16
November
St. Margaret of Scotland
(1046 – 1093)
St Gertrude (1256 – 1301/2)
Green / White
She was born in Hungary of Anglo-Saxon and Hungarian parents. She founded monasteries, and supported major reforms of Church life. She died in Edinburgh on 16th November 1093. She is remembered for devotion to prayer and learning, and especially for her generosity to the poor.
Entrance Antiphon: Jer 29: 11, 12, 14
The Lord said: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. You will call upon me, and I will answer you, and I will lead back your captives from every place.
Collect
Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God, the constant gladness of being devoted to you, for it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good. 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: 2 Maccabees 6:18-31
Eleazar, one of the foremost teachers of the Law, a man already advanced in years and of most noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth wide to swallow pig’s flesh. But he, resolving to die with honour rather than to live disgraced, went to the block of his own accord, spitting the stuff out, the plain duty of anyone with the courage to reject what it is not lawful to taste, even from a natural tenderness for his own life. Those in charge of the impious banquet, because of their long-standing friendship with him, took him aside and privately urged him to have meat brought of a kind he could properly use, prepared by himself, and only pretend to eat the portions of sacrificial meat as prescribed by the king; this action would enable him to escape death, by availing himself of an act of kindness prompted by their long friendship. But having taken a noble decision worthy of his years and the dignity of his great age and the well earned distinction of his grey hairs, worthy too of his impeccable conduct from boyhood, and above all of the holy legislation established by God himself, he publicly stated his convictions, telling them to send him at once to Hades. ‘Such pretence,’ he said, ‘does not square with our time of life; many young people would suppose that Eleazar at the age of ninety had conformed to the foreigners’ way of life, and because I had played this part for the sake of a paltry brief spell of life might themselves be led astray on my account; I should only bring defilement and disgrace on my old age. Even though for the moment I avoid execution by man, I can never, living or dead, elude the grasp of the Almighty. Therefore if I am man enough to quit this life here and now I shall prove myself worthy of my old age, and I shall have left the young a noble example of how to make a good death, eagerly and generously, for the venerable and holy laws.’ With these words he went straight to the block. His escorts, so recently well disposed towards him, turned against him after this declaration, which they regarded as sheer madness. Just before he died under the blows, he groaned aloud and said, ‘The Lord whose knowledge is holy sees clearly that, though I might have escaped death, whatever agonies of body I now endure under this bludgeoning, in my soul I am glad to suffer, because of the awe which he inspires in me.’ This was how he died, leaving his death as an example of nobility and a record of virtue not only for the young but for the great majority of the nation.
Psalm 3:2-7
R/ The Lord upholds me.
1. How many are my foes, O Lord!How many are rising up against me! How many are saying about me: ‘There is no help for him in God.’
2. But you, Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, who lift up my head. I cry aloud to the Lord. He answers from his holy mountain.
3. I lie down to rest and I sleep. I wake, for the Lord upholds me. I will not fear even thousands of people who are ranged on every side against me.
Gospel Acclamation : Ps129:5
Alleluia, alleluia! My soul is waiting for the Lord, I count on his word. Alleluia!
Gospel: Luke 19:1-10
Jesus entered Jericho and was going through the town when a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance: he was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man. He was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way. When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and spoke to him: ‘Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I must stay at your house today.’ And he hurried down and welcomed him joyfully. They all complained when they saw what was happening. ‘He has gone to stay at a sinner’s house,’ they said. But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to the Lord, ‘Look, sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Grant, O Lord, we pray, that what we offer in the sight of your majesty may obtain for us the grace of being devoted to you and gain us the prize of everlasting happiness. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Ps 72: 28
To be near God is my happiness, to place my hope in God the Lord.
Prayer after Communion
We have partaken of the gifts of this sacred mystery, humbly imploring, O Lord, that what your Son commanded us to do in memory of him may bring us growth in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
Eleazar in his nineties gave such a bold statement: ‘Such pretence,’ he said ‘does not square with our time of life,’ Through these words, Eleazar plunges us into the deep convictions of a life of faith and full of uncertainties. Only these convictions of faith make us strong and comfortable in moments of discomfort, when we face the vice of social conformism. Christianity entails a relationship of deep love with Christ in a burning flame which becomes the good above all good. It is this good that Zacchaeus wants to discover in the Gospel beyond his financial power. He heeded to Jesus’s invitation: ‘Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I must stay at your house today’. Zacchaeus recognised Jesus Christ as the Lord, and that is what brought him salvation. Salvation is nothing more than Jesus recognised and accepted as the presence of God. It is a presence which is offered and which materialised in unexpected meetings. Like Zacchaeus, money can become a means to bring us closer to the Kingdom of God, or better put, a source of friendship and joy with God when it becomes a chain of solidarity.