Mass Readings

Liturgical Readings for : Thursday, 25th January, 2024

25 – 01 The Conversion of St Paul, Apostle

God made a preacher and teacher out of Saul a Jewish persecutor of Christians in the times after the death of Jesus. After his conversion, he was renamed ‘Paul’ and never ceased giving thanks to God for his change of mind, heart and faith.

FIRST READING

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 22:3-16
It is time you were baptised and had your sins washed away, while invoking the name of Jesus.

Paul said to the people,
‘I am a Jew and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you are today. I even persecuted this Way to the death, and sent women as well as men to prison in chains as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify, since they even sent me with letters’ to their brothers in Damascus. When I set off it was with the intention of bringing prisoners back from there to Jerusalem for punishment.

‘I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when about midday a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
” I answered: Who are you, Lord? and he said to me,
“I am Jesus the Nazarene, and you are persecuting me”.
The people with me saw the light but did not hear his voice as he spoke to me. I said:
What am I to do, Lord?
The Lord answered,
“Stand up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been appointed to do”.
The light had been so dazzling that I was blind and my companions had to take me by the hand; and so I came to Damascus.

Someone called Ananias, a devout follower of the Law and highly thought of by all the Jews living there, came to see me; he stood beside me and said,
“Brother Saul, receive your sight”.
Instantly my sight came back and I was able to see him.
Then he said,
“The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Just One and hear his own voice speaking, because you are to be his witness before all mankind, testifying to what you have seen and heard. And now why delay? It is time you were baptised and had your sins washed away while invoking his name.”‘

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God

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Alternative First Reading –

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 9:1-22
Lord, what will you have me do?

Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples. He had gone to the high priest and asked for letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to arrest and take to Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he could find.

Suddenly, while he was travelling to Damascus and just before he reached the city, there came a light from heaven all round him. He fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying,
‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’‘
Who are you, Lord?’ he asked, and the voice answered,
‘I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me. Get up now and go into the city, and you will be told what you have to do.’
The men travelling With Saul s there speechless, for though they heard the voice they could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but even with his eyes open he could see nothing at all, and they had to lead him to Damascus by the hand. For three days he was without his sight and took neither food nor drink.

A disciple called Ananias who lived in Damascus had a vision in which he heard the Lord say to him,
‘Ananias!’
When he replied, ‘Here I am, Lord,’
the Lord said,
‘You must go to Straight Street and ask at the house of Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is praying, having had vision of a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on to give him back his sight.’

When he heard that, Ananias said,
‘Lord, several people have told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your saints in Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the chief priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.’
The Lord replied,
‘You must go all the same, because this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel;
I myself will show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.
Then Ananias went. He entered the house, and at once laid hands on Saul and said,
‘Brother Saul, I have been sent by Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here so that may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Immediately it was as though scales fell away from Saul’s and he could see again. So he was baptised there, and after taking some food he regained his strength.

After he had spent only a few days with the disciple Damascus, he began preaching in the synagogues, ‘Jesus is the Son of God.’
All his hearers were amazed. ‘Surely’ they said, ‘This is the man who organised the attack in Jerusalem against people who invoke this name, and who came here for the purpose of arresting them to have them tried by the chief priest.’

Saul’s power increased steadily, and he was able to throw the Jewish colony at Damascus into complete confusion by the way he demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ.

The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
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Responsorial Psalm Ps 116
Response Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.
Or Alleluia!

1. Praise the Lord, all you nations,
acclaim him all you people. Response

2. Strong is his love for us;
he is faithful for ever. Response

Gospel Acclamation Jn 15: 16
Alleluia, alleluia!
I chose you from the world to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last says the Lord.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 16:15-18 Glory to you, O Lord
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.

And Jesus said to them,
‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned.

These are the signs that will be associated with believers:
in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues;
they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.’

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

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Gospel Reflection 25th Jan The Conversion of Saint Paul Mark 16:15-18

Before the risen Lord appeared to Paul on the road outside Damascus, he was a very religious person. As a devoted Jew, he really wanted to do God’s will. That is why he persecuted the members of the church. He saw them as Jews who had gone off the rails and who could easily lead other Jews astray if they weren’t stopped. Yet, in persecuting this group of Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, he was actually persecuting Jesus himself who was God’s beloved Son. This was the discovery he made when, Jesus, the risen Lord, appeared to him in a bright light and Paul heard Jesus ask him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ Jesus didn’t ask Paul, ‘Why are you persecuting my followers?’ The risen Lord identified himself so closely with his followers that to persecute them was to persecute him. Paul was persecuting the members of Jesus’ body. We are all members of the Lord’s body. We are now his hands, his feet, his eyes, his ears. Later on, Paul would write to the church in Corinth, ‘You are the body of Christ and individually members of it’ (1 Cor 12:27). Earlier in that letter he wrote, ‘when you sin against the brothers and sisters (the members of the church)… you sin against Christ’ (1 Cor 8:12). Paul learned a lesson on the road to Damascus that he never forgot. We meet the risen Lord in each other. We serve the Lord by serving one another; we reject the Lord by rejecting one another. Through baptism, each of us is a member of Christ’s body, which gives us a very special dignity. It also gives us a very special calling. We are to allow Jesus to come into the world through us. He wants us, needs us, to be his hands and feet and eyes and ears and mouth. ‘Christ has no body now but yours’, in the words of St Teresa of Avilla.