May 24 2021 Eight Week in Ordinary Time
May 24 2021
Eight Week in Ordinary Time
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
1st Reading: Genesis 3:9-15,201
The Mother of all those who live
After Adam had eaten of the tree the Lord God called to him. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’
Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,
‘Be accursed beyond all cattle,
all wild beasts.
You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust
every day of your life.
I will make you enemies of each other:
you and the woman,
your offspring and her offspring.
It will crush your head
and you will strike its heel.’
The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live.
Responsorial: Psalm 87:1-2, 3. 5-7
R./: Of you are told glorious things, O city of God!
On the holy mountain is his city
cherished by the Lord.
The Lord prefers the gates of Zion
to all Jacob’s dwellings. (R./)
Of you are told glorious things,
O city of God!
‘Zion shall be called “Mother”
for all shall be her children.’ (R./)
It is he, the Lord Most High,
who gives each his place.
In his register of peoples he writes:
‘These are her children,’
and while they dance they will sing:
‘In you all find their home.'(R./)
Gospel: John 19:25-34
‘Behold your son. Behold your mother.’
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.
After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed, and to fulfil the scripture perfectly he said, ‘I am thirsty.’
A jar full of vinegar stood there, so putting a sponge soaked in the vinegar on a hyssop stick they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the vinegar he said, ‘It is accomplished’; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
It was Preparation Day, and to prevent the bodies remaining on the cross during the sabbath – since that sabbath was a day of special solemnity – the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they found he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water.
Why is that First Reading from Genesis included in the Lectionary? If I were a man, I would be incensed by such a representation of MAN kind. What self-respecting male is happy to see his kind being portrayed as somewhat pathetic, weak-willed and irresponsible, always looking for someone else to take the blame?
I don’t need to mention what attitudes and behaviour towards women have been excused and justified by literal interpretations of that particular Reading – enough others have done so down the years.
But really, guys, surely a Reading which shows YOU in a better light could be found on a day when Mary is to be honoured as Mother of the Church?