Daily Readings for February 17, 2018

1ST READING

Today’s reading in Isaiah reminds us that we should be a blessing to others. We need to take stock of our life and see if it is only your own happiness that matters. We are part of a community and need to learn the importance of “give and take” to maintain healthy and wholesome relationships.

Isaiah 58:9-14

9 Thus says the Lord: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; 10 If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; 11 then the Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails. 12 The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; “Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you, “Restorer of ruined homesteads.” 13 If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight, and the Lord’s holy day honorable; if you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice, 14 then you  shall delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

P S A L M

Psalm 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

R: Teach me your way, O Lord that I may walk in your truth.

1 Incline your ear, O Lord; answer me, for I am afflicted and poor. 2 Keep my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. (R) 3 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to you I call all the day. 4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. (R) 5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to all who call upon you. 6 Hearken, O Lord, to my prayer and attend to the sound of my pleading. (R)

GOSPEL

Levi (Matthew) is a tax collector who left everything behind to follow Jesus. The Lord calls us to do the same. While we are not all called to be fulltime missionaries, we need to discover how we can best serve Jesus and others in our current state in life. Service teaches us to be humble and generous in putting others’ needs first before our own.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion, that he may live.

Luke 5:27-32

27 Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. 29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. 32 I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”