Liturgical Readings for : Thursday, 23rd May, 2024
Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
FIRST READING
A reading from the letter of St James 5:1-6
The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord.
The answer for the rich. Start crying, weep for the miseries that are coming to you. Your wealth is all rotting, your clothes are all eaten up by moths. All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be your own sentence, and eat into your body. It was a burning fire that you stored up as your treasure for the last days. Labourers mowed your fields, and you cheated them – listen to the wages that you kept back, calling out; realise that the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter you went on eating to your heart’s content. It was you who condemned the innocent and killed them; they offered you no resistance.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 48
Response How happy-are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
1. This is the lot of the self-confident, who have others at their beck and call.
Like sheep they are driven to the grave, where death shall be their shepherd
and the just shall become their rulers. Response
2. With the morning their outward show vanishes and the grave becomes their home.
But God will ransom me from death and take my soul to himself. Response
3. Then do not fear when a man grows rich, when the glory of his house increases.
He takes nothing with him when he dies, his glory does not follow him below. Response
4. Though he flattered himself while he lived: ‘Men will praise me for doing well for myself,’
yet he will go to join his fathers, who will never see the light any more. Response
Gospel Acclamation Lk8: 15
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are those who; with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Alleluia!
or 1 Thess 2: 13
Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept God’s message it for what it really is, God’s message and not some human thinking.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 9:41-50
It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have two hands and go to hell.
Jesus said to his disciples
‘If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ,
then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.
‘But anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck.
And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out.
And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire go out.
For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is a good thing, but if salt has become insipid, how can you season it again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Thursday, Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Mark 9:41-50
When it comes to our relationship with the Lord we are all very much interdependent. We don’t come to the Lord on our own. We need the support of other people of faith. We bring each other to the Lord. However, today’s gospel reading also recognizes that we can lead each other away from the Lord. In the language of the gospel reading, we can be ‘an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith’. The ‘little ones’ suggests people of faith who are not fully mature in their faith, which is really all of us. We are all on a journey towards a fuller and deeper faith in the Lord and we all need each other’s support on the journey. We can also hinder each other, becoming an obstacle to each other, on that shared journey, and that is the concern of Jesus in today’s gospel reading.
As often with Jesus, he speaks in stark, exaggerated, language, not to be taken literally, in order to draw attention to an important message. He declares that if anyone proves an obstacle to others on their journey of faith, it would be better if a milestone were hung around their neck and then thrown into the sea. He further declares that those who are an obstacle to the faith of others would be better off without a physical part of the body rather than put their own eternal salvation and that of others at risk. The word ‘Synod’, which we are hearing a lot about, comes from two Greek words, ‘with’ and ‘way’ or ‘journey’. It means journeying together. The word reminds us that we are on a shared journey towards the Lord and that we have a responsibility to support one another on that journey.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
