Friends, all three readings for this weekend center around a theme that was very familiar to the ancient audiences who first took them in but that is rather alien to us. I’m talking about the theme of substitutionary sacrifice. A very basic problem that we have when we seek to understand this idea is that we are marked, through and through, by a strong individualism: everyone acts and speaks for himself and takes responsibility for his own actions. But ancient people lived within a far more collective or corporate consciousness.

Mass Readings

Reading 1 – Isaiah 53:10-11
Psalm – Psalm 33:4-22
Reading 2 – Hebrews 4:14-16
Gospel – Mark 10:35-45