St. Bridget of Sweden, religious 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13

  A  word  of  Yahweh  came  to  me,

  “Go  and  shout  this  in the hea­ring of     Jerusalem. This is Yahweh’s word: I remember your kindness as a youth, the love of your bridal days, when you followed me in the wilderness, through a land not sown.

 Israel was holy to Yahweh, the first-fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it had to pay and misfortune fell on them – it is Yahweh who speaks. I brought you to a fertile land  to eat of the choicest fruit. As soon as you came you defiled my land and dishonored my heritage!

 The priests did not ask, ‘Where is Yahweh?’ The masters of my teaching did not know me; the pastors of my people betrayed me; the prophets followed worthless idols and spoke in the name of Baal. 

Be aghast at that, O heavens! Shudder, be utterly appalled – it is Yahweh who speaks – for my people have done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, to dig for themselves leaking cisterns  that hold no water!

 

Ps 36:6-7ab, 8-9, 10-11

With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 13:10-17

Then his disciples came to him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but not to these people. 

For the one who has, will be given more and he will have in abundance. But the one who does not have will be deprived of even what he has. That is why I speak to them in parables, because they look and do not see; they hear, but they do not listen or understand.

 In them the words of the prophet Isaiah are fulfilled: Much as you hear, you do not understand; much as you see, you do not perceive.  For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears hardly hear and their eyes dare not see. If they were to see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their heart, they would turn back and I would heal them.

 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears, because they hear. For I tell you, many prophets and righteous people have longed to see the things you see, but they did not see them; and to hear the things you hear, but they did not hear them.

 

Gospel Reflection：

The estimable National Geographic photographer, Dewitt Jones, confessed that to procuce a great picture one does not SEE first and then BELIEVE. It is the other way around:one has to BELEVE FIRST before he SEES the hidden glory of an object or scenery.

You just have to wait for your soul to click and then your camera clicks. Our Gospel likewise suggests that a true belivere is not an inquirer. Inquirers are not contented with what they see, they just keep on asking and investigating. A true believer is a FINDER.

A finder looks at things as revealed to him than discovered by him. He then begins with being sure of what he can see. He readily finds God’s hand in everything to be seen, without doubts and further questions.