Mass Readings
Catholic Ireland
Liturgical Readings for : Tuesday, 26th November, 2024Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday's Readings
Tuesday of the Thirty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of the Apocalypse 14:14-19
Harvest time has come and the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Now in my vision I, John saw a white cloud and, sitting on it, one like a son of man with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came out of the sanctuary, and shouted aloud to the one sitting on the cloud,
‘Put your sickle in and reap: harvest time has come and the harvest of the earth is ripe. Then the one sitting on the cloud set his sickle to work on the earth, and the earth’s harvest was reaped.
Another angel, who also carried a sharp sickle, came out of the temple in heaven, and the angel in charge of the fire left the altar and shouted aloud to the one with the sharp sickle,
‘Put your sickle in and cut all the bunches off the vine of the earth; all its grapes are ripe’.
So the angel set his sickle to work on the earth and harvested the whole vintage of the earth and put it into a huge wine press, the wine press of God’s anger.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95
Response The Lord comes to rule the earth.
1. Proclaim to the nations: ‘God is king: The world he made firm in its place;
he will judge the peoples in fairness. Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad,
let the sea and all within it thunder praise. Response
2. ‘Let the land and all it bears rejoice, all the trees of the wood shout for joy
at the presence of the Lord for he comes, he comes to rule the earth.
With justice he will rule the world,
he will judge the peoples with his truth.’ Response
Gospel Acclamation Lk 21: 28
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.
Alleluia!
Or Apoc 2: 10
Alleluia, Alleluia!
‘Even if you have to die,’ says the Lord, ‘keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life.’
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 21: 5-11
Not a single stone will be left on another.
When some were talking about the Temple, remarking how it was adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings, Jesus said,
‘All these things you are staring at now-the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed’.
And they put to him this question:
‘Master,’ they said ‘when will this happen, then,
and what sign will there be that this is about to take place?’
‘Take care not to be deceived,‘ he said ‘because many will come using my name and saying,
“I am he” and, “The time is near at hand”. Refuse to join them.
And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened, for this is something that must happen but the end is not so soon.’
Then he said to them, ‘Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines here and there; there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
********************
Gospel Reflection Tuesday Thirty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time Luke 21:5-11
As the curtain comes down on the liturgical year, the liturgical readings tend to highlight the reality of endings, of things coming to an end. In the gospel reading, Jesus announces the ending of the Temple in Jerusalem. This was a magnificent building; it took eighty years to complete. It dominated the city of Jerusalem. It must have seemed as if it would last forever. It was considered by Jews to be the dwelling place of God. Yet, forty years after Jesus was crucified, it was destroyed by the Roman army. It was a tremendous loss for the Jewish people.
We all have to deal with endings and losses of one kind or another. Sometimes such experiences of ending and loss can be traumatic for us, as traumatic as the destruction of the Temple and everything that went with it was for the people of Israel. When we experience some traumatic loss or ending, we can even wonder whether our own life is at an end, whether we ourselves are now lost. In such situations we need an anchor, something that doesn’t change. That anchor is the Lord.
The Book of Revelation from which we are reading these days speaks of the Lord as the one who was, who is and who is to come. In the midst of all our losses we know that the Lord endures and that his relationship with us never comes to an end. The Lord can be relied upon when all else fails, and he is always at work bringing new life out of our experiences of loss.
________
The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings 2024: The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
______________________