Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 23rd October, 2023
Monday of Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Optional Memorial of St John of Capistrano, priest
FIRST READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans 4:20-25
Scripture says that our faith too will be considered if we believe in Him.
Since God had promised it, Abraham refused either to deny it or even to doubt it, but drew strength from faith and gave glory to God, convinced that God had power to do what he had promised. This is the faith that was ‘considered as justifying him‘. Scripture however does not refer only to him but to us as well when it says that his faith was thus ‘considered‘; our faith too will be ‘considered‘ if we believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, Jesus who was put to death for our sins and raised to life to justify us.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Lk 1, 69-75
Response Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people.
1. He has raised up for us a mighty saviour in the house of David his servant,
as he promised by the lips of holy men, those who were his prophets from of old. Response
2. A saviour who would free us from our foes, from the hands of all who hate us.
So his love for our fathers is fulfilled and his holy covenant remembered. Response
3. He swore to Abraham our father to grant us, that free from fear,
and saved from the hands of our foes, we might serve him in holiness and justice
all the days of our life in his presence. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ps 24: 54.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Teach me your paths, my God, make me walk in your truth.
Alleluia!
Or Mt 5: 3
Alleluia, Alleluia!
How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke 12:13-21 Glory to you, O Lord
This hoard of yours, whose will it be.
A man in the crowd said to Jesus,
‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance’.
‘My friend,‘ he replied-‘who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them,
‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life
is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs’.
Then he told them a parable:
‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.”
Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time”.
But God said to him,
“Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?”. So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Monday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time Luke 12:13-21
We have become more security conscious in recent times. We all want to feel secure in our homes especially when we hear of break-ins in the neighbourhood. At a deeper level we want to feel secure also. We want to secure our lives. We can sometimes look for security in possessions of one kind or another.
In the gospel reading Jesus warns against seeking security by accumulating desirable objects. When someone comes up to Jesus asking him to intervene in an inheritance dispute, Jesus informs him that a person’s life is not made secure by what he owns. There can come a time in our lives when we realize this more clearly and we find a freedom to let go of what we have been hanging on to. We realize that possessing things is not meant to be an end in itself. We come to realize more clearly that, at the end of the day, what we possess is always for the good of others.
This is a lesson that the rich man in the parable that Jesus spoke had not learned. He accumulated the goods of this world for the sake of accumulating. He stored them but they were serving no useful purpose. He made the mistake of thinking that accumulating and storing would make his life secure. However, when God suddenly called him out of this world, he stood before God a poor man. In spite of his many possessions, he was not rich in the eyes of God. Jesus calls us to be rich in the sight of God. This will often entail making ourselves poor for the sake of others, emptying ourselves in some way so that the lives of others are enriched. Jesus shows us the way. Saint Paul says of him, ‘though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich’.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible
