Liturgical Readings for : Friday, 15th December, 2023
Friday of the Second Week of Advent
Even after all of John the Baptist’s preaching, not everybody in Jesus time responded to Him
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FIRST READING
A reading from the prophet Isaiah 48:17-19
If only you had been alert to my commandments.
Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you,
I lead you in the way that you must go.
If only you had been alert to my commandments,
your happiness would have been like a river,
your integrity like the waves of the sea.
Your children would have been numbered like the sand,
your descendants as many as its grains.
Never would your name have been cut off or blotted out before me.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1: 1-4, 6
Response Anyone who follows you, Lord, will have the light of life.
1. Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night. Response
2. He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper. Response
3. Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind.
For the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom. Response
Gospel Acclamation Is 45:8:8
Alleluia, alleluia!
See, the king, the lord of the world, will come. He will free us from the yoke of out bondage.
Alleluia!
Or
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord will come, go out to meet him.
Great is his beginning and his reign will have no end.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 11:16-19 Glory to you, O Lord.
They heed neither John nor the Son of Man.
Jesus spoke to the crowds:
‘What description can I find for this generation?
It is like children shouting to each other as they sit in the market place: “We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn’t dance;
we sang dirges, and you wouldn’t be mourners”.
‘For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He is possessed”.
The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say,
“Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”.
Yet wisdom has been proved right by her actions.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Friday Second Week of Advent Matthew 11:16-19
There are several passages in the gospels where Jesus either relates directly to children or speaks of them. All of the passages suggest the warmth of his relationship with children. Today’s gospel reading suggest that Jesus is a keen observer of how children behave. We have to imagine two groups of children in the market place. One group tries to engage the other group in their games. They first pretend to be the musicians at a wedding, but the other group are unmoved, ‘you wouldn’t dance’. They then change tact and play at being the singers of dirges at a funeral, but the other group is equally unmoved, ‘you wouldn’t be mourners’. Jesus reads this scene as a commentary on what is happening in the adult world. His contemporaries were unmoved by the somewhat mournful message of John the Baptist, and they were equally unmoved by Jesus’ own joyful message, his proclamation of the good news of God’s loving reign. They dismissed John the Baptist as possessed, and Jesus as a glutton and drunkard. ‘We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn’t dance’. We don’t often think of Jesus as a piper, playing a tune that invites people to dance. In a sense, the music of God is played through the life and message of Jesus, as well as through his death and resurrection. We are invited to tune into this celebratory music, to be moved by it and to allow it to shape our lives. We show we are the Lord’s followers by dancing to his tune, moving to the promptings of his Spirit.
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The Scripture readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd
