Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 23rd December, 2023
Final Octave days before Christmas
– Dec. 23rd –
FIRST READING
A reading from the prophet Malachi 3:1-4. 23-24
I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord comes.
The Lord God says this:
Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to the Lord as it should be made. The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be welcomed by the Lord as in former days, as in the years of old. Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before my day comes, that great and terrible day.
He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 24
Response Stand erect, hold your heads high,
because your liberation is near at hand.
1. Lord, make me know your ways. Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me: for you are God my saviour. Response
2. The Lord is good and upright. He shows the path to those who stray.
He guides the humble in the right path; he teaches his way to the poor. Response
3. His ways are faithfulness and love for those who keep his covenant and will.
The Lord’s friendship is for those who revere him; to them he reveals his covenant. Response
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia!
King of the peoples and corner-stone of the Church,
come and save man whom you made from the dust of the earth.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke 1:57-66 Glory to you, O Lord.
The birth of John the Baptist.
The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy.
Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up.
‘No,’ she said ‘he is to be called John.‘
They said to her,
‘But no one in your family has that name’, and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote,
‘His name is John’.
And they were all astonished.
At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God.
All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. ‘What will this child turn out to be?‘ they wondered.
And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Sat. 23rd December Luke 1:57-66
Some time ago, I did some research on my family tree. My father’s name was Patrick Hogan and his father’s first name was John. Not only was my grandfather called John, but so was my great grandfather and my great, great grandfather. I was getting very confused with all the ‘John Hogans’ that were cropping up. It brought home to me how the naming of a new born child was a very traditional business in past generations. The child very often took the name of the father or mother or of some other significant close relative. It wasn’t usual to choose a name that had never been used in the family before. We find that tradition at play in today’s gospel reading. When Elizabeth and Zechariah’s child was born, the expectation was that he would be called Zechariah after his father. When Elizabeth declared that he would be named John, following on from the message of the angel Gabriel, the neighbours and relations all piped up, ‘But no one in your family has that name’. It took the written word of Zechariah to confirm what Elizabeth had said. Their son would not be called after their father, but would be called John. What’s in a name you might ask? Many Hebrew names had a meaning and the name John is short for ‘The Lord is gracious’. A new era of God’s gracious, loving, presence was about to open up with the birth of Jesus, and Elizabeth and Zechariah’s son would prepare people for Jesus’ coming. God was doing something new, and age-old conventions, such as around the naming of children, had to give way before this wonderful newness. God continues to do something new today through his Son, now risen Lord, and we all have to learn to let go of conventional ways of doing things so that the ever new work the Lord wants to do today can find full expression among us.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
