Isaiah 45:6-8, 18, 21-26 / Luke 7:19-23
Isaiah prophesies: Turn to me and be saved.
In Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861, dawned cold and rainy. But the weather didn’t keep the crowds from lining the streets of that town. They cheered as President-elect Lincoln passed on his way to the railroad station.
Dec 14 Monday (St. John of the Cross, Priest, Doctor of the Church)
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-john-of-the-cross : Matt: 21: 23-27: 23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said,
Zephaniah 3:1-2, 9-13 / Matthew 21:28-32
Zephaniah prophesies: I will prepare a humble people.
Charles Colson was a top Nixon aide. He went to prison in the Watergate scandal. Later he underwent a religious conversion. Today he spends all his time preaching the Gospel, especially to prisoners. Colson was deeply influenced by C. S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity. One passage, especially, touched him. “Pride leads to every other vice. . . .As long as you are proud you cannot know God.
Numbers 26:2-7, 15-17 / Matthew 21:23-27
Balaam prophesies: A star shall advance from Jacob.
Douglas Hyde was an English journalist who disliked the Catholic Church. One day he bought an anti-Catholic book to use in his attacks against the Church. The book had just the opposite effect on him. It led him into the Church. Something similar to this happened to Balaam in today’s reading. He set out to curse Israel, but ended up blessing her instead. Early church writers considered the words about the star in today’s reading as a prophetic reference to the star that directed the Magi to Jesus.