Let God be the judge alone! Yes it is frustrating when you set high standards for yourself and everyone else, but it seems everyone is falling short. Giving excuses after excuses, taking short cut after shortcut! And putting the blame on others instead of owning it and finding solutions to bring Him Glory and praise. Whom is it again that we serve? Is what we offer our very best for the Lord our God? Are we fully committed to walking in His presence always?
We are called to faithfulness and obedience not to be successful. For whether we are fruitful or successful or not is decided by the Lord our God by His standards. We on our part must always love mercy first and walk humbly with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us therefore not remain in dismay or regret, but seek new frontiers to walk in the light of His resurrection. To go where we are needed to bring Glory to our Lord. Amen
First reading
2 Kings 17:5-8,13-15,18 ·
There was none left, but the tribe of Judah only
The king of Assyria invaded the whole country and, coming to Samaria, laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
This happened because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods, they followed the practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed for them.
And yet through all the prophets and all the seers, the Lord had given Israel and Judah this warning, ‘Turn from your wicked ways and keep my commandments and my laws in accordance with the entire Law I laid down for your fathers and delivered to them through my servants the prophets.’ But they would not listen, they were more stubborn than their ancestors had been who had no faith in the Lord their God. They despised his laws and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They pursued emptiness, and themselves became empty through copying the nations round them although the Lord had ordered them not to act as they did. For this, the Lord was enraged with Israel and thrust them away from him. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
Gospel
Matthew 7:1-5
Do not judge, and you will not be judged
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your brother, “Let me take the splinter out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.’
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