St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊       

Exodus 3:1-6, 9-12

 Moses pastured the sheep of Jethro,

His father-in-law, priest of Midian. One day he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the Mountain of God. The Angel of Yahweh appeared to him by means of a flame of fire in the middle of a bush. Moses saw that although the bush was on fire it did not burn up.   Moses thought, “I will go and see this amazing sight, why is the bush not burning up?”

 Yahweh saw that Moses was drawing near to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He replied, “Here I am.”   Yah­weh said to him, “Do not come near; take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy ground.”   And God continued, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

Moses hid his face lest his eyes look on God. The cry of the sons of Israel has reached me and I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them.  Go now! I am sending you to Pha­raoh to bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

 Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the people of Israel out of Egypt?” God replied, “I will be with you and this will be the sign that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

 

Ps 103:1b-2, 3-4, 6-7

The Lord is kind and merciful.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊    

Matthew 11:25-27

 On that occasion Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise you, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to simple people.   Yes, Father, this is what pleased you.

Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

 

  Gospel Reflection：

 The simple people approach life without much complication. That is why they can see things clearly as they are. The wise and learned on the other hand tend to debate and argue. They forget that truth sometimes can be found and it's basic, less complicated forms. The simple people are more attuned to the simpler form of truth.

And so, they understand faster than those who have studied. It is an understanding born of paying attention rather than intellectualizing things and events. Take for example the birth of the Lord. The lowly shepherds come to know it while the wise and learned surrounding the court of King Herod had to be informed by the wise men from the East before they could establish where the child was born.

The shepherds saw the child as well as the foreigners while the leading dignitaries of the kingdom had no idea at all. The heart of God is surely disposed to the simple and lowly.