August 26, 2021, Thursday
Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Green)
CYCLE B - YEAR I
Lectionary: 428
Reading I
1 Thes 3:7-13
in our every distress and affliction, through your faith.
For we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you,
for all the joy we feel on your account before our God?
Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person
and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith.
Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus
direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase
and abound in love for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.
Responsorial Psalm
90:3-5a, 12-13, 14 and 17
R. (14) Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Alleluia
Mt 24:42a, 44
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
For you do not know when the Son of Man will come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GOSPEL
Mt 24:42-51
“Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
REFLECTION:
We face an ongoing temptation to jog along in the present, as if there were no significant changes to be made in our lifestyles. We can get comfortable about the way things are, or upset and cynical about the poor state of the world, but do we do anything to make it better? Jesus urges us to take the longer view; to believe that God is in charge of human history and wants us to play our part in bringing it to completion. We are to be ‘faithful and wise’ and live as if the Son of Man were just about to come.
PRAYER:
‘Every moment and every event in every person’s life plants something in their soul.’ Lord, You are busily at work in my life, so help me catch on and respond. Amen.
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