26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Psalter week II
Entrance Antiphon
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: Ezekiel 18: 25-28
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows: “You object, ‘What the Lord does is unjust.’ Listen, you House of Israel: is what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust? When the upright man renounces his integrity to commit sin and dies because of this, he dies because of the evil that he himself has committed. When the sinner renounces sin to become law-abiding and honest, he deserves to live. He has chosen to renounce all his previous sins; he shall certainly live; he shall not die.”
Psalm 24(25):4-9
R/ Remember your mercy, Lord.
Lord, make me know your ways. Lord, teach me your paths. Make me walk in your truth, and teach me: for you are God my Saviour.
Remember your mercy, Lord, and the love you have shown from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth. In your love remember me, because of your goodness, O Lord.
The Lord is good and upright. He shows the path to those who stray, He guides the humble in the right path, He teaches his way to the poor.
Second reading: Philippians 2:1-11
If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing which would make me completely happy. There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself, so that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other people’s interests instead. In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus: His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. But God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel Acclamation: Jn14:23
Alleluia, alleluia! If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him. Alleluia!
Gospel: Jn10:27
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people, “What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, ‘My boy, you go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not go,’ but afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, ‘Certainly, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the father’s will?” “The first”, they said. Jesus said to them, “I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him.”
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: Cf. 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 returns to a theme that is dear to him, or rather to a primary, essential truth of his life: doing the will of his Father. That is what his entire mission is about, his entire filial being. From the beginning of the Gospel: “I must be about the things of my Father”, to the end in Gethsemane: “Not my will but yours be done”. He will never cease to instil in his disciples this fundamental attitude: “It is not those who say to me Lord, Lord, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of God”. He will engrave this demand at the very heart of the prayer that he transmitted to us: “Our Father… thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Everything is at stake here, but in order to do the Father’s will, we must trust him, his promises, his love as a Father. And to do so, we must trust in the one he has sent us, his Son, who reveals him and teaches in his name.