Sunday

12

Septemer

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalter IV

Bl Mary of Jesus (1560-1640)

Green

Entrance Antiphon: Sir 36: 18

Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you, that your prophets be found true. Hear the prayers of your servant, and of your people Israel.

Collect

Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

First reading: Isaiah 50:5-9

The Lord has opened my ear. For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle. The Lord comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults. So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed. My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me? Then let us go to court together. Who thinks he has a case against me? Let him approach me. The Lord is coming to my help, who will dare to condemn me?

Psalm 114(116):1-6,8-9

R/     I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.

1.     I love the Lord for he has heard the cry of my appeal; for he turned his ear to me in the day when I called him.

2.     They surrounded me, the snares of death, with the anguish of the tomb; they caught me, sorrow and distress. I called on the Lord’s name. O Lord, my God, deliver me!

3.     How gracious is the Lord, and just; our God has compassion. The Lord protects the simple hearts; I was helpless so he saved me.

4. He has kept my soul from death, my eyes from tears and my feet from stumbling. I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.

Second reading: James 2:14-18

Take the case, my brothers, of someone who has never done a single good act but claims that he has faith. Will that faith save him? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty,’ without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead. This is the way to talk to people of that kind: ‘You say you have faith and I have good deeds; I will prove to you that I have faith by showing you my good deeds – now you prove to me that you have faith without any good deeds to show.’

Gospel Acclamation: Jn14:6

Alleluia, alleluia! I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord; No one can come to the Father except through me. Alleluia!

Gospel: Mark 8:27-35

Jesus and his disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,’ they said, ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he asked, ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the Christ.’ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’ He called the people and his disciples to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’

Prayer over the Offerings

Look with favour on our supplications, O Lord, and in your kindness accept these, your servants’ offerings, that what each has offered to the honour of your name may serve the salvation of all. Through Christ our Lord.

Communion Antiphon: Ps 35: 8

How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of men seek shelter in the shadow of your wings.

Prayer after Communion

May the working of this heavenly gift, O Lord, we pray, take possession of our minds and bodies, so that its effects, and not our own desires, may always prevail in us. Through Christ our Lord.

Meditation

The question of salvation by faith or good deeds brings so much confusion. Can there be faith that is not manifested in good deeds? Or is every good deed a manifestation of faith? The two ought to complement each other Jesus announces to his disciple for the first time how he is going to suffer and die. The Christian life is subject to suffering. Sometimes we try to reject this part of Christianity. The Lord tells us that whoever wants to preserve his life from suffering for his sake will lose it, but he who sacrifices for the sake of the Kingdom of God will have everlasting life.