WEDNESday 05 APRIL
SAINT VINCENT FERRER
He was born in Valencia and joined the Dominicans at the age of 17. Among others, he preached to the Jews, of whom some 25,000 were converted to Christianity. He died in 5 April 1419.
Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Phil 2: 10
At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend of those in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, for the Lord became obedient to death, death on a cross: therefore, Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Collect
O God, who willed your Son to submit for our sake to the yoke of the Cross, so that you might drive from us the power of the enemy, grant us, your servants, to attain the grace of the resurrection. 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: Isaiah 50:4-9
The Lord has given me a disciple’s tongue. So that I may know how to reply to the wearied he provides me with speech. Each morning he wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple. The Lord has opened my ear. For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle. The Lord comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults. So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed. My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me? Then let us go to court together. Who thinks he has a case against me? Let him approach me. The Lord is coming to my help, who will dare to condemn me?
Psalm 68:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34
R/ In your great love, O Lord, answer my prayers for your favour.
It is for you that I suffer taunts, that shame covers my face, that I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons. I burn with zeal for your house and taunts against you fall on me.
Taunts have broken my heart; I have reached the end of my strength. I looked in vain for compassion, for consolers; not one could I find. For food they gave me poison; in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
I will praise God’s name with a song; I will glorify him with thanksgiving. The poor when they see it will be glad and God-seeking hearts will revive; for the Lord listens to the needy and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
Gospel Acclamation
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God! Hail to you, our King! Obedient to the Father, you were led to your crucifixion as a meek lamb is led to the slaughter. Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Gospel: Matthew 26:14-25
One of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him. Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say, “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the passover?” “Go to so-and-so in the city” he replied “and say to him, “The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples.”“ The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover. When evening came he was at table with the twelve disciples. And while they were eating he said “I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me” They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, “Not I, Lord, surely?” He answered, “Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me. The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the Scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!” Judas, who was to betray him; asked in his turn, “Not I, Rabbi, surely?” “They are your own words” answered Jesus.
Prayer over the Offerings
Receive, O Lord, we pray, the offerings made here, graciously grant that, celebrating your Son’s Passion in mystery, we may experience the grace of its effects. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Mt 20: 28
The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Prayer after Communion
Endow us, almighty God, with the firm conviction that through your Son’s Death in time, to which the revered mysteries bear witness, we may be assured of perpetual life. Through Christ our Lord.
Prayer over the People
Grant your faithful, O Lord, we pray, to partake unceasingly of the paschal mysteries and to await with longing, the gifts to come, that, persevering in the Sacraments of their rebirth, they may be led by Lenten works to newness of life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Meditation
Faced with the pain of betrayal by a loved one, the psalmist exclaims: “If the insult came to me from an enemy, I could endure it; if my rival rose against me, I could flee. But you, a man of my rank, my familiar, my intimate!” (Ps 54) and in response, Psalm 68 says: “For your sake I endure insult, shame covers my face: I am a stranger to my brothers, a stranger to my mother’s sons.” Jesus’ human experience also involves all the frailties and humiliations of interpersonal relationships. The Son of Man sold is like a slave at thirty pieces of silver. Yet, inscribed in the paschal perspective, this demeaning of Jesus identifies him with all those who are slaves of sin and slaves of men, slaves of material desires and worldly greed; those for whom he came to bring liberation. By the gift of his life, he reverses Judas’ demand: “What will you give me if I give it to you?” into “my life, no one takes, but I give it” (Jn 10:18) so that “all men may have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10).