SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Tuesday

Year II

Readings

First Reading
Jas 1:12–18

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 94:12–13a, 14–15, 18–19

Gospel
Mk 8:14–21

Meditation on Today’s Readings

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

In the Gospel story, Jesus experiences the same frustration that God expresses in the reading from Genesis. Leading into the story of Noah, the author of Genesis writes that God “regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved,” seeing how evil were the desires of the human heart. Jesus too is grieved to discover that his disciples have closed their minds and still do not understand, even after the miracle of the loaves.

Closer to home, the Letter of James may cause us to wonder how often we ourselves must grieve the heart of God. James suggests, for example, that when the tug of our passions tempts us, we say, “I am being tempted by God.” Or when we blame God for the blindness of our minds and the bankruptcy of our hearts, must not God be grieved—the God who wills only to bless us with every worthwhile gift and to bestow on us the crown of life?

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