Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection January 24, 2025

24th January 2025 (Friday)

Psalter: Week 2

Readings of the Day

First Reading: Hebrews 8:6-13

Brothers and sisters: Now our high priest has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second one. But he finds fault with them and says: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they did not stand by my covenant and I ignored them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen and kin, saying, “Know the Lord,” for all shall know me, from least to greatest. For I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more. When he speaks of a “new” covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what has become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing.

Psalm 85:8, 10, 11-12, 13-14 (R. 11a)

R/. Kindness and truth shall meet.

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

R/. Alleluia.

Gospel: Mark 3:13-19

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons: He appointed the Twelve: Simon, whom he named Peter; James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

Daily Gospel Reflection

Friday – 2nd Week in Ordinary Time

Guidelines: Our relationship with God is not a matter of contract for a better transaction and profit, but is a covenant, built on fidelity and our integral benefit

1. “Called and sent” – this in simple is the whole essence of our vocation. We are specially and personally called by the Lord. We are identified and chosen by name. This shows that each one of us is unique and important for God. We are not just anyone among many. We are someone special and close to the Lord. We are not just numbers or labels. We are persons, with particular names. A name is not a mere label or usage for practical convenience. It stands for a person’s identity and dignity. Therefore, in identifying and choosing his Twelve disciples by name, Jesus gives them their proper identity. They are no more what they were, identified by their lineage or profession. Rather, they are his disciples and apostles. They receive a new identity, a new dignity. They enter into a new realm of life, a new ambience of grace.

2. This is exactly the new covenant that is spoken of in the first reading from the letter to the Hebrews: “I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah… This is the new covenant… I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”. This new covenant is already set in motion in Jesus’ choice of the Twelve. They represent the new Israel. God through Jesus puts His laws into their minds, imprints them on their hearts, and makes them His own. But it does not stop there with them.

3. Their call has a purpose and mission. The call of the Twelve is not only “to be with him” but also “to be sent on his mission”. The mission is nothing but to extend the same new covenant to all others, that is, to make all others the recipients, participants of the new covenant. In other words, their mission is to imprint God’s laws on their hearts and make them God’s own people. This is carried out concretely by the twofold channels of preaching and healing.

Practice: What do you and I belong to? Is it the new covenant of passion and fidelity, or the old covenant of sin and waywardness?