Sunday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time
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Mass Readings
First Reading – Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning their elders, their leaders, their judges, and their officers. When they stood in ranks before God, Joshua addressed all the people: “If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” But the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD for the service of other gods. For it was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. He performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21 (R.9a)
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad. R.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth. R.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. R.
Many are the troubles of the just one,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him;
he watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken. R.
Second Reading – Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32
Brothers and sisters: Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
Gospel – Jn 6:63c, 68c
Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Featured Saints
St. Louis, King of France (†1270 Tunis – Tunisia). Son of Blanche of Castile, he magnificently fulfilled the role of a Christian king, and raised his eleven children in the Faith. As monarch, he defended the Church, upheld justice, loved the poor and practised heroic virtue under the most trying circumstances. Friend of the Dominican Friar Thomas Aquinas. He built the famous Sainte Chapelle to receive the relic of the crown of thorns. During the Crusades, in Tunis, he contracted the plague and died there.
Blessed Mary of the Assumption and Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, virgin (†1885). She founded the Congregation of Tertiary Franciscan Missionary Sisters in Cordoba, Argentina.
St. Joseph Calasanz, priest (†1648 Rome). Founder of the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God and the Religious Schools, patiently facing the most onerous obstacles and the most painful misjudgements in the realization of his vocation.
St. Severus, abbot (†fifth century). Wisely governed the monastery he founded in Agde, France.
Blessed Maria Troncatti, virgin (†1969). Daughter of Our Lady Help of Christians who carried out a long and generous apostolate among the Shuar, or Jibaro people of Ecuador.
St. Aredius, abbot (†591). Founded the monastery of Attanum, near Limoges, France, where he was abbot. He made many journeys to Gaul to spread the Gospel.
St. Gregory of Utrecht, abbot (†775). Disciple of St. Boniface who accompanied him in the evangelization of Germany, and was appointed by him as abbot of the Monastery of St. Martin in Utrecht.
St. Thomas of Hereford, bishop (†1282). Son of an English Baron, he taught Canon Law in Oxford and served as Lord Chancellor of England before being ordained Bishop of Hereford. Noted for his charity towards the poor and his personal austerity and abnegation.
St. Menas of Constantinople, bishop (†552). As Patriarch of Constantinople, he strove to reverse the harm done by the Monophysite heresy and to re-establish religious peace in the Middle East.
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