St. Henry 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊       

Exodus 2:1-15a

(……)  Now the daughter of Pharaoh

Came down to bathe in the Nile; her attendants meanwhile walked along the bank. When she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to fetch it.   She opened the basket and saw the child – a boy, and he was crying! She felt sorry for him, for she thought: “This is one of the Hebrew children.”

 Then the sister of the child said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”   Pharaoh’s daughter agreed, and the girl went to call the mother of the child.   Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take the child and nurse him for me and I will pay you.”

So the woman took the child and nursed him   and, when the child had grown, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter who adopted him as her son. And she named him Moses to recall that she had drawn him out of the water.

 

Ps 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34

Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊      

Matthew 11:20-24

 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which he had performed most of his miracles, because the people there did not change their ways,   “Alas for you Chorazin and Beth­sai­da! If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, the peo­ple there would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  

But I assure you, for Tyre and Sidon it will be more bearable on the day of judgment than for you.   And you, Caper­naum, will you be lifted up to heaven? You will be thrown down to the place of the dead! For if the miracles which were performed in you had taken place in So­dom, it would still be there today!   But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

 Those who heard the word of God and rejected it have more responsibility regarding their hardheadedness than those who have not heard it. It is because they are already tainted with the sin of knowledge. Once they know about God's word, a decision must be made. Rejection means rejection of God's efforts to save them.

It is not therefore God who chooses our punishment. It is of our own making. Sometimes we forget about this aspect of our fate. We blame it all on God as if God is the one who shapes our life. We are all products of the choices we make. And so, today God lays before us two choices; “ I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him (Deut.30,19-20)