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Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 : Ezekiel 24:15-23

The word of the LORD came to me:
Son of man, by a sudden blow
I am taking away from you the delight of your eyes,
but do not mourn or weep or shed any tears.
Groan in silence, make no lament for the dead,
bind on your turban, put your sandals on your feet,
do not cover your beard, and do not eat the customary bread.
That evening my wife died,
and the next morning I did as I had been commanded.
Then the people asked me, “Will you not tell us what all these things
that you are doing mean for us?”
I therefore spoke to the people that morning, saying to them:
Thus the word of the LORD came to me:
Say to the house of Israel:
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will now desecrate my sanctuary, the stronghold of your pride,
the delight of your eyes, the desire of your soul.
The sons and daughters you left behind shall fall by the sword.
Ezekiel shall be a sign for you:
all that he did you shall do when it happens.
Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
You shall do as I have done,
not covering your beards nor eating the customary bread.
Your turbans shall remain on your heads, your sandals on your feet.
You shall not mourn or weep,
but you shall rot away because of your sins and groan one to another.

Responsorial Psalm : Deuteronomy 32:18-19, 20, 21

R. (see 18a) You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you.
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathing
and anger toward his sons and daughters.
R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
“I will hide my face from them,” he said,
“and see what will then become of them.
What a fickle race they are,
sons with no loyalty in them!”
R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
“Since they have provoked me with their ‘no-god’
and angered me with their vain idols,
I will provoke them with a ‘no-people’;
with a foolish nation I will anger them.”
R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.

Alleluia : Matthew 5:3

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are the poor in spirit;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel : Matthew 19:16-22

A young man approached Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?”
He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good?
There is only One who is good.
If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
He asked him, “Which ones?”
And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
honor your father and your mother;
and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The young man said to him,
“All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad,
for he had many possessions.

Message from the Readings

Today’s readings proclaim a sobering and liberating truth:
Anything we cling to more than God will eventually break our hearts. True freedom comes from surrender.
• Ezekiel’s silent grief reveals the cost of Israel’s misplaced love.
• The canticle shows how forgetting God leads to emptiness.
• Jesus exposes the rich young man’s attachment and invites him to a deeper, freer life.
The message is clear: God asks for our whole heart—not to take from us, but to set us free.

 Reflection for the Day

Ezekiel’s experience is one of the most painful moments in Scripture. His wife—the delight of his eyes—dies suddenly. Yet God instructs him not to mourn publicly. His silence becomes a prophetic sign: Israel will lose what is most precious, and only then will they understand the weight of turning away from God.
It is a hard message, but it reveals a deeper truth: When we place our security in anything other than God, we eventually face heartbreak.
The canticle echoes this: Israel forgot the God who gave them life. They trusted idols, power, and their own strength. And it led them to sorrow.
Then the Gospel brings the message home.
A rich young man approaches Jesus with sincerity: “What good must I do to gain eternal life?”
Jesus looks at him with love and invites him to something radical:
“Go, sell what you have… then come, follow Me.”
It is not a punishment. It is an invitation to freedom. But the man cannot let go. He walks away sad— not because Jesus rejected him, but because he clung too tightly to what could never satisfy.
Today’s readings invite us to examine our hearts:
What is the “delight of your eyes”?
What do you cling to? What competes with God for your trust?
It may not be wealth. It may be comfort, control, reputation, relationships, or fear.
Jesus does not ask us to give things up to make life harder. He asks us to surrender what binds us so He can give us what frees us.
Today’s readings invite us to three movements:

1. Identify what holds your heart.
   Name the attachments that keep you from deeper trust.
2. Surrender what cannot save you.
   Let God be your security, your joy, your foundation.
3. Follow Jesus with freedom.
   He never takes without giving. He never asks without loving. He never calls without leading to life.
   Let today be a day of honest surrender and renewed trust.

Prayer for Today

Lord Jesus, show me the attachments that hold my heart and give me the courage to surrender them to You.
Free me from anything that keeps me from following You fully. Teach me to trust Your love more than my fears, my comforts, or my possessions.
Make my heart wholly Yours and lead me into the freedom of true discipleship.
Amen.