05 June 2026 – Friday of Week 9
05 June 2026 – Friday of Week 9
Memorial: St Boniface, 673-754, born at Crediton, Devonshire, a missionary in Germany, founded monasteries in Bavaria, including Fulda in 735.
1st Reading: 2 Timothy 3:10-17
Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Wicked people and impostors, however, will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
Responsorial: Psalm 118:157, 160-161, 165-166, 168
R./: O Lord, great peace have they who love your law
Though my foes and oppressors are countless
I have not swerved from your will.
Your word is founded on truth:
your decrees are eternal. (R./)
Though princes oppress me without cause
I stand in awe of your word.
The lovers of your law have great peace;
they never stumble. (R./)
I await your saving help, O Lord,
I fulfil your commands.
I obey your precepts and your will;
all that I do is before you. (R./)
Gospel: Mark 12:35-37
Jesus explains that David was not the Messiah
While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, by the Holy Spirit, declared, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.’ David himself calls him Lord; so how can he be his son?” And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
Faith nurtured from childhood
Our formation comes first from home and then from our circle of teachers and friends, reinforced by our worship in church. Paul refers to this background when writing to Timothy, “From your infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures.” Earlier he praises the sincere faith of Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. A good and respectful home life prepared Timothy for his later apostolic ministry.
By contrast today’s gospel, the predominant sense is of regret. The scribes have turned the temple into a place for controversy. How easily this can happen if church people are more concerned with unanswerable questions rather than on the basic virtues of love, patience, forgiveness, generosity, and prayer.
Lord and Son – The scribes oppose Jesus for many reasons. But the main reason is that he teaches as though he were the Messiah, with the authority of God. How close they are to the truth! From the Scriptures, he argues that somehow the Messiah will be both son and Lord of David. He invites them to rise to the level of faith, as he had once said to his own mother – “I must be about my Father’s work” (Luke 2:49). Jesus was born as a human child, but by origin and mission he is the Lord, the Son of the Most High.