Liturgical Readings for : Friday, 16th August, 2024
Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle 2
Optional memorial of St Stephen of Hungry
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel 16:1-15. 60. 63
You were perfect in beauty because I had clothed you with my own splendour;
and you have made yourself a prostitute.
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows,
‘Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her filthy crimes.
Say, “The Lord says this:
By origin and birth you belong to the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. At birth, the very day you were born, there was no one to cut your navel-string, or wash you in cleansing water, or rub you with salt, or wrap you in napkins. No one leaned kindly over you to do anything like that for you. You were exposed in the open fields; you were as unloved as that on the day you were born.
I saw you struggling in your blood as I was passing, and I said to you as you lay in your blood: Live, and grow like the grass of the fields.
You developed, you grew, you reached marriageable age. Your breasts and your hair both grew, but you were quite naked. Then I saw you as I was passing. Your time had come, the time for love. I spread part of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness; I bound myself by oath, I made a covenant with you
– it is the Lord who speaks –
and you became mine. I bathed you in water, I washed the blood off you, I anointed you with oil. I gave you embroidered dresses, fine leather shoes, a linen headband and a cloak of silk. I loaded you with jewels, gave you bracelets for your wrists and a necklace for your throat. I gave you nose-ring and earrings; I put a beautiful diadem on your head. You were loaded with gold and silver, and dressed in fine linen and embroidered silks. Your food was the finest flour, honey and oil. You grew more and more beautiful; and you rose to be queen. The fame of your beauty spread through the nations, since it was perfect, because I had clothed you with my own splendour – it is the Lord who speaks.
You have become infatuated with your own beauty; you have used your fame to make yourself a prostitute; you have offered your services to all comers… but I will remember the covenant that I made with you when you were a girl, and I will conclude a covenant with you that shall last for ever. and so remember and be covered with shame, and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I have pardoned you for all that you have done – it is the Lord who speaks.“‘
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
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Alternative First Reading:
A reading from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel 16:59- 63
I will remember the covenant that I made: with you and you will be in covered with shame.
The Lord says this:
“Jerusalem, I will treat you as you deserve, you who have despised your oath even to the extent of breaking a covenant, but I will remember the covenant that I made with you when you were a girl, and I will conclude a covenant with you that shall last for ever. And you for your part will remember your past behaviour and be covered with shame when I take your elder and younger sisters and make them your daughters, although this was not included in this covenant. I am going to renew my covenant with you; and you will learn that I am the Lord, and so remember and be covered with shame, and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I have pardoned you for all that you have done – it is the Lord who speaks.”‘
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
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Responsorial Psalm Is 12
Response Your anger has passed, O Lord, and you give me comfort.
1. Truly, God is my salvation, I trust, I shall not fear.
For the Lord is my strength, my song, he became my saviour. Response
2. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to his name! Make his mighty deeds known to the peoples! Response
3. Declare the greatness of his name, sing a psalm to the Lord!
For he has done glorious deeds, make them known to all the earth!
People of Zion, sing and shout for joyfor great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ps 110: 7. 8
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Your precepts, O Lord, are all of them sure; they stand firm for ever and ever.
Alleluia!
or 1Thess 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 Matthew 19:3-12 Glory to you, O Lord
You were so unteachable that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning.
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test him they said,
‘Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?’
He answered,
‘Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide’.
They said to him,
‘Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?’
‘It was because you were so unteachable‘ he said ‘that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning.
Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife – I am not speaking of fornication – and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’
The disciples said to him,
‘If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry’.
But he replied
‘It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted.
There are eunuchs born that way from their mother’s womb,
there are eunuchs made so by men and
there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
Let anyone accept this who can.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Friday Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 19:3-12
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus turns to the opening chapters of the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, when he is put on the spot by some Pharisees regarding the question of divorce. The Jewish law made provision for divorce. The only issue of debate among the religious leaders was the grounds for divorce. One school of thought favoured very lenient grounds; another school insisted on much stricter grounds. However, both schools followed the Jewish Law in asserting that it was only the man who could initiate divorce proceedings, whatever the grounds. The woman was not free to do the same. The divorce laws gave a freedom to men that it did not give to women, and it left women very vulnerable to being cut adrift by their husbands, for the flimsiest of reasons.
In that context, Jesus’ teaching on marriage was intended to protect women. It reminded men of their obligation to love and honour their wives as they would their own body. Jesus went back beyond what the Jewish law allowed to God’s original intention as expressed in the Book of Genesis, according to which husband and wife are to become one in love, faithful to each other all the days of their lives. It is a wonderful vision for married life and, yet, we all know from experiences that people’s marriages don’t always reflect this vision of Jesus. Jesus has a desire for all our lives, whether we are married or single; it is that we would love one another as he loves us. We don’t always live out of that vision of Jesus, but it is always worth striving towards, and if we open ourselves to the help of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord’ love, we will manage to give expression to this vision, at least from time to time.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
