Monday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time (I)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – 1 Maccabees 1.10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63

And there came from the descendents of Alexander’s successors,
a wicked shoot, Antiochus Epiphanes,
the son of King Antiochus, who had been a hostage at Rome,
and he reigned in the hundred and thirty-seventh year
of the kingdom of the Greeks.

In those days there went about in Israel wicked men,
and they persuaded many, saying,
“Let us go, and make a covenant with the heathens
who are around us, for since we departed from them,
many evils have befallen us.
This speech seemed good in their eyes.
Some of the people determined to do this,
and went to the king,
and he gave them license to act
according to the laws of the heathens.
They built a gymnasium in Jerusalem,
according to the laws of the Gentiles,
and they made foreskins for themselves,
and departed from the holy covenant,
and joined themselves to the heathens,
and sold themselves to evil.

Then King Antiochus wrote to all his kingdom,
that all the people should be one,
and everyone should abandon their own law.
All the Gentiles consented to the word of King Antiochus.
and many from Israel consented to his service:
they sacrificed to idols
and profaned the Sabbath.

On the fifteenth day of the month Chislev, in the year 145,
the king set up the abominable idol of desolation upon the altar,
and they built altars throughout all the nearby cities of Judah.
They burnt incense and sacrificed
at the doors of the houses and in the streets.
They cut in pieces and burnt with fire
the books of the law which they found.
Whoever was found with the scrolls of the covenant,
and anyone who observed the law, was put to death,
according to the edict of the king.

And many in Israel were determined and resolved
among themselves
that they would not eat unclean things.
They chose to die rather than be defiled with unclean meats
or break the holy law of God, and they were put to death:
There was very great wrath upon Israel.

Responsorial – Psalm 119.53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158

R. Enliven me , and I will I keep the covenant.

Horror has taken hold of me because of the wicked
who forsake your law.

R. Enliven me , and I will I keep the covenant.

The bands of the wicked have bound me,
but I have not forgotten your law.

R. Enliven me , and I will I keep the covenant.

Deliver me from the oppression of humans,
so will I keep your precepts.

R. Enliven me , and I will I keep the covenant.

Those who follow after mischief draw close,
they are far from your law.

R. Enliven me , and I will I keep the covenant.

Salvation is far from the wicked,
since they seek not your statutes.

R. Enliven me , and I will I keep the covenant.

I beheld the transgressors and was grieved;
because they did not keep your word.

R. Enliven me , and I will I keep the covenant.

Gospel – Luke 18.35-43

And it came to pass, as Jesus was coming close to Jericho,
that a blind man sat by the road begging.
Hearing the crowd pass by, he asked what it meant,
and they reported to him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
He cried, saying, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.”
And those who led the way shushed him,
so that he would be silent,
but he cried so much the more,
“Son of David, have mercy on me.”
Jesus stopped and insisted that he be brought to him.
When he had come near, he asked him, saying,
“What do you wish that I will do for you?”
He said, “Lord, that I may see again.”
Jesus said to him,
“See again; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he saw again,
and followed him, glorifying God.
And all the people seeing gave praise to God.