Friday, October 21, 2011 (Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
True followers of Christ; Be prepared to have a world make jokes at your expense. You can hardly expect a world to be more reverent to you than to Our Lord. When it does make fun of your faith, its practices, abstinences, and rituals-then you are moving to a closer identity with Him Who gave us our faith. Under scorn, Our Lord "answered nothing". The world gets amusement from a Christian who fails to be Christian, but none from his respectful silence.
-- Bishop Fulton Sheen

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Romans 7:18-25
18 I know that good does not live in me—that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it.
19 I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.
20 If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.

21 So I find that this law is at work: when I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have.
22 My inner being delights in the law of God.
23 But I see a different law at work in my body—a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body.
24 What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death?
25 Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!
This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.
Psalms: Psalm 119:66, 68, 76-77, 93-94
66 Give me wisdom and knowledge, because I trust in your commands.
68 How good you are—how kind! Teach me your commands.
76 Let your constant love comfort me, as you have promised me, your servant.
77 Have mercy on me, and I will live because I take pleasure in your law.
93 I will never neglect your instructions, because by them you have kept me alive.
94 I am yours—save me! I have tried to obey your commands.

Gospel: Luke 12:54-59
(Understanding the Time)
54 Jesus said also to the people, “When you see a cloud coming up in the west, at once you say that it is going to rain—and it does.
55 And when you feel the south wind blowing, you say that it is going to get hot—and it does.
56 Hypocrites! You can look at the earth and the sky and predict the weather; why, then, don't you know the meaning of this present time?
(Settle with Your Opponent)
57 “Why do you not judge for yourselves the right thing to do? 58 If someone brings a lawsuit against you and takes you to court, do your best to settle the dispute before you get to court. If you don't, you will be dragged before the judge, who will hand you over to the police, and you will be put in jail. 59 There you will stay, I tell you, until you pay the last penny of your fine.”