SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Thursday

Year II

Readings

First Reading
Jas 5:1–6

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 49:14–15ab, 15cd–16, 17–18, 19–20

Gospel
Mk 9:41–50

Meditation on Today’s Readings

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

All three readings for today sound an alarm. “Delay not your conversion to the Lord,” Sirach insists. “Weep and wail over your impending miseries,” cries James. “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off!” commands Jesus. These hard sayings relentlessly force us to acknowledge that one day God will judge all of us. In these verses, Mark again shows Jesus’ concern for the little ones, those “little ones” so easily led astray. But Jesus knows too that we are often our own worst enemies. Occasions of sin arise from within ourselves, as well as from outside. Borrowing the vivid imagery of Isaiah 66, he says in no uncertain terms: whatever in you causes sin must be rooted out at all cost, so that you may enter life and avoid the fires of hell.

Such hard sayings are rarely heard in our day. But the truth they convey is as essential as salt: “If salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor?”

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