Saint Antony Mary Zaccaria
(1502 – 1539)
Green/White
He was born in Cremona in Lombardy and started by studying medicine, but soon decided to become a priest instead and was ordained in 1528. He founded a religious Congregation, the Barnabites, whose aim was the reform of the clergy and laity.
Entrance Antiphon : Ps 46: 2
All peoples, clap your hands. Cry to God with shouts of joy!
Collect
O God, who through the grace of adoption, chose us to be children of light; grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth. 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 : Amos 8:4-6,9-12
Listen to this, you who trample on the needy and try to suppress the poor people of the country, you who say, ‘When will New Moon be over so that we can sell our corn, and sabbath, so that we can market our wheat? Then by lowering the bushel, raising the shekel, by swindling and tampering with the scales, we can buy up the poor for money, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and get a price even for the sweepings of the wheat.’ That day – it is the Lord who speaks – I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. I am going to turn your feasts into funerals, all your singing into lamentation; I will have your loins all in sackcloth, your heads all shaved. I will make it a mourning like the mourning for an only son, as long as it lasts it will be like a day of bitterness. See what days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – days when I will bring famine on the country, a famine not of bread, a drought not of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. They will stagger from sea to sea, wander from north to east, seeking the word of the Lord and failing to find it.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:2,10,20,30,40,131
R/ Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
They are happy who do his will, seeking him with all their hearts, I have sought you with all my heart; let me not stray from your commands.
My soul is ever consumed as I long for your decrees. I have chosen the way of truth with your decrees before me.
See, I long for your precepts; then in your justice, give me life. I open my mouth and I sigh as I yearn for your commands.
Gospel Acclamation : Ps24:4,5
Alleluia, alleluia! Teach me your paths, my God, make me walk in your truth. Alleluia!
Gospel : Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus was walking on he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. While he was at dinner in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When he heard this he replied, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.’
Prayer over the Offerings
O God, who graciously accomplish the effects of your mysteries, grant, we pray, that the deeds by which we serve you may be worthy of these sacred gifts. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Cf. Ps 102: 1
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all within me, his holy name.
Prayer after Communion
May this divine sacrifice we have offered and received fill us with life, O Lord, we pray, so that, bound to you in lasting charity, we may bear fruit that lasts for ever. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
The call of Matthew and Jesus’ dining at Matthew’s house with many other tax collectors and sinners reveal an important dimension of Jesus’ ministry. The tax collectors were considered as sinners and anti-nationals. Their proximity to the foreign rulers made them outsiders and sinners. Jesus identifies himself with them and invites them to be part of his Kingdom. The quote from Hosea 6:6, “What I want is mercy, not sacrifice” is a challenge to the opponents of Jesus who try to please God through external practices such as sacrifices but fail to practice mercy towards others. Jesus emphatically says that his mission is not to call the righteous but sinners. He has come to reconcile sinners with God. External practices become meaningful only when they are coupled with charitable and merciful actions.