＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Acts 13:13-25

From Paphos, Paul and his companions set sail

and came to Perga in Pam­phylia. There John left them and returned to Jerusalem   while they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath day they entered the synagogue and sat down.  After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent this message to them, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the assembly, please speak up.”

 So Paul arose, motioned to them for silence and began, “Fellow Israelites and also all you who fear God, listen. The God of our people Israel chose our ancestors, and after he had made them increase during their stay in Egypt, he led them out by powerful deeds.

 For forty years he fed them in the desert,  and after he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.  All this took four hundred and fifty years.  After that, he gave them Judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, and he was king for forty years.  

 After that time, God removed him and raised up David as king, to whom he bore witness saying: I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all I want him to do.

It is from the descendants of David that God has now raised up the promised savior of Israel, Jesus. Be­fore he appeared, John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for all the people of Israel.  As John was ending his life’s work, he said: ‘I am not what you think I am, for after me another one is coming whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.’

 

Ps 89:2-3, 21-22, 25 & 27

For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

John 13:16-20

Truly, I say to you, the servant is not greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than he who sent him. Understand this, and blessed are you if you put it into practice.

I am not speaking of you all, because I know the ones I have chosen and the Scripture has to be fulfilled that says, The one who shared my table has risen against me.  I tell you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may know that I am He.

Truly, I say to you, whoever welcomes the one I send, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, wel­comes the One who sent me.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

Each one of us, in our own unique and unrepeatable way, messengers of the Good News. There is but one person and one message we preach, of course: Jesus. And yet the manner by which we proclaim him and his message will not be the same, because we are all unique, we are all different.

We all have our gifts, our talents, our abilities, but also our faults, weaknesses, challenges, and inadequacies. As such we should never compare ourselves to others. We should never begrudge others their gifts; we should never see ourselves as any less than others because we do not possess what they have.

At the same time, we must never look down on them for not having the gifts we have been given. Each one of us has a unique role to play in the history of God’s ongoing work of bringing all things back to himself.

Pray for the grace of humility – the grace of recognizing who and what we are, no more and no less. For this is how God sees us; it is also how God loves us: in our unrepeatable uniqueness.