TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT - Gospel (Mt 18:12-14) - THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

“It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” (Mt 18:14)

FIRST READING - Is 40:1-11

A reading from the Book of Isaiah

Comfort, give comfort to my people,

says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her

that her service is at an end,

her guilt is expiated;

Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD

double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:

In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!

Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!

Every valley shall be filled in,

every mountain and hill shall be made low;

The rugged land shall be made a plain,

the rough country, a broad valley.

Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

and all people shall see it together;

for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

A voice says, "Cry out!"

I answer, "What shall I cry out?"

"All flesh is grass,

and all their glory like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower wilts,

when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.

So then, the people is the grass.

Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,

the word of our God stands forever."

Go up onto a high mountain,

Zion, herald of glad tidings;

Cry out at the top of your voice,

Jerusalem, herald of good news!

Fear not to cry out

and say to the cities of Judah:

Here is your God!

Here comes with power

the Lord GOD,

who rules by his strong arm;

Here is his reward with him,

his recompense before him.

Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;

in his arms he gathers the lambs,

Carrying them in his bosom,

and leading the ewes with care.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY -

From the Gospel according to Matthew

Mt 18:12-14

Jesus said to his disciples:

"What is your opinion?

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,

will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills

and go in search of the stray?

And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it

than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.

In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father

that one of these little ones be lost."

TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT - Gospel (Mt 18:12-14)

THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

Dear People of God,

In today's Word of God, God wants to tell all mankind that He is a God of love, the One full of mercy and infinite kindness.

In this world, there is only one God who creates heaven and earth, all things and all creatures, and He is the master of all mankind.

God creates humans in His image out of love. Therefore, in God's heart, everyone is loved and embraced by Him; He does not abandon any soul or any sheep. As a result, any soul or sheep who has sinned and displeased God should stand up, return to Him, and lean on His heart.

He will embrace, protect, preserve, and shield us from Satan's temptations and traps.

Today, God uses the image of a lost sheep to demonstrate how immense His mercy is for humanity. He does not want to let any soul fall into the hands of Satan.

Therefore, through this parable, God wants to emphasize to all humanity that in God's heart, He loves everyone in this world, without exception; good people or bad, all are loved by God, and all are sought by God to return to His heart.

God is heartbroken when he sees a sheep lost from His loving arms; but He still opens His arms every second, every minute to wait for that lost sheep to return; and He even personally goes searching to find those lost sheep.

It is the shepherds in the Church that represent the Good Shepherd Jesus, who are chosen by God to do His work.

Therefore, through the word of God today, God wants to tell all those chosen by God to shepherd His flock: Always have God's loving heart, a forgiving and tolerant heart to welcome all sheep that God sends; do not distinguish between the rich sheep and the poor sheep; do not distinguish between good and bad people and don't forget the mission that God has given us, which is to love as God loves and to do as God does.

Because the shepherd Jesus had to sacrifice Himself, to annihilate Himself, then today's shepherds must also be of the same image as Jesus. They must serve in love, loving to the point of forgetting themselves.

Thanks be to God. Amen.