The daily Word of God
Tuesday, December 9th, 2025
Tuesday of the 2nd week of Advent or Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
Matthew 18:12-14: "It is not the will of your heavenly Father".
First Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11
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.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 96:1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12, 13
R./ The Lord our God comes with power.
Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all you lands.
Sing to the Lord; bless his name;
announce his salvation, day after day.
R./ The Lord our God comes with power.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
Say among the nations: The Lord is king;
he governs the peoples with equity.
R./ The Lord our God comes with power.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice.
R./ The Lord our God comes with power.
They shall exult before the Lord, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
R./ The Lord our God comes with power.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 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.”
Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13), and it could not be otherwise with a God who is Love, who is Father-Abba, who is Mercy, who is Forgiveness. It is important to keep in mind that in all these expressions the verb to be carries its full weight. These are not ornaments added to God’s name; rather, God—the God of Jesus, the God He speaks about in His words and parables, the God whose life bears witness—is truly all of this, and nothing else. He is not vengeance, He is not punishment, He is not retribution. He is not a God who sets conditions. He is a God who is love. And love, as Paul says in the First Letter to the Corinthians (13:4–13), “is patient and kind; love is not jealous, it does not boast, it is not proud; it is not rude or selfish; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” In this context, and applying all these adjectives to God Himself, we must understand today’s Gospel parable.
It is not the Father’s will that even one of us be lost. Someone may say that the parable refers to the “little ones.” But who can truly say they are great, strong, or powerful? It is true that some people have a thick armor, and from a distance they seem invincible. But in reality—as we well know—those are often the weakest, and most of that armor is nothing but a façade that falls apart at the first real blow.
God does not want even one of us to be lost. He does not want us to go astray. And He leaves everything in order to show us His love in one way or another. That is what a Father who is love does—a love like the one Paul describes in the text above.
In this Advent season, today’s text fills us with hope. Despite everything, despite all our wanderings—those only we know and those others can see—God is searching for us, and in one way or another He is going to find us. Perhaps along paths we least expect. That is our faith. That is our God.
Fernando Torres, cmfIntroduction
The author of Second Isaiah has a beautiful message of joy and hope. God will end the exile of his people and bring them back to him. Their sins are forgiven. He will live among them as their shepherd.
God became visible as the shepherd of his people in Jesus Christ. To him, every person is precious, especially the little people and sinners. The pilgrim Church—her leaders, and all those belonging to the Church, are to be merciful and forgiving, responsible for one another, sinners responsible for their fellow sinners.
Opening Prayer
Lord, our God,
you are near to us
in Jesus Christ, your Son.
When we go astray,
you look for us until you find us.
Bring us back to you,
show us the way to you
through him who is our way,
Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord,
who lives with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
General Intercessions
– That the Church may be compassionate and patient with people who err, as God is compassionate to us, we pray:
– That we may bring joy and comfort to one another, as God has brought us joy and comfort in Christ, we pray:
– That we may not condemn people who commit mistakes or hurt us, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord, our God, merciful Father,
you are always near to us
through your Son, Jesus Christ.
In these signs of bread and wine,
we celebrate his living presence.
Through him, speak to our hearts,
reassure us that we are precious to you,
even though we are the sinners,
and begin with us your new era
of merciful love and joy.
Grant us this through Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord God, shepherd of people,
in this Eucharist, you have let us experience
that you want to be close to us
through our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
Help us to be shepherds to one another,
sinners responsible for their fellow sinners,
taking one another as we are,
because you take us as we are,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
We thank God that he still cared for us when we sinned. With him, we care also for people who go astray. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
