Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection November 22, 2024
Thirty-Third Week of Ordinary Time
22nd November 2024 (Friday)
Psalter: Week 1
Readings of the Day
First Reading: Revelation 10:8-11
The voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
Psalm 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131 (R. 103a)
R/. How sweet is your promise to my tongue, O Lord!
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; and I know them, and they follow me.
R/. Alleluia.
Gospel: Luke 19:45-48
At that time: Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.
Daily Gospel Reflection
Friday – Thirty-Third Week of Ordinary Time
Guidelines: Temple is not only a place of worship but a dwelling of the holy God. Being in the temple should stir in us a sense of devotion and holiness
1. Jesus drove out those who were doing business in the temple. Here some miss the main point because they focus on the action of Jesus as a “holy or just anger.” Thus they may also justify their own anger as just anger.
2. First of all, the main focus is not on the anger of Jesus. Actually, it is not anger, and there is no holy or just anger. It is not angry because he did not lose his temper. He acted that way not because he lost control of his temper, not because he became impulsive and overemotional as it happens in the case of many.
3. It was passion and zeal. It was not directed against any individuals. It was an expression of profound passion for God and His house. It was not a simple situation of disorder. It was a serious situation of desecration. It was a total failure in the sense of the sacred.
4. It was this passion that drew people to him and hung on his words. In this way, he became himself a temple – carrying God’s presence, communicating God’s word, and giving people a true sense and effect of godliness.
5. The symbolism of ‘eating scroll’ can indicate this: the power of his presence and word. Eating signifies complete assimilation and total absorption of God’s word into us. It is sweet in the mouth but bitter in the stomach.
6. Similarly, God’s word may look pleasurable and palpable at the outset but once we really receive it and send it inside, then it may create a bitter taste. That is what it must do, make an inner change.
7. This symbolism can also refer to our own ministry. It will be really challenging. It may appear to be sweet apparently but will create a bitter taste inside. That is why many resent and resist. That is what happened in the case of the Pharisees and scribes at the words and actions of Jesus. They were bitter in their stomachs. So they seek to destroy him.
8. St Cecilia whom we commemorate today lived a holy and committed life with a passionate love for the Lord to the extent of martyrdom. Thus she could merit the heavenly crown.
Practice: What are our churches and temples – houses of prayer or dens of robbers? Are they ambiences of devotion or commotion? Noise or voice of God?
