Liturgical Readings for : Thursday, 6th June, 2024
Thursday of the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, Year 2
Optional memorials of SS Norbert and Jarlath, bishops
FIRST READING 2 Tim 2: 8-15
They cannot chain up God’s news. If we have died with him, then we shall live with him.
Remember the Good News that I carry, ‘Jesus Christ risen from the dead, sprung from the race of David’; it is on account of this that I have my own hardships to bear, even to being chained like a criminal – but they cannot chain up God’s news. So I bear it all for the sake of those who are chosen, so that in the end they may have the salvation that is in Christ Jesus and the eternal glory that comes with it.
Here is a saying that you rely on:
If we have died with him, then we shall live with him.
If we hold firm, then we shall reign with him.
If we disown him, then he will disown us.
We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful, for he cannot disown his own self.
Remind them of this; and tell them in the name of God that there is to be no wrangling about words: all that this ever achieves is the destruction of those who are listening. Do all you can to present yourself in front of God as a man who has come through his trials, and a man who has no cause to be ashamed of his life’s work and has kept a straight course with the message of the truth.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 24
Response Lord, make me know your ways.
1. Lord, make me know your ways. Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me: for you are God my saviour. Response
2. The Lord is good and upright. He shows the path to those who stray,
he guides the humble in the right path; he teaches his way to the poor. Response
3. His ways are faithfulness and love for those who keep his covenant and will.
The Lord’s friendship is for those who revere him; to them he reveals his covenant. Response
Gospel Acclamation Jn 6: 63
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit and they are life:
you have the message of eternal life
Alleluia!
or 2 Tim 1. 10
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our saviour Christ Jesus abolished death,
and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Mark 12: 28-34 Glory to you, O Lord
This is the first commandment. The second is like it.
One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a question to him,
‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’
Jesus replied,
‘This is the first:
Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’
The scribe said to him,
‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.‘
Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said,
‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’
And after that no one dared to question him any more.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Thursday Ninth Week in Ordinary Time Mark 12:28-34
I am struck by something Paul says in today’s first reading. He refers to himself as ‘being chained like a criminal’. Yet, he immediately goes on to say, ‘but they cannot chain up God’s news’. Paul was aware that the gospel had a power of its own; its impact didn’t depend on whether he was free to preach it or not. Even if Paul was chained up and couldn’t work, the Lord was at work. Even if Paul could not preach the gospel, the gospel was continuing to touch the hearts and lives of many people. Paul was aware that the preaching of the gospel didn’t all depend on him. Even though he was the great apostle to the Gentiles and the Lord needed him, the Lord could work without him. The Lord is bigger than any of us. His gospel is more powerful than any of us. At the end of the day, we are all only servants of the Lord. He needs us to be his servants but if there comes a time when we cannot serve for whatever reason, when we are ‘chained’ in some way, the Lord continues his good work without us. That doesn’t mean that we just down tools.
Indeed, we can work all the more freely, all the more generously, in the service of the Lord, when we know that it doesn’t all depend on us. When we meet with failure of whatever kind, we know the Lord’s good work continues. He can even turn our failures to a good purpose. As Paul says in that reading, ‘we may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful’. Because we know the Lord is always faithful to us, our own moments of unfaithfulness or failure do not leave us demoralized. All the Lord asks of us is that we keep striving to love him with all our being, all our heart, soul, mind and strength, in the words of the gospel reading. When we love the Lord in this way, we will begin to love others with the Lord’s own love. That is a goal worth seeking; it gives meaning and direction to our lives.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
