NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Friday

Year II

Readings

First Reading
2 Tm 3:10–17

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 119:157, 160, 161, 165, 166, 168

Gospel
Mk 12:35–37

Meditation on Today’s Readings

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

The two first readings for today deal with sight. Tobit is enabled to see his son Tobiah, the light of his eyes, and Paul encourages Timothy his “son” to see him—his “way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance.” Both stories, Tobit’s and Paul’s, are for us Sacred Scripture. They are part of that library of inspired books that speak to the Christian community with the authority of God’s own word. Jesus’ Bible was the Jewish Scriptures—the Law (the written Torah), the Prophets and the Writings. The creative fidelity with which he approached them, evident in today’s Gospel, should be the model for our own biblical study. In this passage, for example, Jesus interprets Psalm 110 to expose the narrowness of the messianic expectations of some scribes.

Sacred Scripture was part of Jesus’ “equipment” as a teacher in Israel, and the Letter to Timothy says it should be ours too. Although our methods of biblical interpretation will be different than those of Jesus’ day, they must, as did his, always recognize and respect the word of God as a living word that demands a lived response.

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