Liturgical Readings for : Thursday, 5th September, 2024
Thursday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
FIRST READING
A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians 3:18-23
All things are your servants; but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says:
The Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are: or again: God is not convinced by the arguments of the wise.
So there is nothing to boast about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the present and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23
Response The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness.
1. The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas; on the waters he made it firm. Response
2. Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart, who desires not worthless things. Response
3. He shall receive blessings from the Lord and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him, seek the face of the God of Jacob. Response
Gospel Acclamation 2 Thess 2: 14
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Through the Good News God called us to share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia!
Or Mt 4: 19
Alleluia, alleluia!
Follow me , says the Lord, and I will make you fishers of men.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 5:1-11 Glory to you, O Lord
They left everything and followed him.
Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats-it was Simon’s-and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon,
‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch’.
‘Master,’ Simon replied ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing,
but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.‘
And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.
When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man’.
For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made;
so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners.
But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch‘.
Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Thursday Twenty Second Week in Ordinary Time Luke 5:1-11
Today’s gospel reading suggests that just when a situation seems hopeless, without promise, there is often an abundance of life just below the surface, if only we could see it. Simon Peter and his companions had worked hard all night long, fishing on the Sea of Galilee, and had caught nothing. Night time was the best time to catch fish. There was no reason to think that it was worthwhile to go out again in full daylight. However, Jesus could see that there was life below the surface of the sea and he told them to put out into deep water and let down their nets for a catch. When they did so, they were overwhelmed by the abundance of the catch. They had to call on other boats to come and help them.
Very often the Lord can see signs of life that we miss. Our past failures, the size of the task before us, our sense of our own limitations, can immobilize us and leave us feeling despondent and even hopeless. It is at such times that we need to turn to the Lord and ask him to help us to see as he sees, with eyes that are sensitive to the promise and hope that even the most difficult situations can hold. We might think in our wisdom that some situation, or even some person, is a lost cause, but as Saint Paul says in the first reading ‘the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God’. God brought new life out of the most unpromising situation imaginable, the crucifixion of his own Son, who was the embodiment of his love for the world. The God whom Jesus revealed is a God who sees abundance in the most unpromising of situations. With the help of the Holy Spirit we can begin to see life as the Lord does, with eyes that are attentive to the signs of life beneath the surface.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd
