Weekly Mass Discussion Thread #60

!catholics !christians happy 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time!

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First Reading

    Thus says the LORD:

Shout with joy for Jacob,

    exult at the head of the nations;

    proclaim your praise and say:

The LORD has delivered his people,

    the remnant of Israel.

Behold, I will bring them back

    from the land of the north;

I will gather them from the ends of the world,

    with the blind and the lame in their midst,

the mothers and those with child;

    they shall return as an immense throng.

They departed in tears,

    but I will console them and guide them;

I will lead them to brooks of water,

    on a level road, so that none shall stumble.

For I am a father to Israel,

    Ephraim is my first-born.

-Jeremiah 31:7-9

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Responsorial Psalm

R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,

we were like men dreaming.

Then our mouth was filled with laughter,

and our tongue with rejoicing.

R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Then they said among the nations,

"The LORD has done great things for them."

The LORD has done great things for us;

we are glad indeed.

R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, O LORD,

like the torrents in the southern desert.

Those that sow in tears

shall reap rejoicing.

R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Although they go forth weeping,

carrying the seed to be sown,

They shall come back rejoicing,

carrying their sheaves.

R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

-Psalms 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6

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Second Reading

Brothers and sisters:

Every high priest is taken from among men

and made their representative before God,

to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,

for he himself is beset by weakness

and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself

as well as for the people.

No one takes this honor upon himself

but only when called by God,

just as Aaron was.

In the same way,

it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest,

but rather the one who said to him:

You are my son:

    this day I have begotten you;

just as he says in another place:

You are a priest forever

    according to the order of Melchizedek.

-Hebrews 5:1-6

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Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Our Savior Jesus Christ destroyed death

and brought life to light through the Gospel.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

-2 Timothy 1:10

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Gospel

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,

Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,

sat by the roadside begging.

On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,

he began to cry out and say,

"Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.

But he kept calling out all the more,

"Son of David, have pity on me."

Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."

So they called the blind man, saying to him,

"Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you."

He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.

Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"

The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."

Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you."

Immediately he received his sight

and followed him on the way.

-Mark 10:46-52

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The second reading here makes me think of the process of discernment. I would imagine that it's the holiest men who come to the priesthood, yet even the holiest men are still sinners. It also makes me think of the Protestant Reformation, as I think this passage undermines the core ideas of Martin Luther, that sinful priests take away the legitimacy of Catholicism.