Sunday

26

September

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalter II

SS. Cosmas and Damian

Green

Entrance Antiphon: Dn 3: 31, 29, 30, 43, 42

All that you have done to us, O Lord, you have done with true judgement, for we have sinned against you and not obeyed your commandments. But give glory to your name and deal with us according to the bounty of your mercy.

Collect

O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy, bestow, we pray, your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to attain your promises heirs to the treasures of heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

First reading: Numbers 11:25-29

The Lord came down in the Cloud. He spoke with Moses, but took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the spirit came on them they prophesied, but not again. Two men had stayed back in the camp; one was called Eldad and the other Medad. The spirit came down on them; though they had not gone to the Tent, their names were enrolled among the rest. These began to prophesy in the camp. The young man ran to tell this to Moses, ‘Look,’ he said ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’ Then said Joshua the son of Nun, who had served Moses from his youth, ‘My Lord Moses, stop them!’ Moses answered him, ‘Are you jealous on my account? If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave his Spirit to them all!’

Psalm 18(19):8,10,12-14

R/     The precepts of the Lord gladden the heart

1.     The law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul. The rule of the Lord is to be trusted, it gives wisdom to the simple.

2.     The fear of the Lord is holy, abiding for ever. The decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them just.

3.     So in them your servant finds instruction; great reward is in their keeping. But who can detect all his errors? From hidden faults acquit me.

4.     From presumption restrain your servant and let it not rule me. Then shall I be blameless, clean from grave sin.

Second reading: James 5:1-6

An answer for the rich. Start crying, weep for the miseries that are coming to you. Your wealth is all rotting, your clothes are all eaten up by moths. All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be your own sentence, and eat into your body. It was a burning fire that you stored up as your treasure for the last days. Labourers mowed your fields, and you cheated them – listen to the wages that you kept back, calling out; realise that the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter you went on eating to your heart’s content. It was you who condemned the innocent and killed them; they offered you no resistance.

Gospel Acclamation : Jn17:17

Alleluia, alleluia! Your word is truth, O Lord: consecrate us in the truth. Alleluia!

Gospel : Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48

John said to Jesus, ‘Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.’ But Jesus said, ‘You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us. ‘If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward. ‘But anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck. And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire go out.’

Prayer over the Offerings

Grant us, O merciful God, that this our offering may find acceptance with you and that through it the wellspring of all blessing may be laid open before us. Through Christ our Lord.

Communion Antiphon:  Ps 118: 49-50

Remember your word to your servant, O Lord, by which you have given me hope. This is my comfort when I am brought low.

Prayer after Communion

May this heavenly mystery, O Lord, restore us in mind and body, that we may be coheirs in glory with Christ, to whose suffering we are united whenever we proclaim his Death. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Meditation

Jesus calls his disciples to a wider and broader vision. The Apostles tried to draw a circle that kept the exorcist out. The statement of John does not express a desire to preserve the sacredness of the name of Jesus; it speaks of a desire to protect the status of the apostles and their prerogatives. Jesus draws a wider circle as he does in other circumstances. This is a message we need to hear and take to heart, especially as our communities are being divided by ever-thickening lines that exclude many. Let us have a broader vision and a wider circle.