Catholic Ireland
Liturgical Readings for : Wednesday, 25th October, 2023
Wednesday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Memorial of Bl. Thaddeus MacCarthy, bishop
FIRST READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans 6:12-18
Consider yourselves dead but brought back to life in Jesus.
You must not let sin reign in your mortal bodies or command your obedience to bodily passions, why you must not let any part of your body turn into an unholy weapon fighting on the side of sin; you should, instead, offer yourselves to God, and consider yourselves dead men brought back to life; you should make every part of your body into a weapon fighting on the side of God; and then sin will no longer dominate your life, since you are living by grace and not by law.
Does the fact that we are living by grace and not by law mean that we are free to sin? Of course not. You know that if you agree to serve and obey a master you become his slaves. You cannot be slaves of sin that leads to death and at the same time slaves of obedience that leads to righteousness. You were once slaves of sin, but thank God you submitted without reservation to the creed you were taught. You may have been freed from the slavery of sin, but only to become ‘slaves’ of righteousness.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 123
Response Our help is in the name of the Lord.
1. ‘If the Lord had not been on our side,’ this is Israel’s song.
‘If the Lord had not been on our side when men rose against us,
then would they have swallowed us alive when their anger was kindled. Response
2. ‘Then would the waters have engulfed us, the torrent gone over us;
over our head would have swept the raging waters.’
Blessed be the Lord who did not give us a prey to their teeth! Response
3. Our life, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowler.
Indeed the snare has been broken and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Response
Gospel Acclamation Jn 10: 27
Alleluia, Alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice, says the lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
Or Mt 24: 42-44
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Stay awake and stand ready, because you do not know the hour when the Son of Man is coming.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 12:39-48 Glory to you, O Lord.
When people has had a great deal given to them, a great deal will be demanded of them.
Jesus said to his disciples:
You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what hour the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house. You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’
Peter said, ‘Lord, do you mean this parable for us, or for everyone?’
The Lord replied,
‘What sort of steward, then, is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over his household to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at this employment. I tell you truly, he will place him over everything he owns. But as for the servant who says to himself,
“My master is taking his time coming”, and sets about beating the menservants and the maids, and eating and drinking and getting drunk, his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.
The servant who knows what his master wants, but has not even started to carry out those wishes, will receive very many strokes of the lash. The one who did not know, but deserves to be beaten for what he has done, will receive fewer strokes. When a man has had a great deal given him, a great deal will be demanded of him; when a man has had a great deal given him on trust, even more will be expected of him.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
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Gospel Reflection Wednesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time Luke 12:39-48
In today’s first reading, Paul tells the church in Rome, ‘you are living by grace and not by law’. To live by law is to live by something that is external to us. To live by grace is to live by the power of God residing within us. When Paul calls on the church in that reading to ‘offer yourselves to God’, he is calling on us to open ourselves to God whose power is at work deep within us. In the following chapters, Paul will say to the church in Rome, ‘the Spirit of God dwells in you… Christ is in you… the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you’ and, in the chapter prior to the chapter from which our reading is taken, Paul says to the church in Rome, ‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us’. In all these ways, Paul is reminding us that the way of life to which God is calling us is a graced life. We live by an inner grace rather than an external law.
In the gospel reading, Jesus calls on us to stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour we do not expect. The Lord who is coming has also taken up residence within us. The coming one is also the one who abides in us, empowering us to the faithful and wise servants, in the language of the gospel reading. The faithful and wise servant is spoken of in the gospel reading as one who gives others their allowance of food at the proper time. The Lord who dwells within us will always be inspiring us give priority to the well-being of others. The more we give ourselves over to God’s love that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, the more we will serve others after the example of the one who came not to be served but to serve.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible.
