Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection September 10, 2024
Twenty-Third Week of Ordinary Time
10th September 2024 (Tuesday)
Psalter: Week 3
Reading of the Day
First Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11
Brethren: When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Psalm 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b (R. 4a)
R/. The Lord takes delight in his people
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. . I chose you from the world that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, says the Lord.
R/. Alleluia.
Gospel : Luke 6:12-19
In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
Daily Gospel Reflection
Tuesday – Twenty-Third Week of Ordinary Time
Guidelines: Worldliness is a blatant contrast to the spirit of God. Those who are conformed to the ways of the world will be devoid of God’s grace. They will be judged unfit to enter God’s kingdom
1. Many came to listen to Jesus and be healed of their diseases. All those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. All tried to touch him because a curative power came out from him and healed them all.
2. In the present times, how many willingly and eagerly go to Jesus? How many attentively listen to him? How many confide in the healing power of Jesus? How many seek his powerful and curative touch? Today too many suffer from many unclean spirits. But they do not desire to get rid of them. They do not make an effort to approach Jesus. Therefore, they do not experience any healing. They continue to be sick and troubled.
3. We are called not only to get healing from the Lord and remain content. We are also specially chosen to be his apostles to share the same healing touch with others. Being healed, we need to become apostles of healing and health. We need to restore the lost sanity to the wounded and sick world.
4. In the light of the first reading, this would mean that we belong totally to God, and follow the ways of God and not the ways and standards of the Lord. We strive to live worthy of our special choice by God so that we will receive admittance into the kingdom.
5. We must persevere in righteousness even in times of affliction and unjust treatment by the world. For this, we need to be ever conscious of our privileged call and the immense mercy of God in which we were washed, sanctified, and justified by God through Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Practice: It is a world that tries to defy and resist the power of any divine and spiritual touch. It prefers to remain untouched so that it does not need to go through the painful process of healing. We must be healed and become healers