Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection August 02, 2024
Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time
02nd August 2024 (Friday)
Psalter: Week 1
Reading of the Day
First Reading: Jeremiah 26:1-9
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord: “Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word. It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds. You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.’” The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.
Psalm 69:5, 8-10, 14 (R. 14c)
R/. In your great mercy, answer me, O Lord
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. The word of the Lord remains for ever; and this word is the good news that was preached to you
R/. Alleluia.
Gospel : Matthew 13:54-58
At that time: Coming to his hometown Jesus taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his hometown and in his own household.” And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
Daily Gospel Reflection
Friday – Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time
Guidelines: Often familiarity and externality reduce life to shallowness and superficiality and consequently people fail to discover and appreciate the good in the other
1. Often, God and good meet with anti-climax. What does this mean? When God and good people do so much good with all concern and expect a positive response and a good effect in the life of others, exactly the opposite reaction and effect take place.
2. For example, one gives a sincere advice for the betterment of the other. But the other can easily misunderstand and misinterpret it as an act of jealousy or pessimism. This is what happens in the case of God in the OT and in the case of Jesus in the NT.
3. God invites His straying and unfaithful people to repent and return to Him through the warning by Jeremiah. But instead, people turn hostile to Jeremiah and plot to harm Jeremiah. In the gospel, Jesus invites the people to understand and experience the love and mercy of God and return to him in faith in His Only Son.
4. But the people despise him contending that he is just one among them, and they know him thoroughly. This is because basically people are not ready to accept what is not convenient and not pleasing to their hearing and living.
5. Especially when it is a demand for a review and renewal of life, when they are confronted with challenges, they resent and resist. Unless one tries to traverse beyond what is merely easy and apparent, to what is difficult and deeper, to that what makes life transformed and qualitative, one can never experience change.
6. Faith is this travel from the peripheral to the deeper, from the easy to the difficult, from the convenient to the commitment.
Practice: As long as one remains presumptuous and pretentious on the basis of intelligence and knowledge, on the basis of status and prestige, on the basis of talent and capacity, he cannot experience the grace for conversion and ennoblement of life.
