Liturgical Readings for : Thursday, 28th November, 2024
Thursday of the Thirty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Victory and glory and power belong to our God
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of the Apocalypse 18:1-2. 21-23. 19:3-9
Babylon the Great has fallen.
I, John, saw an angel come down from heaven, with great authority given to him; the earth was lit up with his glory.
At the top of his voice he shouted,
‘Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, and has become the haunt of devils
and a lodging for every foul spirit and dirty, loathsome bird.
‘Then a powerful angel picked up a boulder like a great millstone, and as he hurled it into the sea, he said,
‘That is how the great city of Babylon is going to be hurled down, never to be seen again. ‘Never again in you, Babylon, will be heard the song of harpists and minstrels, the music of flute and trumpet;
never again will craftsmen of every skill be found or the sound of the mill be heard; never again will shine the light of the lamp,
never again will be heard the voices of bridegroom and bride.
Your traders were the princes of the earth, all the nations were under your spell.’
After this I seemed to hear the great sound of a huge crowd in heaven, singing,
‘Alleluia! Victory and glory and power to our God!
He judges fairly, he punishes justly, and he has condemned the famous prostitute who
corrupted the earth with her fornication; he has avenged his servants that she killed’.
They sang again,
‘Alleluia! The smoke of her will go up for ever and ever.’
The angel said, ‘Write this:
Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb‘, and he added,
‘All the things you have written are true messages from God’.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 99
Response Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.
1. Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy. Response
2. Know that he, the Lord, is God. He made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the sheep of his flock. Response
3. Go within his gates giving thanks. Enter his courts with songs of praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name. Response
3. Indeed, how good is the Lord, eternal his merciful love.
He is faithful from age to age. Response
Gospel Acclamation Mt 24: 42
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Stay awake and stand ready, because you do not know the hour
when the Son of Man is coming.
Alleluia
Or Lk 21: 28
Alleluia, Alleluia
Stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.
Alleluia
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 21:20-28
Jerusalem will be trampled down by the pagans until the age of the pagans is completely over.
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you must realise that she will soon be laid desolate. Then those in Judaea must escape to the mountains, those inside the city must leave it, and those in country districts must not take refuge in it.
For this is the time of vengeance when all that scripture says must be fulfilled.
Alas for those with child, or with babies at the breast, when those days come!
‘For great misery will descend on the land and wrath on this people.
They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive to every pagan country; and Jerusalem will be trampled down by the pagans until the age of the pagans is completely over.
‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars;
on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world,
for the powers of heaven will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Thursday Thirty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time Luke 21:20-28
Many of the responses we say or sing at Mass are drawn from the Scriptures, such as ‘Holy, Holy, Holy Lord…’ which comes from the prophet Isaiah. When the priest says just before distributing Holy Communion, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world’, it is drawn from the words of John the Baptist in the gospel of John as he points out Jesus to his disciples. When the priest goes on to say, ‘Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb’, it is drawn from today’s first reading from the Book of Revelation, ‘Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb’. The writer there was referring to the great feast in the kingdom of heaven, when the risen Lord, the Lamb of God, would gather people of every race and language who were open to his invitation. When the priest speaks of the ‘supper of the Lamb’, he is referring to the Eucharist at which we are gathered. The table of the Lord, the altar, from which we are fed by the Bread of Life looks ahead to that final banquet of eternal life to which we are all called.
This is the hope that our faith gives us. We never lose that hope even when a great darkness comes over our world, our cities, our lives. Jesus refers to such great darkness in today’s gospel reading, but he goes on to say that he will come into this darkness with great power and glory, and, therefore, we should always stand erect, with our heads held high, full of hope. The Lord is always present at the heart of any darkness in which we find ourselves, and he is always at work to bring us to our final destiny, the banquet of eternal life.
In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks of himself as the Son of Man who will come ‘with power and great glory’. Nothing lasts for ever, not even the great and powerful empires of the world. Only God and his Son endure; they are the beginning and the end, yesterday, today and tomorrow. God’s relationship with us endures; Jesus’ love for us lasts for ever and every day he says to us what is said at the end of today’s first reading, ‘Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’ The Lord calls us to his feast, in the future kingdom of heaven, but also in the here and now of the Eucharist. You will recognise that beatitude from the text of the Mass. The Lord’s call to us to be in communion with him is the constant in the midst of all that is changing. That awareness can inspire us to always ‘stand erect’, holding our heads high, in the words of the gospel reading.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
