Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time — Daily Word

Opening

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit — let us begin with the Sign of the Cross, the mark of Christ traced on us. Welcome, whoever you are and however heavy your heart is today.

Penitential Rite

Lord Jesus, you seek the lost and shelter the broken: Lord, have mercy. Christ Jesus, you stand among us when we gather in your name: Christ, have mercy. Lord Jesus, you bind up every wounded heart: Lord, have mercy.

♪ “Penitential Act (Piano)” — A song for Ben

The Word of God

Reading 1 · Ezekiel 9:1-7; 10:18-22

The LORD cried loud for me to hear: Come, you scourges of the city! With that I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate which faces the north, each with a destroying weapon in his hand. In their midst was a man dressed in linen, with a writer’s case at his waist. They entered and stood beside the bronze altar. Then he called to the man dressed in linen with the writer’s case at his waist, saying to him: Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and mark a “Thau” on the foreheads of those who moan and groan over all the abominations that are practiced within it. To the others I heard the LORD say: Pass through the city after him and strike! Do not look on them with pity nor show any mercy! Old men, youths and maidens, women and children–wipe them out! But do not touch any marked with the “Thau”; begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the men, the elders, who were in front of the temple. Defile the temple, he said to them, and fill the courts with the slain; then go out and strike in the city. Then the glory of the LORD left the threshold of the temple and rested upon the cherubim. These lifted their wings, and I saw them rise from the earth, the wheels rising along with them. They stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was up above them. Then the cherubim lifted their wings, and the wheels went along with them, while up above them was the glory of the God of Israel.

Gospel · Matthew 18:15-20

Jesus said to his disciples: "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church. If he refuses to listen even to the Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Alleluia

♪ International Liturgy Publications (ilpmusic.org)

The glory of the Lord is higher than the skies.

Reflection

A mark on the forehead. That is where our first reading turns.

In a city coming apart, God sends a man dressed in linen with one task: "Mark a Thau on the foreheads of those who moan and groan." The Thau was written like a cross. And notice who receives it — not the strong, not the flawless, but those whose hearts break over what is broken. Before anything else, God protects.

Hear that, if grief has ever whispered that God is settling accounts with you… He is not. Sickness is never a punishment, and never the fault of those who loved and cared. When they asked Jesus who sinned, he said plainly: "Neither this man nor his parents." You missed nothing. God does not accuse you. Please do not accuse yourselves.

Every one of us was signed with that cross at baptism — Ben too, on his small forehead, long before he could say the word.

Then Ezekiel watches the glory of the Lord rise from the temple and move. Not vanish. Move — going out with the people. Love relocates; it does not end.

And the Gospel completes it: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Two or three. Christ does not wait for a crowd. Picture two brothers crouched in wet sand near the pier, hoods up against the ocean wind, digging one small pool together — Benjamin and Ryan, heads bent over the same happy work. Two. That was enough for Jesus to be standing right there.

Eight weeks now without Ben's voice in the house. Alan, Thao, Ryan — when the two or three of you are together, so is he, and so is the Lord.

To his aunts and uncles, to everyone praying from far away, to children who are sick tonight and every family carrying something too heavy… you are marked, you are kept, you are loved.

Benjamin Vo is inside that glory now. Nothing about him was lost — only moved, into light.

Meditation

♪ “The Solid Ground (Organ)” — A song for Ben

Prayers of the Faithful

For the intentions entrusted to Ben on our prayer wall:

“Ben please pray for Aunt Maria Tran Ngoc Lan to rest in peace.”