23 May 2024 – Thursday of Week 7

23 May 2024 – Thursday of Week 7

1st Reading: James 5:1-6

Those who get rich by injustice will suffer at the judgment

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

Responsorial: Psalm 49

R./: Happy are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs

This is the way of those whose trust is folly,
the end of those contented with their lot:
Like sheep they are herded into the nether world;
death is their shepherd and the upright rule over them. (R./)

Quickly their form is consumed;
the nether world is their palace.
But God will redeem me
from the power of the nether world by receiving me. (R./)

Fear not when a man grows rich,
when the wealth of his house becomes great,
For when he dies, he shall take none of it;
his wealth shall not follow him down. (R./)

Though in his lifetime he counted himself blessed,
They will praise you for doing well for yourself,
He shall join the circle of his forebears
who shall never more see light. (R./)

Gospel: Mark 9:41-50

A drink of water given to a follower of Christ will be rewarded

Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.”

“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Sharing and the hereafter

Our Gospel today began with a lovely promise about how acts of kindess will be well rewarded… but then it descends into rather grim warnings against scandal. Its lurid statements can’t be taken literally, for in no way does Jesus want us to disfigure ourselves, cut off a hand or gouge out an eye. He wants to emphasise the primacy of the eternal over the temporal, of heavenly over earthly life. It’s like a re-statement of his principle that “Whoever would save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake and the gospels’ will save it” (Mk 8:35).

Perhaps he means something like this: If we use our hands, feet, eyes and our other faculties exclusively to serve ourselve and never for serving others, there is no reward for us in the end. But if we give ourselves generously now, our eternal future is assured. Life is for sharing what is ours and forming bonds with others. In such a lifestyle, even small acts of helpfulness have special meaning: “Anyone who gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ will not go unrewarded.”

The Epistle of James puts this differently, but even more sharply. An acquisitive, profit-centred life, uncaring of other people’s needs, will turn against us: “Your wealth will rot, your fine wardrobe will grow moth-eaten, your gold and silver will corrode. All these will devour your flesh like a fire.” James is robust and outspoken on social justice, convinced that God does not forget the helpless of whom others take advantage, and that the cries of the defenceless “reach the ears of the Lord.”