Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
June 4, 2021
Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 357
Reading I
Anna sat watching the road by which her son was to come.
When she saw him coming, she exclaimed to his father,
“Tobit, your son is coming, and the man who traveled with him!”
Raphael said to Tobiah before he reached his father:
“I am certain that his eyes will be opened.
Smear the fish gall on them.
This medicine will make the cataracts shrink and peel off from his eyes;
then your father will again be able to see the light of day.”
Then Anna ran up to her son, threw her arms around him,
and said to him,
“Now that I have seen you again, son, I am ready to die!”
And she sobbed aloud.
Tobit got up and stumbled out through the courtyard gate.
Tobiah went up to him with the fish gall in his hand,
and holding him firmly, blew into his eyes.
“Courage, father,” he said.
Next he smeared the medicine on his eyes, and it made them smart.
Then, beginning at the corners of Tobit’s eyes,
Tobiah used both hands to peel off the cataracts.
When Tobit saw his son, he threw his arms around him and wept.
He exclaimed, “I can see you, son, the light of my eyes!”
Then he said:
“Blessed be God,
and praised be his great name,
and blessed be all his holy angels.
May his holy name be praised
throughout all the ages,
Because it was he who scourged me,
and it is he who has had mercy on me.
Behold, I now see my son Tobiah!”
Then Tobit went back in, rejoicing and praising God with full voice
for everything that had happened.
Tobiah told his father that
the Lord God had granted him a successful journey;
that he had brought back the money;
and that he had married Raguel’s daughter Sarah,
who would arrive shortly,
for she was approaching the gate of Nineveh.
Tobit and Anna rejoiced
and went out to the gate of Nineveh
to meet their daughter-in-law.
When the people of Nineveh saw Tobit walking along briskly,
with no one leading him by the hand, they were amazed.
Before them all Tobit proclaimed
how God had mercifully restored sight to his eyes.
When Tobit reached Sarah, the wife of his son Tobiah,
he greeted her: “Welcome, my daughter!
Blessed be your God for bringing you to us, daughter!
Blessed is your father, and blessed is my son Tobiah,
and blessed are you, daughter!
Welcome to your home with blessing and joy.
Come in, daughter!”
That day there was joy for all the Jews who lived in Nineveh.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts
The LORD shall reign forever,
your God, O Zion, through all generations! Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,
“How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?
David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:
The Lord said to my lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I place your enemies under your feet.’
David himself calls him ‘lord’;
so how is he his son?”
The great crowd heard this with delight.
Reflection: PREJUDICE AGAINST JESUS
Today's little passage from Mark is within the context of Chapter 12, which basically deals with the dispute of Jesus with various groups of the religious leadership in Jerusalem. First Jesus likens them to wicked tenants of a vineyard. This angers them and they try to catch him on the wrong foot by questioning him on taxes to Caesar, the question of resurrection from the dead, the most important commandment, etc. They wonder whether Jesus knows the basics of their religion, because he seems to be different from all their beliefs in the Messiah. And yet he, a mere human being, claimed to be God's Son. So, the Lord produces a simple Scriptural argument that the Son of Man was not merely David's son, but his Lord! This angers the leaders to such an extent that they begin to plot his death! The problem with the Scribes was that they were not sincerely listening to Jesus at all. With the prejudice that he was wrong and that they were right, they always tried to make a point rather than listen to what he was saying and doing. It was as if Jesus was talking to the deaf and the blind. That is why he often said that they had eyes but did not see; they had ears but were good as deaf! In our relationships too, this can happen. Do we truly listen to others, or are we trying all the time to push our ideas on them, because we think that we know?