Liturgical Readings for : Friday, 12th January, 2024
Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
FIRST READING
A reading from the first book of Samuel. 8: 4-7,10-22a
You will cry out on account of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day God will not answer you.’
All the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.
‘Look,’ they said to him ‘you are old, and your sons do not follow your ways. So give us a king to rule over us, like the other nations.’
It displeased Samuel that they should say,
‘Let us have a king to rule us’, so he prayed to the Lord.
But the Lord said to Samuel,
‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for it is not you they have rejected; they have rejected me from ruling over them.’
All that the Lord had said Samuel repeated to the people who were asking him for a king He said,
‘These will be the rights of the king who is to reign over you.
He will take your sons and assign them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will run in front of his chariot. He will use them as leaders of a thousand and leaders of fifty;
he will make them plough his ploughland and harvest his harvest and make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots.
He will also take your daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers.
He will take the best of your fields, of your vineyards and olive groves and give them to his officials.
He will tithe your crops and vineyards to provide for his eunuchs and his officials.
He will take the best of your man servants and maidservants, of your cattle and your donkeys,
and make them work for him.
He will tithe your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
When that day comes, you will cry out on account of the king you have chosen for yourselves,
but on that day God will not answer you.’
The people refused to listen to the words of Samuel. They said,
‘No! We want a king, so that we in our turn can be like the other nations;
our king shall rule us and be our leader and fight our battles.‘
Samuel listened to all that the people had to say and repeated it in the ears of the Lord.
The Lord then said to Samuel,
‘Obey their voice and give them a king‘.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 88
Response I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord.
1. Happy the people who acclaim such a king, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,
who find their joy every day in your name, who make your justice the source of their bliss. Response
2. For it is you, O Lord, who are the glory of their strength; it is by your favour that our might is exalted:
for our ruler is in the keeping of the Lord;
our king in the keeping of the Holy One of Israel. Response
Gospel Acclamation Eph 1: 17. 18
Alleluia, alleluia!
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind,
so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.
Alleluia!
or Mt 4: 23
Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 2: 1-12 Glory to you, O Lord.
The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
When Jesus returned to Capernaum some time later, word went round that he was back; and so many people collected that there was no room left, even in front of the door. He was preaching the word to them when some people came bringing him a paralytic carried by four men, but as the crowd made it impossible to get the man to him, they stripped the roof over the place where Jesus was; and when they had made an opening, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic lay. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic,
‘My child, your sins are forgiven’.
Now some scribes were sitting there, and they thought to themselves,
‘How can this man talk like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God?’
Jesus, inwardly aware that this was what they were thinking, said to them,
‘Why do you have these thoughts in your hearts? Which of these is easier: to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven” or to say, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk“?
But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ – he said to the paralytic –
I order you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go off home.’
And the man got up, picked up his stretcher at once and walked out in front of everyone, so that they were all astounded and praised God saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this’.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time Mark 2:1-12
We often pray that eternal rest would be granted to those who have died. ‘Rest’ in that sense is not just the absence of activity, but a renewal of our spirit. The psalm, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’, says of the Lord, ‘near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit’, The Lord wants us to experience such ‘rest’ not just beyond this earthly life but during our earthly lives. He is always at work to revive our drooping spirits and he wants to work through us to revive the drooping spirits of others.
In today’s gospel reading, a very concerned group stop at nothing to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus, even going as far as making a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching. They wanted their friend to reach a place of rest; they brought him to Jesus so that he would revive their friend’s drooping spirits by healing him of his paralysis. A group of men making a hole in the roof above would normally be experienced by a teacher as an unwelcome interruption to a lesson. However, Jesus saw the faith which drove these men to take such desperate measures and he immediately responds to the plight of the paralytic. He not only heals him physically, but assures him that he is loved by God, by declaring his sins forgiven. Jesus heals the whole person, physically and spiritually. He brings him to a place of rest. The Lord works in the same healing way in all our lives. He also wants to work through us for the holistic healing of others. The Lord needs us to play the role of the paralytic’s friends today, so that the broken in body, mind and spirit can experience his healing power to the full.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
