St. Eliazbeth of Portugal, married woman, queen 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Amos 9:11-15

On that day, I shall restore the fallen hut of David

and wall u pits breaches, and raise its ruined walls; and so build it as in days of old. They shall conquer the remnant of Edom, and the neighboring nations, upon which my name has been called.”

Thus says Yahweh, the one who will do this. Yahweh says also,” The days are coming when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes overtake the sower.

The mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall melt. I shall vring back the exiles of my people Israel; they will rebuild the desolate cities and dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will have orchards and eat their fruit.

I shall plant them in their own country and they shall never again be rooted up from the land which I have given them,” says Yahweh your God.

 

Ps 85:9ab & 10, 11-12, 13-14

The Lord speaks of peace to his people.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 9:14-17

Then the disciples of John came to him with the question, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not your disciples?” Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? Time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast.

No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for the patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole in the coat. Besides you don’t put new wine in old wineskins. If you do, the wine­­skins will burst and the wine be spilt. No, you put new wine in fresh skins; then both are preserved.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

A middle-aged woman wanted to look different and young. She went to a boutique and saw a beautiful dress on a mannequin. She bought the dress without fitting it.

When she reached home, she wore the dress and was upset it did not fit her. She asked her dressmaker-friend to fix it and make it fit on her. The dress, however, got uglier.

She said she was deceived by the dress when it was in the boutique. Her dressmaker-friend told her that if she wants the dress to look good as it was in the boutique she must change her body not the dress. Go on diet and exercise. Similarly, God always offers freshness and difference to our life.

But such new life needs to be matched by our desire to change. We embrace what God wants to do with our life rather than forcing what we want on God.