Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 12th February, 2024
Monday of Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
FIRST READING
A reading from the letter of James 1: 1-11
Your faith is only put to the test to make you patient, but patience so that you will become fully-developed and complete.
From James, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion.
My brothers, you will always have your trials but, when they come, try to treat them as a happy privilege; you understand that your faith is only put to the test to make you patient, but patience too is to have its practical results so that you will become fully-developed, complete, with nothing missing.
If there is any one of you who needs wisdom, he must ask God, who gives to all freely and ungrudgingly; it will be given to him. But he must ask with faith, and no trace of doubt, because a person who has doubts is like the waves thrown up in the sea when the wind drives. That sort of person, in two minds, wavering between going different ways, must not expect that the Lord will give him anything.
It is right for the poor brother to be proud of his high rank, and the rich one to be thankful that he has been humbled, because riches last no longer than the flowers in the grass; the scorching sun comes up, and the grass withers, the flower falls; what looked so beautiful now disappears. It is the same with the rich man: his business goes on; he himself perishes.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118
Response Let your love come to me and I shall live.
1. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep your word.
You are good and your deeds are good; teach me your statutes. Response
2. It was good for me to be afflicted, to learn your statutes.
The law from your mouth means more to me than silver and gold. Response
3. Lord, I know that your decrees are right, that you afflicted me justly.,
Let your love be ready to console me by your promise to your servant. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ps 94: 8
Alleluia, alleluia!
Harden not your hearts today’ but listen to the voice of the Lord.
Alleluia!
Or Jn 14: 6
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;
no one can come to the Father except through me.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 8: 11-13 Glory to you, O Lord
Why does this generation demand a sign?
The pharisees came up and started a discussion with Jesus; they demanded of him a sign from heaven, to test him. And with a sigh that came straight from the heart he said,
‘Why does this generation demand a sign?
I tell you solemnly, no sign shall be given to this generation.’
And leaving them again and re-embarking he went away to the opposite shore.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you , Lord Jesus Christ
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Gospel Reflection Monday Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Mark 8:11-13
In Mark’s gospel from which we are reading these weeks, strong emotion is often ascribed to Jesus. We find an example of that in today’s gospel reading. The Pharisees had asked Jesus for a sign, in order to test him. Jesus responded in a very emotional way, ‘with a sigh that came straight from the heart’, with a kind of inward groan, which found expression in his question, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign?’ The Pharisees were looking for some kind of proof that Jesus was who he said he was. However, faith is not faith if it must ask for proof.
The letter to the Hebrews says that ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’. It is an act of the will; it is not a mental assent to a set of proofs. Saint Paul was a man of very deep faith, but he says in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face’ (1 Cor 13:12). Believing always entails an element of seeing dimly. We cannot demand signs or proofs from the Lord as a condition of our believing. Yet, the Lord does give us signs of his presence if we have ears to hear and eyes to see. When the Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign, they were failing to see that Jesus himself was the sign, if only they would open their hearts and minds. His whole life was the powerful sign of God’s presence. The Lord continues to give us signs of his presence today. Such signs are to be found in the people whose lives are shaped by the Holy Spirit, people who journey with us when we need support, people who care for us when we are ill. These are the living signs the Lord sends us. We are all called to be such living signs of the Lord in our world.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
