Daily Reading for Friday, March 24th, 2023

Reading 1, Wisdom 2:1, 12-22

¹ And this is the false argument they use, 'Our life is short and dreary, there is no remedy when our end comes, no one is known to have come back from Hades.

¹² Let us lay traps for the upright man, since he annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for our sins against the Law, and accuses us of sins against our upbringing.

¹³ He claims to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.

¹⁴ We see him as a reproof to our way of thinking, the very sight of him weighs our spirits down;

¹⁵ for his kind of life is not like other people's, and his ways are quite different.

¹⁶ In his opinion we are counterfeit; he avoids our ways as he would filth; he proclaims the final end of the upright as blessed and boasts of having God for his father.

¹⁷ Let us see if what he says is true, and test him to see what sort of end he will have.

¹⁸ For if the upright man is God's son, God will help him and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.

¹⁹ Let us test him with cruelty and with torture, and thus explore this gentleness of his and put his patience to the test.

²⁰ Let us condemn him to a shameful death since God will rescue him -- or so he claims.'

²¹ This is the way they reason, but they are misled, since their malice makes them blind.

²² They do not know the hidden things of God, they do not hope for the reward of holiness, they do not believe in a reward for blameless souls.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 34:17-18, 19-20, 21, 23

¹⁷ They cry in anguish and Yahweh hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.

¹⁸ Yahweh is near to the broken-hearted, he helps those whose spirit is crushed.

¹⁹ Though hardships without number beset the upright, Yahweh brings rescue from them all.

²⁰ Yahweh takes care of all their bones, not one of them will be broken.

²¹ But to the wicked evil brings death, those who hate the upright will pay the penalty.