SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY
MASS READINGS AND GOSPEL COMMENTARIES.
Saturday after Ash Wednesday Mass readings
READING I
Is 58:9b–14
Thus says the Lord: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; then the Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails. The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; “Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you, “Restorer of ruined homesteads.”
If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight, and the Lord’s holy day honorable; if you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice — then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Doce me, Dómine, viam tuam, et ingrédiar in veritáte tua.
Incline your ear, O Lord; answer me,
for I am afflicted and poor.
Keep my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O Lord, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL
I do not wish the sinner to die, says the Lord, but to turn to me and live.
GOSPEL
Lk 5:27–32
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”
GOSPEL COMMENTARY FROM THE
NAVARRE BIBLE, GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE
- 27-29 Levi, better known as Matthew, responds generously and promptly to the call from Jesus. To celebrate and to show how appreciative he is for his vocation he gives a big banquet.
- This passage of the Gospel shows us that a vocation is something we should be very grateful for and happy about. If we see it only in terms of renunciation and giving things up, and not as a gift from God and something which will enhance us and redound to others’ benefit, we can easily become depressed, like the rich young man who, not wanting to give up his possessions, went away sad (Lk 18:18).
- Matthew believes in quite the opposite way, as did the Magi who “when they saw the star rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Mt 2:10) and who gave much more importance to adoring the new-born God than to all the inconveniences involved in travelling to see him. See also notes on Mt 9:9; 9:10-11; 9:12; 9:13; and Mk 2:14; 2:17.
- 32 Since this is how Jesus operates, the only way we can be saved is by admitting before God, in all simplicity, that we are sinners. “Jesus has no time for calculations, for astuteness, for the cruelty of cold hearts, for attractive but empty beauty. What he likes is the cheerfulness of a young heart, a simple step, a natural voice, clean eyes, attention to his affectionate word of advice. That is how he reigns in the soul” (J.St. Josemaria, Christ is passing by, 181).
In today’s Gospel, Jesus explicitly invites the publican Levi to conversion. The Lord calls us constantly to conversion, but in a special way during these days of Lent, to grow in our spiritual life. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners. Before God we are all sinners and we all need to convert. Saint Augustine comments:
“The voice of the Lord calls upon sinners to stop being sinners, lest men think that the Lord loved sinners who choose to always be in sin so that Christ would love them. Christ loves sinners, as a doctor loves the sick with the view to eliminate the fever and to heal him It is not his wish that he be always sick, to always have someone to visit. What he wants is to heal him.
Therefore, the Lord did not come to call the righteous, but the sinners, to justify the wicked … Will He not bring you to the angelic fullness from the human condition, He who transformed you into the opposite of what you were? Therefore, when you begin to be just, you begin to imitate the angelic life, since when you were impious you were estranged from their life. Show faith, make yourself righteous and submit to God, you who blasphemed, and, although you were attached towards the creatures, you already desire the Creator “(Sermon 97 A, 1).
VIDEO COMMENTARY ON TODAY’S GOSPEL
TOPIC 1: IS FOLLOWING JESUS OBTAINING HAPPINESS THAT LASTS?
We can be following Jesus but not following Him at all. When the lure of temporal pleasures grips us, when we we keep the company of people who can lead us to sin, when we backslide and experience restlessness and are constantly in search of meaning, our lives will be bereft of true and lasting happiness.
TOPIC 2: DO YOU GOSSIP ABOUT, CRITICIZE AND BADMOUTH OTHERS?
Let us reflect today on the first reading, particularly these verses: “If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech… Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.”
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