January 24, 2013

USCCB »  Bible »  Daily Readings

« January 23  |  January 25 »

Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Read more about St. Francis de Sales.

Lectionary: 314

Reading 1 from St. Paul's epistle to the Hebrews
Heb 7:25—8:6

Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.

Jesus saves those who obey Him:

Hebrews 5:9
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.

It is right that God should be our saviour.

He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.

He has no need to make sacrifices for His own sins, but sacrificed Himself for ours.

For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.

For the law of Moses appointed weak men to be high priests.  But the oath God swore, to save us, appoints His own Son, God with us.

The main point of what has been said is this:
we have such a high priest,
who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne
of the Majesty in heaven, a minister of the sanctuary
and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up.

The main point I have been making is this.  Our High Priest, Jesus, is far superior to any high priest of the Old Covenant, because He is God and they were men.

Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices;
thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer.
If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest,
since there are those who offer gifts according to the law.
They worship in a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary,
as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tabernacle.

All high priests offer sacrifice, therefore so does Christ.  But He offers His sacrifice in the heavenly sanctuary, not in a temple made by human hands.

For God says, “See that you make everything
according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry
as he is mediator of a better covenant,
enacted on better promises.

So, you can see that the law of Moses offered only a shadow of that which was to come in the Body of Christ, who had obtained a more excellent ministry and a better covenant with better promises.

Responsorial Psalm
ps 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17

R. (8a and 9a)  Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”

R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”

R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.

R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

May all who seek you
exult and be glad in you,
And may those who love your salvation
say ever, “The LORD be glorified.”

R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

Obedience is very important to God.  No one can count themselves faithful who does not obey the will of God.  And the will of God is clearly expressed in the Ten Commandments.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark
Mk 3:7-12

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.

Crowds were coming to see Jesus from all of Israel.

He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.

He instructed the disciples to have a boat ready so that the crowds could not come too close.

He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.

All who were ill wanted to touch Him in order to be cured.

And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.

Even the demons, when they saw Him, would fall down and acknowledge that He is the Son of God. But He warned them to be quiet.