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TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Thursday
Year II
Readings
First Reading
2 Kgs 24:8–17
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 79:1b–2, 3–5, 8, 9
Gospel
Mt 7:21–29
Meditation on Today’s Readings Taken from
the Vatican
II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois
In today’s two first readings, Sarai
and Jehoiachin are both tragically conditioned by the world in which
they find themselves. Sarai’s abuse of Hagar is deplorable,
but Sarai is the product of a patriarchal society in which a woman’s
worth was determined by her ability to bear male heirs for her husband.
She is caught in what Megan McKenna describes as “an interlocking
set of oppressions” that pit one woman against the other.*
The young king Jehoiachin “did evil in the sight of the Lord,”
but Jehoiachin is the end of a long line of unscrupulous kings and
queens who routinely ignored the warnings of God’s prophets.
He is heir to a royal house that was built “on sandy ground.”
So it will collapse, completely ruined. This is not to excuse either
Sarai or Jehoiachin, but only to observe, as the poet did, “how
much we are the world we wander in.”
We are no different. Born and raised in
a Christian culture, we easily cry out, “Lord, Lord.”
But Jesus demands more. It is not enough to hear his words but we
must put them into practice, with raised consciousness and renewed
heart.
The copyright for the Sunday
Missal Introductions is:
Copyright (c) 2001, Daughters of St. Paul
The copyright for the Weekday
Missal Introduction is:
Copyright (c) 2002, Daughters of St. Paul |
