Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 3rd June, 2024
Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Memorial of St Kevin, abbot
FIRST READING
A reading from the second letter of St Peter 1: 2-7
He has given us the guarantee of something very great, to be able to share the divine nature.
May you have more and more grace and peace as you come to know our Lord more and more.
By his divine power, he has given us all the things that we need for life and for true devotion, bringing us to know God himself, who has called us by his own glory and goodness. In making these gifts, he has given us the guarantee of something very great and wonderful to come:
through them you will be able to share the divine nature and to escape corruption in a world that is sunk in vice.
But to attain this, you will have to do your utmost yourselves,
adding goodness to the faith that you have,
understanding to your goodness, self-control to your understanding,
patience to your self-control, true devotion to your patience,
kindness towards your fellow men to your devotion, and, to this kindness, love.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 90
Response My God, in you I trust.
1. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High and abides in the shade of the Almighty
says to the Lord: ‘My refuge, my stronghold, my God in whom I trust!’ Response
2. His love he set on me, so I will rescue him; protect him for he knows my name.
When he calls I shall answer: ‘I am with you.’ Response
3. I will save him in distress and give him glory. With length of life I will content him;
I shall let him see my saving power. Response
Gospel Acclamation Col 3: 16. 17
Alleluia, alleluia!
Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you;
through him give thanks to God the Father.
Alleluia!
or Apoc 1: 5
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead,
loves us and washed away our sins with his blood.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 12: 1-12 Glory to you, O Lord
They seized the beloved son and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, scribes and the elders in parables,
‘A man planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad.
When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce from the vineyard. But they seized the man, thrashed him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another servant to them; him they beat about the head and treated shamefully. And he sent another and him they killed; then a number of others, and they thrashed some and killed the rest.
He had still someone left: his beloved son. He sent him to them last of all.
“They will respect my son” he said. But those tenants said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”
So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this text of scripture:
It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone.
This was the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see?
And they would have liked to arrest him, because they realised that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds. So they left him alone and went away.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Monday, Ninth Week in Ordinary Time Mark 12:1-12
The parable that Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading paints a realistic picture of the human tendency towards violence. The response of the tenants to the messengers of the vineyard owner is one of escalating violence. The first two messengers are beaten up; the third messenger is killed; the fourth messenger, who is the son of the vineyard owner, is not only killed but thrown out of the vineyard without any proper burial, a horrifying insult in that culture. The tenants are depicted as knowing full well what they were doing. They recognized the fourth messenger as the owner’s son and, therefore, his rightful heir, and in killing him they were intending to gain his inheritance. Jesus saw in this figure of the ‘son’ a reference to himself and the fate that awaits him. The parable shows human nature at its worst.
Yet, Jesus’ own comment on the parable includes a quotation from one of the Psalms which draws attention to God’s good work, ‘It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone. This was the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see’. There was nothing in the story itself that was wonderful to see. Yet, Jesus suggests that God can work in a wonderful way even in situations that reveal the worst of human nature. Jesus was crucified by sinners, but God raised him from the dead and made him the keystone of a new community, the church, where sinners could find the grace of forgiveness and renewal. The gospel reading reminds us that there is no situation so dire as to prevent the Lord from working within it in a life-giving way for others.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
