Jesus’ dine with the tax collectors and sinners who are abhorred by the religiously sharp-eyed

December 11, 2015

Friday of the Second Week of Advent

Saints of the Day: Saint Damasus I, Pope (384),  Saint Maria Maravillas de Jesus (1891-1974) 

Reading 1

Isaiah 48:17-19 

17Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the LORD, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go. 18If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river,

and your vindication like the waves of the sea; 19Your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, their name never cut off

or blotted out from my presence.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 

R. (see John 8:12) Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

1Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, 2but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on His law day and night.

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

3He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season,

and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers.

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

4Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

6For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The Lord will come; go out to meet Him! He is the prince of peace.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Matthew 11:16-19 

16Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,[1] 17‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’

18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ 19The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, He is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.” 

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Notes on Readings:

[1] Matthew 11:16-19 - See Luke 7:31-35. The meaning of the parable (Matthew 11:16-17) and its explanation (Matthew 11:18-19b) is much disputed. A plausible view is that the children of the parable are two groups, one of which proposes different entertainments to the other that will not agree with either proposal. The first represents John, Jesus, and their disciples; the second those who reject John for his asceticism and Jesus for His table association with those despised by the religiously observant. Matthew 11:19c (her works) forms an inclusion with (Matthew 11:2 ("the works of the Messiah"). The original form of the saying is better preserved in Luke 7:35  ". . . wisdom is vindicated by all her children." There John and Jesus are the children of Wisdom; here the works of Jesus the Messiah are those of divine Wisdom, of which he is the embodiment. Some important textual witnesses, however, have essentially the same reading as in Luke.