Liturgical Readings for : Wednesday, 7th February, 2024
Wednesday of Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Optional memorial of St Mel, bishop
FIRST READING
A reading from the second book of Kings 10: 1-10
The queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon.
The fame of Solomon having reached the queen of Sheba, she came to test him with difficult questions. She brought immense riches to Jerusalem with her, camels laden with spices, great quantities of gold, and precious stones. On coming to Solomon, she opened her mind freely to him; and Solomon had an answer for all her questions, not one of them was too obscure for the king to expound.
When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built, the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cup-bearers, and the holocausts he offered in the Temple of the Lord, it left her breathless, and she said to the king,
‘What I heard in my own country about you and your wisdom was true, then! Until I came and saw it with my own eyes I could not believe what they told me, but clearly they told me less than half: for wisdom and prosperity you surpass the report I heard. How happy your wives are! How happy are these servants of yours who wait on you always and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God who has granted you his favour, setting you on the throne of Israel
Because of the Lord’s everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to deal out law and justice.‘
And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones; no such wealth of spices ever came again as those given to King Solomon by the queen of Sheba.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 36
Response The just man’s mouth utters wisdom.
1. Commit your life to the Lord, trust in him and he will act,
so that your justice breaks forth like the light, your cause like the noon-day sun. Response
2. The just man’s mouth utters wisdom and his lips speak what is right;
the law of his God is in his heart, his steps shall be saved from stumbling. Response
3. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord, their stronghold in time of distress.
The Lord helps them and delivers them and saves them: for their refuge is in him. Response
Gospel Acclamation 2 Tim 1: 10
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our saviour Christ Jesus abolished death,
and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News.
Alleluia!
Or Jn 17: 17
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your word is truth, O Lord, consecrate us in the truth .
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 7: 14-23 Glory to you , O Lord
It is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean.
Jesus called the people to him again and said,
‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’
When he had gone back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them,
‘Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.)
And he went on,
‘It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly.
All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Wednesday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Mark 7:14-23
In today’s first reading, the Queen of Sheba praises King Solomon to the hilt. She was deeply impressed by his wisdom, but also by his palaces, the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff, his cup-bearers, his sacrifices in the Temple, his wives, his servants and much else. As a monarch herself, she was impressed by these extraordinary trappings of monarchy and saw it all as a sign of God’s everlasting love for Israel. The lavish scale of the visible expressions of monarchy took the Queen’s breath away. In the gospel reading, in contrast, Jesus places the focus not on externals but on what is in a person’s heart. He recognized that what lies within a person is of much greater importance because it is the source of either evil intentions or good intentions. Jesus came to transform the human heart, to create a community of disciples whose hearts were transformed by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God’s love. He said on one occasion that he had come to cast fire upon the earth, the fire of the Holy Spirit that can burn away what is not of God in our hearts and kindle in our hearts the fire of God’s love. It is only a community of people of transformed hearts who can created an opening for the coming of God’s kingdom, which bears little resemblance to the kingdoms of the various Solomons of this world. We are all called to belong to such a community.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd
