FIRST READNG
All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
A reading from the second Letter of Timothy (2 Timothy 3:10-17)
Beloved: You have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra what persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed all who desire to live godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the Sacred Writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The word of the Lord.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 119:157,160,161,165,166 ,and 168 (R. 165a)
R/. The lovers of your law have great peace, Lord.
Though my foes and oppressors are countless,
I have not swerved from your decrees. R.
Truth is the sum of your word;
All your just judgements are eternal. R.
Though princes oppress me without cause,
My heart reveres your word. R.
R/. The lovers of your law have great peace, Lord.
The lovers of your law have great peace;
No stumbling block for them. R.
I await your salvation, O Lord;
I fulfill your commands. R.
I obey your percepts and decrees;
All my ways are before you. R.
ALLELUIA John 14:23
Alleluia. If a man loves me, he will keep my word, says the Lord; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
“How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? ”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mark 12:35-37)
At that time: As Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put your enemies under your feet. ’ David himself calls him Lord; so how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.
The Gospel of the Lord
Today’s Reflection
Jesus, the son of David, is connected to human lineage and has his roots in the history of humanity. Any attempt to take him out of the realm of humanity will be wrong as that will result in rejecting the offer of God to reconcile the fallen world through his only Son. Jesus knows his Divine and human roots well. Jesus in today’s gospel, quoting Psalm 110, reiterates that he too has a part in human genealogy. Nothing in the Bible will make sense to us unless we understand Jesus as ‘the Word became flesh’ – that is, as God conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit and born into the royal lineage of King David. But even for David his son is also his Lord as Christ is the only begotten son of God and the Lord of the universe through whom the whole world was made.