Liturgical Readings for : Wednesday, 21st February, 2024
Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
A Memorial may be made of St Peter Damien, bishop and doctor of the Church
During the season of Lent our eyes are focused on the crucifixion (and resurrection)
of Christ from which comes our salvation and all graces.
FIRST READING
A reading from the prophet Jonah 3: 1-10
The people of Nineveh renounced their evil behaviour.
The word of the Lord was addressed to Jonah:
‘Up!’ he said ‘Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.’
Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare: it took three days to cross it. Jonah went on into the city, making a day’s journey. He preached in these words,
‘Only forty days more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed. ‘
And the people of Nineveh believed in God;
they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. The news reached the king of Nineveh, who rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. A proclamation was then promulgated throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his ministers, as follows:
‘Men and beasts, herds and flocks, are to taste nothing; they must not eat, they must not drink water. All are to put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might and let everyone renounce his evil behaviour and the wicked things he has done.
Who knows if God will not change his mind and relent, if he will not renounce his burning wrath, so that we do not perish?’
God saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour. And he relented: he did not inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 50:3-4,12-13, 18-19 rv 19
Response A humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.
1. Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness. In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. Response
2. A pure heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence, nor deprive me of your holy spirit. Response
3. For in sacrifice you take no delight, burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice a contrite spirit. A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ex 3:11
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
I take pleasure, not in the death of a wicked man – it is the Lord who speaks –
but in the turning back of a wicket man who changes his way of life.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
Or Joel 2:12-13
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks –
Come back to me with all your heart, for I am tenderness and compassion.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 11:29-32 Glory to you, O Lord
The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah..
The crowds got even bigger and Jesus addressed them,
‘This is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah.
For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
‘On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.
On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation. and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
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Gospel Reflection Wed 1st March, First Week of Lent Luke 11:29-32
Today’s responsorial psalm is one of the great penitential psalms in the Book of Psalms. It is a Jewish prayer but it has spoken to Christians from the earliest days of the church. It is a prayer anyone of us could pray when we feel the need for God’s forgiveness. The psalm acknowledges that what pleases God more than the sacrifices that were carried out in the Temple in Jerusalem is what the psalm calls a ‘humble, contrite heart’. What speaks most powerfully to God is what is in our heart. That is why in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, it was the prayer of the tax collector that was pleasing to God. His simple prayer, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner’ revealed a humble and contrite heart.
In today’s first reading, the preaching of Jonah touched the hearts of the people of Nineveh. Their humble and contrite heart expressed itself in a period of fasting and in putting on sackcloth and ashes. In the gospel reading, Jesus laments the failure of his own contemporaries to allow their hearts to be touched by his preaching, even though he is greater than Jonah, and greater than Solomon. ‘There is something greater than Solomon… than Jonah here’. We continue to live in the presence of this greater one, now risen Lord. He continues to proclaim his gospel to us, the gospel of God’s unconditional and faithful love for us all. When we open ourselves to this wonderful gift of the Lord’s love, we cannot but realize that we haven’t always loved him in return. We haven’t made a return for all he has given us. That is why today’s responsorial psalm is a prayer that we can always pray. Such a prayer, prayed with a humble and contrite heart, is a prayer that will always be heard by God and will leave us at peace with God.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
