21/05/2024
READINGS IN ORDINARY TIME WEEK 7 TUESDAY YEAR 2
21-MAY-2024 Readings
All stand. The Priest (May) approaches the Altar with the ministers and venerates it while the entrance Antiphon is Sung:
1ST READING: James 4:1-10
Beloved: What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is in vain that the scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us"? But he gives more grace; therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
The Word of The Lord!.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 55
R. Entrust your cares to the Lord, and he will support you.
I say, "O that I had wings like a dove, to fly away and be at rest! I would indeed escape far away, and take refuge in the desert."
R. Entrust your cares to the Lord, and he will support you.
"I shall await him who saves me from the raging wind and tempest." Engulf and confuse their speech, O Lord.
R. Entrust your cares to the Lord, and he will support you.
For I see violence and strife in the city! Night and day they patrol its walls. In its midst are wickedness and evil.
R. Entrust your cares to the Lord, and he will support you.
Entrust your cares to the Lord, and he will support you. He will never allow the just man to stumble.
R. Entrust your cares to the Lord, and he will support you.
All stand to sing the Gospel Acclamation to welcome the gospel, and remain standing to honour/hear the Master Christ(Himself).
ACCLAMATION: Galatians 6:14
R. ALLELUIA.
Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the
world.
R. ALLELUIA.
The Gospel ( All stand! )
GOSPEL Mark 9:30-37
At that time: Jesus and his disciples went on from the mountain and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise." But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?" But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, "If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."
The Gospel of The Lord!.
Reflection
The clamour for power, fame, exalted positions, prestige, and so on, is a slow poison, and one capable of bringing division to any family, institution, or the society at large. Imagine the discussion that preoccupied the disciples of Jesus in today's gospel. Instead of talking about the things of heaven, or the mission of Christ, or about their salvation, they were busy arguing about who was the greatest amongst them. This is how we too sometimes lose focus on the things that really matter in life, which are basically keeping God's commandments and striving to enter the kingdom of heaven. We may bother about vain glory, thirst for power and worldly praise that draws us away from God. Jesus cautions us that, to remain focused on this journey towards heaven, humility is key, and that anyone who develops a childlike spirit can never be far from the heart of God.
