Daily Readings for September 19, 2018

1st READING

Today’s reading is Paul’s magnificent elegy to love. He describes love as a decision and not a feeling. The language we often use for love is rooted in our feelings. We have to be careful because our feelings could overwhelm our love. Love is a decision we have to make, regardless of how we feel.

1 Corinthians 12:31–13:13

31 Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way. 13:1 If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, 5 it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, 6 it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. 9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 13 So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

P S A L M 

Psalm 33:2-3, 4-5, 12, 22

R: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

2 Give thanks to the Lord on the harp; with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises. 3 Sing to him a new song; pluck the strings skillfully with shouts of gladness. (R) 4 For upright is the word of the Lord, and all his works are trustworthy. 5 He loves justice and right; of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full. (R) 12 Blessed the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he has chosen for his own inheritance. 22 May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you. (R) 

GOSPEL  

We need more than feelings as motivation for discipleship. Discipleship involves hardship and suffering and we need to persevere even to the point of death. Our feelings are unreliable as a guide to the truth. Let us keep our minds and hearts fixed on the love of God as we follow His call. May we focus on Him and not be led astray by our feelings that seek comfort and consolation, rather than obedience to His will.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life, you have the words of everlasting life.

Luke 7:31-35

31 Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32 They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’ 33 For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ 35 But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”