Friday, August 16, 2024

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezekiel 16:1-15.60.63; Matthew 19:3-12)

Today’s first reading is all about ingratitude.  Ezekiel, in fine poetic fashion, describes how God showed mercy to Israel.  According to the prophet, God adopted the abandoned nation as his own.  When the nation came of age, God married her.  He made her beautiful and rich, but the nation betrayed Him.  Looking at her own beauty and forgetting her husband’s love, she gave herself to others.

In a sense all sin is ingratitude.  God has bestowed uncountable blessings on every human, beginning with life itself.  But humans continually see themselves as their own masters and forget about God.  Many give themselves to idols, be they physical like money or spiritual like the devil.

We owe God continual thanks and praise.  When we perform these acts of justice, we will overcome our inclination to sin.

No comments: