Eighth Week of Ordinary Time
01st June 2024 (Saturday)
Psalter: Week 4
Reading of the Day
First Reading: Jude 17, 20b-25
You must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen..
Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6 (R. see 2b)
R/. For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord, my God.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, giving thanks to god the Father through him.
R/. Alleluia.
Gospel : Mark 11:27-33
At that time: Jesus and the disciples came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
Saturday – Eighth Week of Ordinary Time
Guidelines: Men of today restlessly seek knowledge and competence, and they are happy that they are able to master them. But they do not realize that it is better to be seekers and servants of wisdom, because wisdom alone adorns and fulfils life
1. In the gospel, wisdom is personified in Jesus. Jesus is the power of the wisdom of God. His wisdom and authority are divine. That is why he confounds and overcomes his opponents. It is this divine authority that preaches irresistibly and heals miraculously.
2. But unfortunately the unbelieving Jews lack the gift of faith to see, appreciate, accept this divine grace and cooperate with it. They operate only with human intelligence and knowledge. They think only in human terms of power and authority that comes from positions and offices. They fail to see in Jesus one who embodies and personifies God’s own wisdom and spiritual authority.
3. They were caught up with the mere letter of the law and did not see the spirit of it. Consequently, they could see Jesus only as the violator of the law and not the renovator and fulfiller of the law. They were worried so much as if so much bad was happening to the religion and the tradition. In the process, they could not rejoice over the immense good done to human persons and the religion itself.
4. Certainly the tact and trickiness of Jesus is appreciable: he counters and silences the scribes and elders who question him, “By what authority are you doing these things?” He puts them a counter-question: “Answer me whether the baptism of John is from heaven or from men?”
5. They will be caught either way: if they say, from heaven, then their unbelief will be exposed and blamed; if they say it is from men, then they will invite the ire and rage of the people who hold John to be a prophet. Therefore, they admit that they don’t know.
6. Jesus tells them that he too will not tell them by what authority he does all that he does. But here, much more than this wise shrewdness of Jesus, what is exposed is the stubbornness, closed-mindedness and double standards of the unbelieving Jews and authorities.
Practice: Let our constant prayer and search be for wisdom, because once we obtain her, then there will be faith, docility and honest living by a spiritual authority
