THE DAILY GOSPEL

June 21, 2016 (Tuesday) 12th Week in Ordinary Time

Psalter: Week 4/(White) St. Aloysius Gonzaga, religious

Ps 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 10-11 God upholds his city forever. 1st Reading: 2 K 19:9b-11, 14-21, 3135a, 36

Again Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah with these words, “Say to Hezekiah, king of Judah that his God in whom he trusts may be deceiving him in saying that Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands they have destroyed! And will you be spared?

Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, and when he had read it he went to the house of Yahweh; where he unrolled the letter and prayed saying, “O Yahweh, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made the heavens and the earth. Give ear, Yahweh, and hear! Open your eyes and see! Listen to all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to insult the living God! It is true, Yahweh, that the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries of the earth. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not true gods but gods made of wood and stone by human hands. Now, O Yahweh our God, save us from his hand and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that you alone, Yahweh, are God.”

Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent word to Hezekiah: “You have called upon Yahweh and he has heard your prayer regarding Sennacherib, king of Assyria. This is what Yahweh has spoken against him:

For a remnant will come from Jerusalem and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Hosts will accomplish this. That is why Yahweh has said this concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not enter this city nor shoot his arrows. He shall not raise a shield to oppose it nor build a siege ramp against it. He shall leave by the way he came and he shall not enter the city, word of Yahweh. I will protect this city and so save it for my own sake and for the sake of David, my servant.’” It happened that the angel of Yahweh went out that night and struck 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp.

So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, returned home and lived in Nineveh. While he was worshiping in the temple of his god, Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer slew him with the sword and then escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, succeeded him as king. Gospel: Mt 7:6, 12-14

Do not give what is holy to the dogs, or throw your pearls before pigs. They might trample on them, and then turn on you and tear you to pieces.

So, do to others whatever you would that others do to you: there, you have the law and the prophets.

Enter through the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the road, that leads to destruction, and many go that way. How narrow is the gate that leads to life; and how rough, the road; few there are, who find it. Reflection:

According to the dictionaries, a nonconformist is “a person who does not conform to generally accepted patterns of behavior or thought” (Collins). Teenagers tend to be nonconformists in many ways. They have their own way of dressing, their music, their way of thinking and acting. This nonconformism can be a good thing if it consists in rejecting vice, but it can also be a bad thing if it consists in resisting virtue.

The saint we are remembering today was proclaimed “Patron of Youth” by Pope Benedict XIII, not only because he died at 23 but because he was a holy nonconformist.

The son of a high dignitary of the Spanish court, Aloysius fell in love with Christ humiliated and crucified when he was still a child. At age 16 he gave up his hereditary right to be prince of Mantua, in Italy. Despite the strong opposition of his father, he joined the Jesuits in 1587. Four years later the plague broke out in Rome where he was studying theology. Aloysius volunteered to serve the sick, whom he visited and nursed in their home. He did not catch the disease but he eventually died from sheer exhaustion on this day in 1591.

For the nonconformist youth of today, he is a great model to follow.