die a virgin.” 
38 He told her to go and sent her away for two months. She and her friends went up into the mountains and grieved because she was going to die unmarried and childless. 
39 After two months she came back to her father. He did what he had promised the Lord, and she died still a virgin. This was the origin of the custom in Israel


Psalms: Psalm 40:5, 7-10
5 You have done many things for us, O Lord our God; there is no one like you! You have made many wonderful plans for us. I could never speak of them all— their number is so great!
6 You do not want sacrifices and offerings; you do not ask for animals burned whole on the altar or for sacrifices to take away sins. Instead, you have given me ears to hear you,
7 and so I answered, “Here I am; your instructions for me are in the book of the Law.
8 How I love to do your will, my God! I keep your teaching in my heart.”
9 In the assembly of all your people, Lord, I told the good news that you save us. You know that I will never stop telling it.
10 I have not kept the news of salvation to myself; I have always spoken of your faithfulness and help. In the assembly of all your people I have not been silent about your loyalty and constant love.


Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14
1 Jesus again used parables in talking to the people. 
2 “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. 
3 He sent his servants to tell the invited guests to come to the feast, but they did not want to come. 
4 So he sent other servants with this message for the guests: ‘My feast is ready now; my steers and prize calves have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!’ 
5 But the invited guests paid no attention and went about their business: one went to his farm, another to his store, 
6 while others grabbed the servants, beat them, and killed them. 
7 The king was very angry; so he sent his soldiers, who killed those murderers and burned down their city. 
8 Then he called his servants and said to them, ‘My wedding feast is ready, but the people I invited did not deserve it. 
9 Now go to the main streets and invite to the feast as many people as you find.’ 
10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, good and bad alike; and the wedding hall was filled with people.
11 “The king went in to look at the guests and saw a man who was not wearing wedding clothes. 
12 ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ the king asked him. But the man said nothing.
13 Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him outside in the dark. There he will cry and gnash his teeth.’”
14 And Jesus concluded, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.”


REFLECTION FOR TODAY
"Mary gave to the world the Life that renews all things and she was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role. It is no wonder, then, that the usage prevailed among the Holy Fathers whereby they called the mother of God entirely holy and free from all stain of sin, fashioned by the Holy Spirit into a kind of new substance and new creature. Adorned from the first instant of her conception with the splendors of an entirely unique holiness, the Virgin of Nazareth is, on God's command, greeted by an angel messenger as ""full of grace"". To the heavenly messenger she replies: ""Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word.


-- Constitution on the Church, (56)