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EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Monday
Year II
Readings
First Reading
1 Pt 1:3–9
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 111:1–2, 5–6, 9 and 10c
Gospel
Mk 10:17–27
Meditation on Today’s Readings Taken from
the Vatican
II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois
Today’s Gospel is a story of missed
opportunity. A man approaches Jesus with the question: “What
must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ answer is
thoroughly Jewish, “You know the commandments.” “All
of these I have observed from my youth,” the man replies.
Moved, Jesus invites him to do one thing more. In Judaism, the word
zekhut describes the hundredfold to which Jesus is calling
the rich man. As Jacob Neusner explains, it is gained “by
an act of renunciation...which heaven cannot compel but highly prizes.”—*
For the man in the Gospel story to give all he had to the poor and
to throw in his lot with Jesus would have been such an act. But
he “had many possessions.”
Although his age is never mentioned, Christians
have traditionally depicted the man in this Gospel as young, as
though such opportunities are only offered to the young. But Jesus
repeats his invitation throughout our lives. To accept it is to
gain the “inheritance that is imperishable” which Peter
so joyfully announced. To refuse it is to go away sad, like one
of “those who have never lived” (Sirach).
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 |
