Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Living Stones
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Christians have received God’s saving grace. As good stewards, they must pass it on through mutual love and hospitality. If they endure in trials, they are sharing in Christ’s suffering and should rejoice.
There was a feast of Dedication of the Temple, which was in fact a rededication or cleansing of it after its Gentile defilement under Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Mac 10:5). Jesus now cleanses the Temple in a different way: expelling the buyers and sellers from the court of the Gentiles. (We Gentiles remember that for him!) The story of his cleansing of the Temple is sandwiched between two halves of the story of the barren fig-tree. The significance is this: like the fig-tree, which is all leaves and no fruit, the Temple worship is more show than reality. He never said, By their leaves you shall know them!
The gospel of today speaks of several things: the temple as a place of worship and prayer, not of business, and the need for faith, prayer, and forgiveness. And we must bear fruit. Let us also drive out of our lives what does not belong there, so that we can serve God better.
Opening Prayer
Holy God,
We often turn our hearts
into houses of pride and greed
rather than into homes of love and goodness
where you can feel at home.
Destroy the temple of sin in us,
drive out all evil from our hearts
and make us living stones of a community
in which can live and reign
Your Son Jesus Christ,
our living Lord forever and ever.
First Reading
The end of all things is near; keep your minds calm and sober through prayer.
Above all, let your love for one another be genuine, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Welcome one another into your homes without complaining.
Serve one another with the gifts each of you has received, thereby becoming good stewards of God’s varied grace.
If you speak, do so as one delivering God’s word; if you have a special gift or ministry, let it be seen as God’s power so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belongs glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
My dear people, do not be surprised at the testing by fire, which is happening among you, as if something strange were happening.
Instead, you should be glad to share in the sufferings of Christ because, on the day his glory is revealed, you will also rejoice fully.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (13b) The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He has made the world firm, not to be moved;
he governs the peoples with equity.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I chose you from the world,
to go and bear fruit that will last, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
So Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. After he looked around, and since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
Curses the Fig Tree
The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, he felt hungry.
In the distance, he saw a fig tree covered with leaves, so he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it wasn’t the season for figs.
Then Jesus said to the fig tree:
“May no one ever eat your fruit!”
And his disciples heard these words.
Cleanses the Temple
When they arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus went to the temple and started to drive out everyone buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the stalls of those selling pigeons.
And he refused to let anyone carry anything through the temple area.
Jesus then taught the people:
“Does not God say in the Scriptures: My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard about this, and they tried to find a way to destroy him. They were afraid of him because everyone was amazed by his teaching.
When evening arrived, Jesus departed from the city.
The Dry Fig Tree
Early the next morning, as they walked along the road, the disciples saw that the fig tree had withered to its roots.
Peter then said to him:
“Master, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered.”
And Jesus answered:
“Have faith in God.
Truly, I say to you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will happen, it will be done for you.
Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
And when you stand to pray, if you have anything against anyone, forgive,
so that your heavenly Father may also forgive your sins.”
Prayers of the Faithful
– That the Church may examine itself regularly how it could serve God and the people of God better and let God purify it to make it more faithful to the gospel, we pray:
– That we may cleanse the temple of our hearts by asking forgiveness from the Lord for our wrongs, we pray:
– That, like good fruit trees, we may bear fruit by not merely avoiding evil but doing deeds of mercy and love, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord God, our Father,
with the bread of life
and the wine of joy of himself
your Son will renew the covenant with us.
Let Jesus give us the will and the love
to be faithful to its demands
the way he was faithful to it,
even if it meant the cross.
For we wish to give you true worship
with and through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Our faithful God,
You have given us in this eucharist
Your Son Jesus Christ
to show us what loyal obedience means.
Let your Son be alive in us,
so that our Christian community may be
the temple in which he lives
and where he gathers us together
as his brothers and sisters.
Keep us from all formalism,
that we may worship you with our lives
and bear fruit that lasts.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Blessing
We must worship God in spirit and in truth, so that our lives correspond to what we believe in and that we serve God and people. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
1 Peter 4:7-13
Mark 11:11-26
By Rolnd J. Faley
One thing emerges clearly in today’s Gospel. Jesus was displeased with the manner in which temple ritual was being observed. It was a question of too much “fluff’ and not enough substance. The cornerstone of all worship offered to God is faith, and it can easily happen that in caring about secondary features of cult we can lose sight of what is truly essential.
The letter of Peter today highlights some of the primary manifestations of faith. Within the community, faith must mean above all “love for one another.” Love is shown in various ways. Hospitality without complaint and placing our gifts and talents at the service of one another, speaking in God’s name and acting with God’s strength. When called to endure suffering we are to unite our hardship with the suffering of Christ. In short, in all that we do, God is glorified.
What we are speaking of here is a manner of living. It does not mean that we consciously spiritualize everything we do throughout the day. But it does mean that we so thoroughly incorporate the Gospel values into our daily actions that we strive to do what is right as a matter of course.
The tree in today’s Gospel was filled with foliage but nothing more—it had the appearance of life but was not nourishing. As regular churchgoers, we sometimes settle for the externals, the beautiful “foliage” of religious observation that is barren of true spiritual fruit. That is why it is so important to keep our spiritual life before our eyes. Today’s readings touch on the heart of our faith. They raise questions that we should certainly heed.
Concern with externals
Faith and charity in our lives
Acting with faith reflexively
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Mark 11:11-26
Throw away the mountains of rigidity
Mark presents two stories to convey the dryness and barrenness of the people of Israel's religiosity; these signs signal the chosen people's infidelity to their God. The fig tree that had no fruit when Jesus "felt hungry",; and the expulsion of the businesspeople from the temple - both signs highlight the lack of faith among the chosen ones.
The Prophets of the Old Testament had already denounced such "empty" and barren cult of “people honouring God with their lips but their heart is far from Jesus ." The fig tree with full leaves symbolises the Jewish religion. It looked so lively and in good shape, but it had no fruit! Mark is trying to present the state of religion at the time – it appeared full of life and thriving, like the green fig tree, but a closer look reveals it is barren! And Jesus even "curses" the fig tree to express the radical dryness and sterility of these chosen people.
Saint John says: “whoever says that he loves God and does not keep his commandments is a liar”; St. Matthew would remind us: “by their works you will know them; a good tree does not bear bad fruit ”. A religion is useless if it has only prayers, devotions, religious associations and apostolic movements, but they do not contribute to solving the problems of the poor and marginalised.
It is not enough either to give bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked, but we should also care for the dignity of these people. Jesus’ disruption of the temple's regular activities was deliberately provocative. He took on the priestly establishment right at their seat of power. His actions were not directed particularly against crooked dealings, but at the essential requirements for any worship in the temple
By splitting Jesus's comments on the fig tree and placing them before and after the cleansing of the temple, Mark intended his readers to see the fate of the fig tree as shedding light on the meaning of his actions in the temple.
“Should people say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea, it would happen.’ The mountain to which Jesus was referring was about the whole religious, social and cultural system centred on the temple. The previous day, Jesus had symbolically halted the temple's activities. Now he was referring to the overthrow of the whole system. The system had been cursed and had withered radically to its roots. For all its outward show, it had failed to produce fruit, the fruit of genuine inclusiveness.