Liturgical Readings for : Tuesday, 6th February, 2024
Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Memorial of Ss Paul Miki and Companions, martyrs
FIRST READING
A reading from the first book of Kings 8:22-23, 27-30
You have said, “My name shall be there.” Hear the entreaty of your people Israel.
In the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord and, stretching out his hands towards heaven, said,
‘Lord, God of Israel, not in heaven above nor on earth beneath is there such a God as you, true to your covenant and your kindness towards your servants when they walk wholeheartedly in your way. Yet will God really live with men on the earth? Why, the heavens and their own heavens cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built! Listen to the prayer and entreaty of your servant, Lord my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer your servant makes to you today. Day and night let your eyes watch over this house, over this place of which you have said, “My name shall be there”.
Listen to the prayer that your servant will offer in this place.
‘Hear the entreaty of your servant and of Israel your people as they pray in this place.
From heaven where your dwelling is, hear; and, as you hear, forgive’.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 83
Response How lovely-is your dwelling place, Lord, God of hosts.
1. My soul is longing and yearning, is yearning for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my soul ring out their joy to God, the living God. Response
2. The sparrow herself finds a home and the swallow a nest for her brood;
she lays her young by your altars, Lord of hosts, my king and my God. Response
3. They are happy, who dwell in your house, for ever singing your praise.
Turn your eyes, O God, our shield, look on the face of your anointed. Response
4. One day within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
The threshold of the house of God I prefer to the dwellings of the wicked. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ps 118: 34
Alleluia, alleluia!
Train me to observe your law, to keep it with all my heart.
Alleluia!
Or Ps 118: 36
Alleluia, alleluia!
Bend my heart to your will, O Lord, and teach me your law.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 7: 1-13 Glory to you, O Lord
You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.
The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus, and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.
For the Pharisees, and the Jews in general, follow the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow; and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes.
So these Pharisees and scribes asked him,
‘Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?’
He answered,
‘It was of you hypocrites that Isaiah so rightly prophesied in this passage of scripture:
This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me.
The worship they offer me is worthless, the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.
You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.’
And he said to them,
‘How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition! For Moses said:
Do your duty to your father and your mother, and, Anyone who curses father or mother must be put to death. But you say, “If a man says to his father or mother: Anything I have that I might have used to help you is Corban (that is, dedicated to God), then he is forbidden from that moment to do anything for his father or mother.” In this way you make God’s word null and void for the sake of your tradition which you have handed down. And you do many other things like this.’
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
********************
Gospel Reflection Tuesday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Mark 7:1-13
The beginning of today’s gospel reading has a contemporary feel to it. The Pharisees and scribes were complaining that Jesus’ disciples were eating with unclean hands, without washing them. We have all got used to washing our hands frequently since the onset of the Covid pandemic. The hand-washing that so preoccupied the Pharisees and scribes had to do not so much with physical cleanliness but ritual cleanliness, which is more difficult for us to understand today. The Bible prescribed hand-washing rituals only for the priests who worked in the Temple in Jerusalem, but the Pharisees wanted to extend these hand-washing rituals to daily life because they held that all Israel was a priestly people. These regulations of the Pharisees for daily life were not in the Bible but were part of what they called the ‘tradition of the elders’. In reply, Jesus criticises the Pharisees for giving more importance to these human traditions than to the commandment of God.
Jesus is reminding us that we can be overly preoccupied with non-essentials, in religious matters as much as in other areas of life. In the religious sphere, we can easily attribute the greatest importance to something that in God’s eyes is not so important, while failing to take seriously what really does matter to God. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus reveals what matters most to God, a way of life that reflects the love that is within the heart of God.
________________________________
The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
