8th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Saint Chad (-672)
Psalter: Week IV
Green
Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 17: 19-20
The Lord became my protector. He brought me out to a place of freedom; he saved me because he delighted in me.
Collect
Grant us, O Lord, we pray, that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and that your Church may rejoice, untroubled in her devotion. 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: Ecclesiasticus 27:5-8
In a shaken sieve the rubbish is left behind, so too the defects of a man appear in his talk.
The kiln tests the work of the potter, the test of a man is in his conversation. The orchard where a tree grows is judged on the quality of its fruit, similarly a man’s words betray what he feels. Do not praise a man before he has spoken, since this is the test of men.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 91(92):2-3,13-16
R/ It is good to give you thanks, O Lord.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your truth in the watches of the night.
The just will flourish like the palm tree and grow like a Lebanon cedar.
Planted in the house of the Lord they will flourish in the courts of our God, still bearing fruit when they are old, still full of sap, still green, to proclaim that the Lord is just. In him, my rock, there is no wrong.
Second reading: 1 Corinthians 15:54-58
When this perishable nature has put on imperishability, and when this mortal nature has put on immortality, then the words of scripture will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. So let us thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Never give in then, my dear brothers, never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord’s work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain.
Gospel Acclamation: cf.Ac16:14
Alleluia, alleluia! Open our heart, O Lord, to accept the words of your Son. Alleluia!
Gospel: Luke 6:39-45
Jesus told a parable to his disciples: ‘Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,” when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye. ‘There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.’
Prayer over the Offerings
O God, who provide gifts to be offered to your name and count our oblations as signs of our desire to serve you with devotion, we ask of your mercy that what you grant as the source of merit may also help us to attain merit’s reward. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Cf. Ps 12: 6
I will sing to the Lord who has been bountiful with me, sing psalms to the name of the Lord Most High.
Prayer after Communion
Nourished by your saving gifts, we beseech your mercy, Lord, that by this same Sacrament with which you feed us in the present age, you may make us partakers of life eternal. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
It is often easy to reproach our brethren, especially when we do so unfairly. We tend to see in them faults we consider unforgiveable, acting without the slightest form of indulgence, love, or consideration for the possibility of them ever correcting their mistakes. Surprisingly, we find ourselves taken aback when the world judges us by the same standards, exposing the very things we reproach others for and which we rarely acknowledge in ourselves. What we see in others should help us reflect on our own deeds. When tempted to decry the pettiness of others, we must ask if we are not engaging in similar behavior ourselves, even in a slightly different way. It is crucial not to forget that the mirror reflecting the essence of man is man himself.