Liturgical Readings for : Friday, 1st March, 2024
Friday of the Second Week of Lent
Joseph was sold into slavery for twenty pieces of silver, Jesus was sold out for thirty.
The very stones so rejected become the cornerstone of our faith. God asks us to care for others until he comes again.
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Genesis 37: 3-4, 12-13, 17-28
Here comes the man of dreams. Come on, let us kill him.
Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons, for he was the son of his old age, and he had a coat with long sleeves made for him. But his brothers, seeing how his father loved him more than all his other sons, came to hate him so much that they could not say a civil word to him. His brothers went to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem.
Then Israel said to Joseph,
‘Are not your brothers with the flock at Shechem? Come, I am going to send you to them.’
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them they made a plot among themselves to put him to death.
‘Here comes the man of dreams‘ they said to one another. ‘Come on, let us kill him and throw him into some well; we can say that a wild beast devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams.‘
But Reuben heard, and he saved him from their violence.
‘We must not take his life‘ he said. ‘Shed no blood,‘ said Reuben to them ‘throw him into this well in the wilderness, but do not lay violent hands on him‘ – intending to save him from them and to restore him to his father.
So, when Joseph reached his brothers, they pulled off his coat, the coat with long sleeves that he was wearing, and catching hold of him they threw him into the well, an empty well with no water in it. They then sat down to eat.
Looking up they saw a group of Ishmaelites who were coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, tragacanth, balsam and resin, which they were taking down into Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers,
‘What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not do any harm to him. After all, he is our brother, and our own flesh.‘ His brothers agreed.
Now some Midianite merchants were passing, and they drew Joseph up out of the well.
They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty silver pieces, and these men took Joseph to Egypt.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 104
Response Remember the wonders the Lord has done.
1. God called down a famine on the land; he broke the staff that supported them.
He had sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave. Response
2. His feet were put in chains, his neck was bound with iron,
until what he said came to pass and the Lord’s word proved him true. Response
3. Then the king sent and released him; the ruler of the peoples set him free,
making him master of his house and ruler of all he possessed. Response
Gospel Acclamation Jn 3:16
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son;
everyone who believes in him has eternal life.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46 Glory to you, O Lord
This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him.
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
‘Listen to another parable.
There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a wine press in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third. Next he sent some more servants, this time a larger number, and they dealt with them in the same way.
Finally he sent his son to them.
“They will respect my son” he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance.” So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’
They answered, ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him when the season arrives.’
Jesus said to them,
‘Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone.
This was the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see?’
‘I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.‘
When they heard his parables, the chief priests and the scribes realised he was speaking about them, but though they would have liked to arrest him they were afraid of the crowds, who looked on him as a prophet.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
********************
Gospel Reflection Friday Second Week of Lent Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
People who dream dreams and who communicate their dreams to others can become very unpopular. Some find their dreaming to be too disturbing and they can belittle their dreams. Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Israel/Jacob, is described by his brothers in today’s first reading as a ‘man of dreams’. They wanted rid of this ‘man of dreams’, saying to one another, ‘Come on, let us kill him and throw him into some well… we shall see what becomes of his dreams’. In the end, they didn’t kill him, because of the intervention of Reuben, one of the brothers. They threw him into an empty well alive, and then sold him to some merchants passing on their way to Egypt. They wanted rid of this dreamer. Having sold him on, they never expected to see him again. However, God worked in a life-giving way through their hostile actions. Joseph went to Egypt as a slave but he won favour with Pharaoh and was eventually put in charge of Egypt’s grain reserves. When famine struck the land of Canaan where his brothers lived, along with Jacob their father, the brothers went to Egypt for food and it was Joseph who provided them with the food they needed. Joseph’s brothers ended up going to Egypt to live, taking their father with them.
God brought great good came out of the harm the brothers did to Joseph. In the gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable which portrays the harm that would soon be done to himself. In the parable, when the landowner sent his son to collect the produce of the vineyard, the tenants seized his son, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Jesus would turn out to be ‘the stone rejected by the builders‘. Yet, God brought great good out of the harm that was done to his son. The cross, the instrument of the death of God’s Son, became the tree of life. Jesus’ death allowed God to reveal all the more the extent of his love for all humanity. God works in every human situation, no matter how dark, how sinful, to bring to life some good for everyone involved. We believe in a God who is always at work in a life-giving way, even in those situations that seem devoid of his presence.
______________________________________
The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
