Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time (II)

Official Translation

Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 – James 5.1-6

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming.
Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and your silver have corroded,
and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you,
and will eat your flesh like fire.
You have laid up your treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields cry out,
which you have kept back by fraud,
and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived luxuriously on the earth, and taken your pleasure.
You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one.
He does not resist you.

Responsorial – Psalm 49.14-15AB, 15CD-16, 17-18, 19-20 Resp. Matthew 5:3

R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!

This is the destiny of those who are foolish,
and of those who approve their boasting.
They are appointed as a flock for Sheol.
Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them.

R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!

Their beauty shall decay in Sheol,
far from their home.
But God will redeem my soul
from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.

R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!

Do not be afraid when a man is made rich,
when the glory of his house is increased.
For when he dies he shall carry nothing away.
His glory shall not descend after him.

R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!

Though while he lived he blessed his soul,
“Men praise you when you do well for yourself”,
he shall go to the generation of his fathers.
They shall never see the light.

R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!

Gospel – Mark 9.41-50

Jesus said to his disciples:
For whoever will give you a cup of water to drink, because you are Christ’s,
amen I tell you, they will certainly not lose their reward.
Whoever ensnares one of these little ones who believe in me,
it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea
with a millstone hung around his neck.
If your hand ensnares you, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed,
rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.
If your foot ensnares you, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life lame,
rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna.
If your eye ensnares you, pluck it out.
It is better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye,
rather than with two eyes to be cast into Gehenna
‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’
For everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is beautiful, but if the salt has lost its saltiness,
how will you make it salty again?
Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”