Mass Readings for : Tuesday, 20th August, 2024

Liturgical Readings for : Tuesday, 20th August, 2024

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2

Optional Memorial of St Bernard, abbot and doctor of the Church

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel 28:1 -10
Though you are a man and not a god, you consider yourself the equal of God.

The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows,
‘Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre, “
The Lord the say this:
Being swollen with pride, you have said: I am a god; I am sitting on the throne of God, surrounded by the seas.
Though you are a man and not a god, you consider yourself the equal of God.
You are wiser now than Daniel; there is no sage as wise as you.
By your wisdom and your intelligence you have amassed great wealth;
you have piles of gold and silver inside your treasure-houses.
Such is your skill in trading, your wealth has continued to increase,
and with this your heart has grown more arrogant.

And so, the Lord says this:
Since you consider yourself the equal of God,
very well, I am going to bring foreigners against you,
the most barbarous of the nations.
They will draw sword against your fine wisdom, they will defile your glory;
they will throw you down into the pit and you will die a violent death surrounded by the seas.
Are you still going to say: I am a god, when your murderers confront you? No, you are a man and not a god in the clutches of your murderers!
You will die like the uncircumcised – at the hand of foreigners. For I have spoken – it is the Lord who speaks.”‘

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm Deut 32
Response It is the Lord who deals death and life.

1. I should crush them to dust, said the Lord. I should wipe out their memory among men,
did I not fear the boasting of the enemy. But let not their foes be mistaken! Response

2. Let them not say: Our own power wins the victory, the Lord plays no part in this.
What a nation of short sight it is; in them there is no understanding. Response

3 How else could one man rout a thousand, how could two put ten thousand to flight,
were it not that their Rock has sold them, that the Lord has delivered them up? Response

4. For it is close, the day of their ruin; their doom comes at speed.
For the Lord will see his people righted, he will take pity on his servants. Response

Gospel Acclamation Ps 24: 4. 5
Alleluia, Alleluia
Teach me your paths, my God, make me walk in your truth.
Alleluia !

or Mt 5: 3
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Jesus Christ was rich, but he became poor for your sakes,
to make you rich out of his poverty.
Alleluia !

GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 19:23-30 Glory to you, O Lord
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said to his disciples,
‘I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’
When the disciples heard this they were astonished.
‘Who can be saved, then?’ they said.
Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he told them ~ ‘this is impossible;
for God everything is possible.

Then Peter spoke.
What about us?’ he said to him ‘We have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?’
Jesus said to him,
‘I tell you solemnly, when all is made new and the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory,
you will yourselves sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land
for the sake of my name will be repaid a hundred times over, and also inherit eternal life.

‘Many who are first will be last, and the last, first

.The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

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Gospel Reflection Tuesday Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 19:23-30

Jesus’ image of a camel passing through the eye of a needle has been spoken of as an example of comic exaggeration. The person with the plank in their eye would be another example. Jesus often used such comic exaggeration to get people’s attention and perhaps to shock them out of a sense of complacency. When Jesus said it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, the astonished disciples ask, ‘Who can be saved, then?’ Jesus’ reply, ‘For people, this is impossible; for God everything is possible’, suggests that the attaining of salvation is primarily God’s doing rather than our doing.
It is a divine attainment rather than a human one.

We can only enter into the life of God with the help that God alone can give us. We need to depend fully on God to enter the kingdom of heaven, opening ourselves up in our poverty to his gracious working on our behalf. This is where Jesus sees the problem with excessive attachment to wealth or possessions. If we seek our security in wealth or possessions, we will cease to rely on God who alone gives access to salvation, to life in abundance. They might even lead us to say, in the words of today’s first reading, ‘I am a god’. If, acknowledging our poverty, we place our security in God, in the Lord, then, according to Jesus in today’s gospel reading, we will be abundantly repaid in this earthly life, and also inherit eternal life