Click here to read the daily readings from the USCCB website.
If you haven't already, I would encourage you to read the long version of today's first reading. It's a rather beautiful description of how good we are and how bad we can be. I found the imagery rather moving. To me, it spoke of how it is the Lord who clothes us with dignity. When we are apart from Him, especially before we have truly given ourselves to Him, we are vulnerable, bloodied, and cold. But when He finds us, He cleans our wounds. He clothes us with the finest robes and jewelry. He goes so far as to crown us "with a glorious diadem."
But we can also reject this gift. It was interesting, because when the woman in the description rejected the Lord, He didn't take those gifts away from her. She didn't go back to her naked, bloodied self. She maintained her gifts, but she misused them. "But you were captivated by your own beauty, you used your renown to make yourself a harlot, and you lavished your harlotry on every passer-by, whose own you became." Yikes. This might speak something unique to your own heart, but in this description I felt convicted by my own self-righteousness.
I'm "captivated by (my) own beauty." I see how holy and pleasing to the Lord I am, like the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector. I'm so much like the Pharisee. The Lord called me out this morning. He's beckoning me to take my proper place among the humble and remember that every good work comes from Him. Everything good thought is a grace. "It is You, O Lord, who have accomplished all (I) have done."
What about you? What does this description awaken in you this morning?
-Amanda Benner, Director of Evangelization