Mass Readings

Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 28th October, 2023

– 28/10 – Ss Simon and Jude, Apostles –

FIRST READING

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Ephesians 2:19-22
You are part of a building that has the apostles for its foundations.

So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone. As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord; and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the house where God lives, in the Spirit.

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-5 Rv 5
Response Their word goes forth through all the earth.
Or Alleluia!

1. The heavens proclaim the glory of God
and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.
Day unto day takes up the story
and night unto night makes known the message. Response

2. No speech, no word, no voice is heard
yet their span extends through all the earth.
their words to the utmost bounds of the world. Response

Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, Alleluia!
We praise you, O God, we acknowledge you to be the Lord.
The glorious company of the apostles praise you, O Lord.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 6:12-19 Glory to you, O Lord.
Jesus picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’

Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles‘: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.

He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.

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

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Gospel Reflection 28th Oct., Ss Simon and Jude, Apostles Luke 6:12-19

Simon and Jude were two members of the twelve apostles and they have shared the same feast since ancient times. Simon is called the Zealot in today’s gospel reading, perhaps to distinguish him from Simon Peter. It suggests that he had a zeal to keep God’s Law. Jude is a version of Judas and he is referred to in the gospel reading as Judas son of James, to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. He has been traditionally known as the patron saint of hopeless cases. Perhaps that is because he was the last member of the twelve Apostles that people would turn to for help, in case they found themselves praying to Judas Iscariot. You would have to be really desperate to pray to Saint Jude. Both Simon and Jude are believed to have died as martyrs.

In the first reading, Paul speaks of the apostles as the foundation of God’s house or household, with Jesus Christ being its cornerstone. Paul also reminds us there that we are all part of God’s household, where God lives in the Spirit; we are a holy temple in the Lord. The place where God was now dwelling in the Spirit was not the Temple in Jerusalem but the community of believers, the household of God. It is a striking claim. Our calling is to live in a way that is worthy of our membership of God’s Temple on earth. We have to show by our lives that God is living among us through the Spirit of the risen Lord and, thereby, draw people to the church, as they were once drawn to the Temple in Jerusalem. Immediately after Jesus called the Twelve, he came down from the hills with them, and people from all over came to him to hear him and be cured of their diseases. Like Jesus, the community of believers is to be a place, a space, where people hear the word of God being proclaimed and where they experience the Lord’s healing presence. We all have a role to play in ensuring that the church, the temple of the Lord, is faithful to this identity and calling.