Liturgical Readings for : Wednesday, 28th February, 2024
Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
Salvation comes from God alone. What he wants of us is to trust him,
for us to abandon ourselves to his merciful love and as our ultimate protection.
FIRST READING,
A reading from the prophet Jeremiah 18:18-20
Come on, let us hit at him.
‘Come on,’ they said ‘let us concoct a plot against Jeremiah;
the priest will not run short of instruction without him,
nor the sage of advice, nor the prophet of the word.
Come on, let us hit at him with his own tongue;
let us listen carefully to every word he says.’
“Listen to me, Lord, hear what my adversaries are saying.
Should evil be returned for good? For they are digging a pit for me.
Remember how I stood in your presence to plead on their behalf, to turn your wrath away from them.”
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 30
Response Save me in your love, O Lord.
1. Release me from the snares they have hidden for you are my refuge, Lord.
Into your hands I commend my spirit. It is you who will redeem me, Lord. Response
2. I have heard the slander of the crowd, fear is all around me,
as they plot together against me, as they plan to take my life. Response
3. But as for me, I trust in you, Lord, I say: ‘You are my God.
My life is in your hands, deliver me from the hands of those who hate me.’ Response
Gospel Acclamation Jn 6:63-68
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Or Jn 8:12
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord,
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 20:17-28 Glory to you, O Lord
They will condemn him to death.
Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, and on the way he took the Twelve to one side and said to them,
‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes.
They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans to be mocked and scourged and crucified;
and on the third day he will rise again.’
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low; and he said to her,
‘What is it you want?’
She said to him,
‘Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.’
‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus answered.
‘Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’
They replied,‘We can.’
‘Very well,‘ he said ‘you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.’
When the other ten heard this they were indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said,
‘You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt.
This is not to happen among you.
No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
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Gospel Reflection Wednesday. Second Week of Lent Matthew 20:17-28
It is natural for mothers to want the best for their children. In today’s gospel reading, the mother of James and John ask Jesus if they could have the best seats in his kingdom, one at his right and the other at his left. Jesus had been proclaiming the nearness of the kingdom of God and she seems to have imagined that God’s kingdom would be like an earthly kingdom, such as the kingdom of Rome or the Roman Empire, as it is usually called. She wasn’t alone in thinking this. Her sons thought as much, along with the ten other members of the twelve. These ten were indignant with the two brothers for trying to get the best seats in God’s kingdom ahead of them. Jesus must have been rightly fed up with the lot of them!
He had just announced that his mission would lead to him being mocked, scourged and crucified. He would end up on a Roman cross with the mocking title over his head, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews’. Some king! It was his self-emptying love for all of God’s children, whether they were Jew, Samaritan or pagan, religious or sinner, that put him on a cross. The kingdom of God was present when he healed the sick, touched lepers, shared table with sinners, allowed women to wash his feet, fed the hungry in the wilderness, released the oppressed from their demons, even on the Sabbath. As he said at the end of the gospel reading, he had come not to be served, like the kings of this world, but to serve. If his disciples wanted to belong to God’s kingdom that is the mind-set they must have. If they want to be great they must become a servant. They can forget about honour and privilege. Whenever any one of us serve others without looking for anything in return, the kingdom of God is present in our world, and heaven draws nearer to everyone.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
