Wednesday, November 16, 2011 (Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
God gave Himself to you: give yourself to God.
-- Blessed Robert Southwell

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31
1  It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. 
20  The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. 
21  She encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with a noble spirit, she fired her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them,

22  "I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. 

23  Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws." 

24  Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being still alive, Antiochus not only appealed to him in words, but promised with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his fathers, and that he would take him for his friend and entrust him with public affairs. 

25  Since the young man would not listen to him at all, the king called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save himself. 

26  After much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade her son. 

27  But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their native tongue as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: "My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life, and have taken care of you. 

28  I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being. 

29  Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again with your brothers." 

30  While she was still speaking, the young man said, "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses. 

31  But you, who have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God. 

Psalms: Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
(The Prayer of an Innocent Person)

1 Listen to my honest prayer. 

5 I have always walked in your way and have never strayed from it.

6 I pray to you, O God, because you answer me; so turn to me and listen to my words. 

8 Protect me as you would your very eyes; hide me in the shadow of your wings 

15 But I will see you, because I have done no wrong; and when I awake, your presence will fill me with joy. 

Gospel: Luke 19:11-28
(The Parable of the Gold Coins)

11 While the people were listening to this, Jesus continued and told them a parable. He was now almost at Jerusalem, and they supposed that the Kingdom of God was just about to appear.

12 So he said, “There was once a man of high rank who was going to a country far away to be made king, after which he planned to come back home.

13 Before he left, he called his ten servants and gave them each a gold coin and told them, ‘See what you can earn with this while I am gone.’

14 Now, his own people hated him, and so they sent messengers after him to say, ‘We don't want this man to be our king.’

15 “The man was made king and came back. At once he ordered his servants to appear before him, in order to find out how much they had earned.

16 The first one came and said, ‘Sir, I have earned ten gold coins with the one you gave me.’

17 ‘Well done,’ he said; ‘you are a good servant! Since you were faithful in small matters, I will put you in charge of ten cities.’

18 The second servant came and said, ‘Sir, I have earned five gold coins with the one you gave me.’

19 To this one he said, ‘You will be in charge of five cities.’

20 Another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it hidden in a handkerchief.

21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take what is not yours and reap what you did not plant.’ 22 He said to him, ‘You bad servant! I will use your own words to condemn you! You know that I am a hard man, taking what is not mine and reaping what I have not planted.

23 Well, then, why didn't you put my money in the bank? Then I would have received it back with interest when I returned.’

24 Then he said to those who were standing there, ‘Take the gold coin away from him and give it to the servant who has ten coins.’

25 But they said to him, ‘Sir, he already has ten coins!’ 

26 ‘I tell you,’ he replied, ‘that to those who have something, even more will be given; but those who have nothing, even the little that they have will be taken away from them. 

27 Now, as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and kill them in my presence!’”

28 After Jesus said this, he went on in front of them toward Jerusalem.