Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 28th September, 2024
Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, Year 2
Optional memorials of Ss Wenceslaus,
Laurence Ruiz and Companions, martyrs
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:8
Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the dust returns to the earth
as it once came from it; and the breath to God
Rejoice in your youth, you who are young; let your heart give you joy in your young days.
Follow the promptings of your heart and the desires of your eyes.
But this you must know: for all these things God will bring you to judgement.
Cast worry from your heart, shield your flesh from pain.
Yet youth, the age of dark hair, is vanity.
And remember your creator in the days of your youth,
before evil days come and the years approach when you say,
‘These give me no pleasure’, before sun and light and moon and stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;
The day when those who keep the house tremble and strong men are bowed;
when the women grind no longer at the mill, because day is darkening at the windows and the street doors are shut; when the sound of the mill is faint,
when the voice of the bird is silenced, and song notes are stilled,
when to go uphill is an ordeal and a walk is something to dread.
Yet the almond tree is in flower, the grasshopper is heavy with food and the caper bush bears its fruit, while man goes to his everlasting home. And the mourners are already walking to and fro in the street before the silver cord has snapped, or the golden lamp been broken, or the pitcher shattered at the spring,
or the pulley cracked at the well,
Or before the dust returns to the earth as it once came from it; and the breath to God who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. All is vanity.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89
Response O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
1. You turn men back into dust and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’
To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night. Response
2. You sweep men away like a dream, like grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers: by evening it withers and fades. Response
3. Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever? Show pity to your servants. Response
4. In the morning, fill us with your love we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Let the favour of the Lord be upon us: give success to the work of our hands. Response
Gospel Acclamation Acts 16: 14
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord, to accept the words of your Son.
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 Luke 9:43-45 Glory to you, O Lord
The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men
and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said.
At a time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did,
Jesus said to his disciples,
‘For your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind:
The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men’.
But they did not understand him when he said this;
it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it,
and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Saturday, Twenty Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Luke 9:43-45
Jesus, it seems, did not allow other people’s admiration of him to go to his head. According to today’s gospel reading, just at the time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did, he began to speak of himself in a way that would not have endeared him to many. ‘The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men’. Jesus was looking ahead to his passion and death. No one would admire him when he hung from a Roman cross. At that moment, it was mockery and scorn that he mostly received.
Yet, God would have been full of admiration for Jesus in that dark hour, not because he wanted his Son to suffer, but because Jesus on the cross was revealing God’s love for the world to the full. It was Jesus’ message of God’s merciful love for all that put him on the cross. He remained faithful to preaching and living that message, even though he knew it would result in his being handed over to death. No one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. It was this greater love, this divine love, that shone through Jesus on the cross. It was only in the light of Jesus’ resurrection that people of faith would become full of admiration not only for the way he lived but for the way he died.
Until that Easter moment, all Jesus’ talk about his coming passion and death made no sense to his disciples. In the words of the gospel reading, ‘it was hidden from them’. We who live in the light of Easter can be full of admiration, not only for all Jesus did during his earthly life, but especially for his passion and death and for the tremendous love that it revealed.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
