Mass Readings for : Tuesday, 19th December, 2023

Liturgical Readings for : Tuesday, 19th December, 2023

The Advent Octave days before Christmas
Day 3 : 19th December.

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FIRST READING

A reading from the book of Judges 13:2-7. 24-25
The birth of Samson was announced by an angel.

There was a man of Zorah of the tribe of Dan, called Manoah. His wife was barren, she had borne no children. The angel of the Lord appeared to this woman and said to her,
‘You are barren and have had no child. But from now on take great care. Take no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean. For you will conceive and bear a son. No razor is to touch his head, for the boy shall be God’s nazirite from his mother’s womb. It is he who will begin to rescue Israel from the power of the Philistines.’

Then the woman went and told her husband,
‘A man of God has just come to me; his presence was like the presence of the angel of God, he was so majestic. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not reveal his name to me. But he said to me,
“You will conceive and bear a son. From now on, take no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean. For the boy shall be God’s nazirite from his mother’s womb to his dying day.”‘

The woman gave birth to a son and called him Samson. The child grew, and the Lord blessed him; and the spirit of the Lord began to move him.

The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 70: 3-6, 16-17, Rv v8
Response My lips are filled with your praise, with your glory all the day long.

1. Be a rock where I can take refuge, a mighty stronghold to save me;
for you are my rock, my stronghold. Free me from the hand of the wicked. Response

2. It is you, O Lord, who are my hope, my trust, 0 Lord, since my youth.
On you I have leaned from my birth, from my mother’s womb you have been my help. Response

3. I will declare the Lord’s mighty deeds proclaiming your justice, yours alone.
O God, you have taught me from my youth and I proclaim your wonders still. Response

Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia!
Root of Jesse, set up as a sign to the peoples, come to save you, and delay no more.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 1:5-25
The birth of John the Baptist was announced by Gabriel.

In the days of King Herod of Judaea there lived a priest called Zechariah who belonged to the Abijah section of the priesthood, and he had a wife, Elizabeth by name, who was a descendant of Aaron. Both were worthy in the sight of God, and scrupulously observed all the commandments and observances of the Lord. But they were childless: Elizabeth was barren and they were both getting on in years.

Now it was the turn of Zechariah’s section to serve, and he was exercising his priestly office before God when it fell to him by lot, as the ritual custom was, to enter the Lord’s sanctuary and burn incense there. And at the hour of incense the whole congregation was outside, praying.

Then there appeared to him the angel of the Lord, standing on the right of the altar of incense. The sight disturbed Zechariah and he was overcome with fear. But the angel said to him,
‘Zechariah, do not be afraid, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth is to bear you a son and you must name him John. He will be your joy and delight and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord; he must drink no wine, no strong drink. Even from his mother’s womb he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and he will bring back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before him to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the disobedient back to the wisdom that the virtuous have, preparing for the Lord a people fit for him.
Zechariah said to the angel,
‘How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years.’
The angel replied,
‘I am Gabriel who stand in God’s presence, and I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this good news. Listen! Since you have not believed my words, which will come true at their appointed time, you will be silenced and have no power of speech until this has happened.’

Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and were surprised that he stayed in the sanctuary so long. When he came out he could not speak to them, and they realised that he had received a vision in the sanctuary. But he could only make signs to them, and remained dumb. When his time of service came to an end he returned home. Some time later his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept to herself. ‘The Lord has done this for me’ she said ‘now that it has pleased him to take away the humiliation I suffered among men.’

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

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Gospel Reflection , 19th Dec. Tuesday, Final days of Advent, Luke 1:5-25

We are used to hearing bad news. Most of what passes for news on our news programmes is bad news. What’s wrong with the world always seems more newsworthy than what is right with it. When we do hear good news, we can sometimes become a bit sceptical of it. We wonder if it is really true; we start to look for the downside in it. In today’s gospel reading, the angel Gabriel proclaimed good news to Zechariah; his wife Elizabeth would finally have a son, and a special son who will be great in the sight of the Lord, who will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and who will bring many of the people of Israel beck to the Lord their God. However, Zechariah couldn’t bring himself to believe this good news. It was too good to be true. ‘How can I be sure of this?’ he asked. He couldn’t allow himself to savour this good news and to rejoice in it, as the angel had invited him to do. His failure to hear resulted in an inability to speak. He was silenced and had no power of speech. Our failure to listen always impacts negatively on what we say and how we say it. Good speaking springs from careful listening. Like Zechariah, we can be slow to hear good news, including the good news of God’s loving initiative towards us through Jesus. We might think that this may be good news for others, but not for me. Surely, God did not send his Son for me. Yet, as the angel said to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth, ‘Today… a Saviour has been born to you’, and each one of us is included in that ‘you’. We spend our lives learning to listen to this good news, this gospel, absorbing it so that it shapes who we are, what we do, what we say and how we say it.

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Advent reflection Dec.19th, Final Octave Days before Christmas

‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard’ (Luke 1:13)

Martin Luther King (1929–1968) was an activist, spokesperson and leader of the Civil rights Movement from 1958 until he was assassinated. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for promoting racial justice through non-violence and lawful civil disobedience. He was motivated by his Christian beliefs and by Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948).

He is our Advent voice today for the excluded and exploited across our world. He is an inspiring champion for the homeless, the undocumented, the low-skilled migrant, who is told there is no room for them. The term ‘low-skilled’ is written into legislation that was recently debated in the British parliament and rushed into law.

also

Mahatma Gandhi dressed in a home spun cloth called a dhoti to dress in solidarity with the poor of India in their struggle for freedom and human rights. But we forget that it is those same rejected, low-skilled workers who pick the cotton for the sheets on our bed; it is low-skilled workers who construct our mattresses in factories of dubious work conditions. It is those same low-skilled who stoop for hours in the searing heat of the sun for the tea and coffee that we drink from our cups. Low-skilled workers extract from mines the elements that constitute our mobile phones. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said ‘An eye for an eye ends up making the whole world blind’. When Gandhi returned to India after twenty turbulent years in South Africa, he decided that ‘Lead kindly Light’ would be the motto of the independence movement. Advent invites us to a new way of seeing, a new way of living, a new way of relating and a new way of discipleship.

Our Advent God is always in solidarity with those who suffer unjustly.
Our Advent God is not contactless, like our credit cards!
He is a God who makes contact and connects fully with our human nature.
Our Advent God is not remote controlled, like the technological appliances that we use today.

John Henry Newman preached in a sermon in 1857 that
‘we confess in a God who has the incomprehensible power of even making himself weak’.