TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Thursday

Year I

Readings

First Reading
Mal 3:13–20b

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 1:1–2, 3, 4 and 6

Gospel
Lk 11:5–13

Meditation on Today’s Readings

Taken from the Vatican II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois

Both the prophet we know as Malachi and the Apostle Paul are addressing recalcitrant members of their respective communities in today’s two first readings. The prophet speaks to a post-exilic community of Jews, some of whom are struggling with the age-old question of why the wicked prosper. Disgruntled, they declare they have nothing to gain by keeping God’s command. Malachi distinguishes between these scoffers and those who fear God, who alone are designated as God’s “special possession.” Paul scolds the Gentile Christians of Galatia for succumbing to the influence of “Judaizers”—those who believed that Gentile converts should observe Mosaic law. He distinguishes between the Gospel he preached and the other gospel on the basis of their experience of the Spirit. “Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to you…do so from works of the law or from faith in what you heard?”

Like Paul, today’s Gospel suggests that God gives us the Holy Spirit not to acknowledge our works, but to answer our fervent, faithful prayer.

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