Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 11th November, 2023
Saturday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Memorial of St Martin of Tours
FIRST READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans 16:3-9. 22-27
Greet each other with a holy kiss.
My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked death to save my life: I am not the only one to owe them a debt of gratitude, all the churches among the pagans do as well. My greetings also to the church that meets at their house.
Greetings to my friend Epaenetus, the first of Asia’s gifts to Christ; greetings to Mary who worked so hard for you; to those outstanding apostles Andronicus and Junias, my compatriots and fellow prisoners who became Christians before me; to Ampliatus, my friend in the Lord; to Urban, my fellow worker in Christ; to my friend Stachys;
I, Tertius, who wrote out this letter, greet you in the Lord. Greetings from Gaius, who is entertaining me and from the whole church that meets in his house. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends his greetings; so does our brother Quartus.
Glory to him who is able to give you the strength to live according to the Good News I preach, and in which I proclaim Jesus Christ, the revelation of a mystery kept secret for endless ages, but now so clear that it must be broadcast to pagans everywhere to bring them to the obedience of faith. This is only what scripture has predicted, and it is all part of the way the eternal God wants things to be. He alone is wisdom; give glory therefore to him through Jesus Christ for ever and ever. Amen.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 144
Response I will bless your name for ever, O Lord.
1. I will bless you day after day and praise your name for ever.
The Lord is great, highly to be praised, his greatness cannot be measured. Response
2. Age to age shall proclaim your works, shall declare your mighty deeds,
shall speak of your splendour and glory, tell the tale of your wonderful works. Response
3. All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord, and your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of the glory of your reign and declare your might, O God. Response
Gospel Acclamation 2 Cor 5: 19
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord, to accept the words of your Son.
Alleluia!
or 2 Cor 8: 9
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus Christ was rich, but he became poor for your sakes,
to make you rich out of his poverty.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke 16:9-15 Glory to you, O Lord
A reading from the holy Gospel according to
If you cannot be trusted with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches?
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘And so I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity. The man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great; the man who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in great. If then you cannot be trusted with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches? And if you cannot be trusted with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own?
‘No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.’
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and laughed at him. He said to them, ‘You are the very ones who pass yourselves off as virtuous in people’s sight, but God knows your hearts. For what is thought highly of by men is loathsome in the sight of God.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Saturday Thirty First Week in Ordinary Time Luke 16:9-15
In today’s first reading, Paul, writing to the church in Rome in about the year 57 CE, sends greetings to members of the church whom he knows by name. It is clear that he is very appreciative of many of those people whom he names. He says of the married couple, Prisca and Aquila, for example, that they ‘risked death to save my life’, and that he owes a great debt of gratitude to them. He refers to another married couple, Andronicus and Junia, as ‘my compatriots and fellow prisoners who became Christians before me’. Writing to the church in Rome from the city of Corinth, he mentions Gaius, a leading member of the church of Corinth, who was serving as Paul’s host during this time, who showed hospitality to Paul. It is clear that Paul is very aware of how much he owes to others, especially to his brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes, he was a very important member of the early church, the leading apostle to the Gentiles, but he knew that in the exercise of his ministry he was dependant on the loving support of others. He recognized that, ultimately, he was dependent on the Lord’s support which came to him in and through the support of others. Like Paul, we are all dependent on others, on other people of faith, on the Lord’s presence to us through such people. We need them, if we are to true to our own calling from the Lord. Paul spoke of the church as the body of Christ in which everyone was interdependent. We need each other’s faithful witness if the Holy Spirit is to become fully alive in us. It is good to acknowledge every so often, as Paul does in today’s first reading, all those people who have nourished what is best in us, what is of God in us. November is a month when we remember especially those through whom the Lord served us and who are now with the Lord in eternal life. We remember them, we name them, we give thanks for them. In the gospels, Jesus speaks of eternal life using a whole variety of images. We find one such image in today’s gospel reading.
He speaks of being welcomed into ‘the tents of eternity’ or ‘eternal dwelling places’. It is an image of hospitality. Every experience of hospitality in this life gives us a glimpse of the Lord’s hospitality and is an anticipation of that eternal moment of the Lord’s hospitable love. We believe that in eternity we will experience the hospitable love of the Lord to the full. In that gospel reading, Jesus calls on us to live now in keeping with this eternal destiny that awaits us, by revealing something of Lord’s hospitable love to each other. One of the ways we do this, according to Jesus, is by using our resources, including our financial resources, in ways that serve the well-being of others, especially those in greatest need. As we contemplate the experience of death and the hope of eternal life in this month of November, the Lord reminds us that we are to live in this present world in the light of that eternal world which is our ultimate destiny. We are to embody something of that welcoming love of the Lord that awaits us in our eternal home.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
