Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 10th February, 2024
Saturday of Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Memorial of St Scholastica, virgin
FIRST READING
A reading from the first book of Kings 12: 26-32; 13:33-34
Jeroboam made two golden calves.
Jeroboam thought to himself,
‘As things are, the kingdom will revert to the House of David. If this people continues to go up to the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, the people’s heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will put me to death.’
So the king thought this over and then made two golden calves; he said to the people,
‘You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough.
Here are your gods, Israel; these brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’
He set up one in Bethel and the people went in procession all the way to Dan in front of the other.
He set up the temple of the high places and appointed priests from ordinary families, who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth of the month, like the feast that was kept in Judah, and he went up to the altar. That was how he behaved in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made; and at Bethel he put the priests of the high places he had established.
Jeroboam did not give up his wicked ways after this incident, but went on appointing priests for the high places from the common people. He consecrated as priests of the high places any who wished to be.
Such conduct made the House of Jeroboam a sinful House, and caused its ruin and extinction from the face of the earth.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 105
Response O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
l. Our sin is the sin of our fathers; we have done wrong, our deeds have been evil.
Our fathers when they were in Egypt paid no heed to your wonderful deeds. Response
2. They fashioned a calf at Horeb and worshipped an image of metal,
exchanging the God who was their glory’ for the image of a bull that eats grass. Response
3. They forgot the God who was their saviour, who had done such great things in Egypt,
such portents in the land of Ham, such marvels at the Red Sea. Response
Gospel Acclamation Mt 4: 4
Alleluia, alleluia!
Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 8: 1-10 Glory to you, O Lord
They ate as much as they wanted.
A great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat.
So Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them,
‘I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. If I send them off home hungry they will collapse on the way; some have come a great distance.‘
His disciples replied,
‘Where could anyone get bread to feed these people in a deserted place like this?’
He asked them,
‘How many loaves have you?’
‘Seven’ they said.
Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them among the crowd. They had a few small fish as well, and over these he said a blessing and ordered them to be distributed also. They ate as much as they wanted, and they collected seven basketfuls of the scraps left over. Now there had been about four thousand people. He sent them away and immediately, getting into the boat with his disciples, went to the region of Dalmanutha.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Saturday Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Mark 8:1-10
In today’s first reading, king Jeroboam of the northern kingdom of Israel is portrayed as, in a sense, starting his own religion to consolidate his power. Political leaders can often be tempted to use religion to serve their own purposes. We don’t have to look far to find contemporary expressions of this phenomenon.
It was the very close association of religious and political authority that resulted in Jesus being crucified. He exercised authority in a very different way to how the religious and political authorities of his day exercised it. He once declared to his own disciples, who were tempted to follow the way that authority was usually exercised, ‘’whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all’.
In today’s gospel reading, we find Jesus exercising this form of servant leadership, in spite of the protestations of his disciples. When he declared to his disciples that he had compassion for the hungry crowd and was reluctant to send them home hungry in case they collapse on the way, the disciples asked the somewhat dismissive question, ‘Where could anyone get bread to feed these people in a deserted place like this?’ It was a question that showed a degree of self-concern on the part of the disciples. Jesus, however, asked a question which revealed a concern for the hungry crowd, ‘How many loaves have you?’ That question created a space for Jesus to feed the crowd, with the help of his initially reluctant disciples. Jesus’ compassion for the hungry crowd found a way to feed them. When we allow the Lord’s compassion to shape our own lives, we too will create spaces for the Lord to exercise his servant leadership in our own place and time.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
