Liturgical Readings for : Friday, 17th November, 2023
Friday of the Thirty -Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Memorial of St Elizabeth of Hungary, religious
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Wisdom 13:1-9
If they are capable of acquiring enough knowledge to be able to investigate the world,
how have they been so slow to find its Master?
Naturally stupid are all men who have not known God and who, from the good things that are seen,
have not been able to discover Him-who-is, or, by studying the works, have failed to recognise the Artificer.
Fire however, or wind, or the swift air, the sphere of the stars, impetuous water, heaven’s lamps,
are what they have held to be the gods who govern the world.
If, charmed by their beauty, they have taken things for gods, let them know how much the Lord of these excels them,
since the very Author of beauty has created them.
And if they have been impressed by their power and energy,
let them deduce from these how much mightier is he that has formed them,
since through the grandeur and beauty of the creatures
we may, by analogy, contemplate their Author.
Small blame, however, attaches to these men, for perhaps they only go astray
in their search for God and their eagerness to find him;
living among his works, they strive to comprehend them and fall victim to
appearances, seeing so much beauty.
Even so, they are not to be excused: if they are capable of acquiring enough knowledge to be able to investigate the world,
how have they been so slow to find its Master?
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 18: 2-5
Response The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
1. The heavens proclaim the glory of God and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.
Day unto day takes up the story and night unto night makes known the message. Response
2. No speech, no word, no voice is heard yet their span extends through all the earth,
their words to the utmost bounds of the world. Response
Gospel Acclamation Heb 4: 12
Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is something alive and active: it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
Or Mk 21: 28
Alleluia, alleluia!
Stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 17:26-37 Glory to you, O Lord.
When the day comes for the Son of Man to be revealed.
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
It will be the same as it was in Lot’s day: people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but the day Lot left Sodom, God rained fire and brimstone from heaven and it destroyed them all. It will be the same when the day comes for the Son of Man to be revealed.
‘When that day comes, anyone on the housetop, with his possessions in the house, must not come down to collect them, nor must anyone in the fields turn back either. Remember Lot’s wife. Anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe. I tell you, on that night two will be in one bed: one will be taken, the other left; two women will be grinding corn together: one will be taken, the other left.’
The disciples interrupted. Where, Lord?’ they asked.
He said, ‘Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Friday, Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time Luke 17:26-37
The activities mentioned in the gospel reading of eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, buying and selling, planting and building are the stuff of everyday life. Yet, Jesus suggests in that reading that all those activities can suddenly come to a stop, as at the time of Noah and the flood, and the time of Lot and the destruction of Sodom. Jesus is not suggesting that all these activities are not important, but he is implying that they are not of ultimate importance, because they will all pass away and, sometimes, quite suddenly. What then is of ultimate importance?
Both of today’s readings suggest that it is not so much the activities themselves that are of ultimate importance but the fundamental attitude of heart that lies behind them. The gospels as a whole name this attitude of heart as love, and this is what ultimately matters. In the gospel reading, Jesus declares that anyone who loses his life will keep it. By ‘losing one’s life’ Jesus means giving one’s life in love to others, and to God present to us in others. This is what gives meaning to all our activities, and it is this quality of heart which will endure when all else passes away. As Saint Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘Love never ends’. Love never ends because it is of God, it is a reflection of God’s life, of God who is Love, and God never ends.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
