Liturgical Readings for : Wednesday, 27th March, 2024
Wednesday in Holy Week
FIRST READING
A reading from the prophet Isaiah 50:4-9
I did not cover my face against insult and spittle.
The Lord has given me a disciple’s tongue.
So that I may know how to reply to the wearied he provides me with speech.
Each morning he wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple.
The Lord has opened my ear.
For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away.
I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle.
The Lord comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults.
So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed.
My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me?
Then let us go to court together. Who thinks he has a case against me? Let him approach me.
The Lord is coming to my help, who dare condemn me?
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 68
Response In your great love, O Lord, answer my prayer for your favour.
1. It is for you that I suffer taunts, that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house and taunts against you fall on me. Response
2. Taunts have broken my heart; I have reached the end of my strength.
I looked in vain for compassion, for consolers; not one could I find.
For food they gave me poison; in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Response
3. I will praise God’s name with a song; I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
The poor when they see it will be glad and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy and does not spurn his servants in their chains. Response
Gospel Acclamation
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Hail to you, our King! From the bright cloud the Father’s voice was heard
Obedient to the Father, you were led to the crucifixion as a meek lamb is led to the slaughter.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
or
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Hail to you, our King! You alone have had compassion on our sins.
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 26:14-25 Glory to you, O Lord
The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!
One of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said,
‘What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?’
They paid him thirty silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him.
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say,
‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the passover?’
‘Go to so-and-so in the city‘, Jesus replied ‘and say to him,
“The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples.”‘
The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover.
When evening came he was at table with the twelve disciples.
And while they were eating he said ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me’.
They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, ‘Not I, Lord, surely?’
He answered,
‘Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me. Better for that man if he had never been born!’
Judas, who was to betray him; asked in his turn, Not I, Rabbi, surely?‘ ‘
They are your own words’ answered Jesus.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Reflection Wednesday in Holy Week Matthew 26:14-25
In today’s responsorial psalm the person praying declares, ‘I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons’. He had reached the end of his strength and the very people from whom he would have expected support, his blood brothers, look upon him as an alien and a stranger. When the members of our own family abandon us when we are at our lowest, it is a painful and devastating experience. This was the experience of Jesus on the night of the last supper. He had left his blood family in Nazareth and had started to form a new family of disciples, the inner core of which was the twelve disciples he had chosen to share in his ministry in a special way. Yet, on that evening of the last supper, Jesus was well aware that one member of this inner core was about to betray him.
He had become a stranger, an alien, to Judas Iscariot, who had already agreed to betray Jesus to the religious authorities for thirty pieces of silver. When Jesus announced to the twelve at the last supper, ‘One of you is about to betray me’, everyone present wondered if it could be them, ‘Not I, Lord, surely?’ It is a question we can all ask because any one of us is capable of betraying the Lord by living in ways that are contrary to his desire for our lives. How does the Lord want us to live? There is a very good portrayal of the disciple in today’s first reading. The disciple is one who has learnt to listen to the word of the Lord, and, as a result, knows how to reply to the wearied. As disciples, we are all called to listen attentively to the Lord and out of that listening to speak in ways that sustain and strengthen the wearied, those who say to themselves or to others, in the words of today’s psalm, ‘I have reached the end of my strength’.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd
