Daily Reading
First Reading
Romans 2:1-11
Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.
You say, “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.”
Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?
Or do you disdain the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
For he will repay according to everyone’s deeds: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth, but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.
There will be distress and anguish for everyone who does evil, for the Jew first and also for the Greek; but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For God shows no partiality.
Psalm
Psalm 62:2-3, 6-7, 9
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
How long will you assail a person? Will you batter him, all of you, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly moved.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.
Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
Gospel Reading
Luke 11:42-46
“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and salutations in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like graves which are not seen, and people walk over them without knowing it.”
Reflection
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”
Some religious leaders get their kicks from burdening people, laying the law on them heavily, making demands that are terrible, exulting in their own moral superiority. At the core of Jesus’s program is a willingness to bear other people’s burdens, to help them carry their loads. And this applies to the moral life as well. If we lay the burden of God’s law on people, we must be willing, at the same time, to help them bear it.
When were you cured by Christ and how? What was it like to receive, through the Church, his healing touch? When did you feel ostracized, despised, unworthy—and how did Christ, through his Church, restore you to health and communion? Remember that moment and share it.