Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 21, 2024 – Liturgical Calendar

MASS LECTURES

July 21, 2024 (Lectures on the USCCB website)

COLLECTING PRAYER

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Show mercy, O Lord, to your servants and graciously increase the gifts of your grace, that they, being fervent in hope and faith and love, may always be watchful in keeping your commandments. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.

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And they went away in a boat apart into a desert place. And many saw them going, and knew them, and ran thither out of every city, and arrived before they. And when he came to land, he saw a great multitude, and had compassion on them, because they were as sheep having no shepherd. And he began to teach them many things (Mk 6:32-34).

The current optional commemoration of St. Lawrence of Brindisi is replaced by the Sunday liturgy.

Commentary on the Readings of the Sunday Mass for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B:

The First reading comes from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah 23:1-6. In these seven verses Jeremiah issues terrible threats against the shepherds, the leaders of the people of Judah. Their neglect of the flock entrusted to their care and their neglect of God brought exile upon their people. God would avenge his people, bring back the “remnant” of his flock and appoint trustworthy shepherds over them.

The Second reading is of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians 2:13-18Paul reminds his converts in Ephesus that Christ has brought unity of brotherhood among Jews and Gentiles.

The Gospel is of Mark 6:30-34. In these few verses St. Mark brings out very strongly the compassion, the human understanding of Jesus for man. He planned first to give his apostles a well-earned rest. They had clearly worked hard during their mission and a few days rest would restore their lost energy. He himself must have had a hard time, preaching and dealing with the crowds. In the absence of the apostles he had no one to help him – he too needed rest. He therefore planned that he and they would go to a quiet corner of the Sea of Galilee where there was no village and where they would therefore not be disturbed.

The desire of the crowd to see him and hear him speak, however, disrupted these plans. The people arrived first at the quiet place. There they waited when the boat came to shore. He could have sent them away, but again his human compassion took over. When he saw that these simple people of Galilee were so eager to hear of God and his mercy, he allowed them to remain and began to preach to them the good news of forgiveness and hope. For the most part they were simple, uneducated villagers, shepherds and fishermen. They knew a little about the law of Moses, but only a little. There was no one to teach them except the local rabbi, and the local rabbis at that time were not very educated. The lawyers, the great theologians, were all in Jerusalem, where they received the respect and financial reward that they felt they deserved. Therefore the people of the land were more or less forgotten and neglected. They were, as our Lord described them, “like sheep without a shepherd,” wandering half lost.

However, they were certainly fortunate in finding the true Shepherd who would lead them to eternal pastures. He would not only sacrifice his rest now to help them, but he would later give his life for them and for all of us. We, like those poor people of Galilee, have so much to be thankful for. The merciful Christ also had pity on us and took us into his fold. He knows all our weaknesses and all our human frailties and he is always ready to have pity on us and forgive us. Those people of Galilee were not saints, they were ordinary, average, not overly religious people. They deceived one another; they were often unmerciful to one another; they were not always chaste and pure; they prayed very little and perhaps only when they wanted material advantage. Yet our Lord had pity on them.

This should give us great confidence and encouragement. Christ has not changed: He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has the same compassion for us as for those Galileans; we too are often like sheep without a shepherd, half lost in life. He is constantly calling us to come to Himself, so that He will lead us to safe pastures. If only we would listen to His merciful call! Today’s Gospel is such a call – it goes out to every member of this Church who has been lax in his or her religious life up to now. Christ wants us to get back on the high road to heaven. All we have to do is break with the past, with the earthly things that have kept us from God. We can set out as free people to follow Christ. He has left to His Church the holy sacrament of Penance in which He guarantees us full and complete forgiveness of all past sins if we confess them with true sorrow. Let us not think that our sins are too great to be forgiven, that Christ could not have compassion on us because of our terrible past. We can remember those Galileans; many of them were sinners like us, and He had compassion on them. He came to call sinners, He tells us. Let us heed His call today—tomorrow it may be too late.

—Excerpt from The Sunday Readings by Father Kevin O’Sullivan, OFM