OT08SUB
8th Sunday in Ordinary Time -B-
Mark 2:18-22: Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

Firstst Reading – Hosea 2:16-17:21-22

Therefore, I will allure her now; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak persuasively to her.

Then I will give her the vineyards she had, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as on the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

I will betroth you to me forever: I will betroth you to me with justice and with judgment, with loyalty and with compassion;

I will betroth you to me with fidelity, and you shall know the Lord.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalms 103:1-2, 3-4, 8-10, 12-13

R. The Lord is Compassionate and Gracious.

Bless the Lord, my soul;
all my being, bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, my soul;
and do not forget all his gifts,

R. The Lord is Compassionate and Gracious.

Who pardons all your sins,
and heals all your ills,
Who redeems your life from the pit,
and crowns you with mercy and compassion,

R. The Lord is Compassionate and Gracious.

Merciful and gracious is the Lord,
slow to anger, abounding in mercy.
He will not always accuse,
and nurses no lasting anger;
He has not dealt with us as our sins merit,
nor requited us as our wrongs deserve.

R. The Lord is Compassionate and Gracious.

As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our sins from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

R. The Lord is Compassionate and Gracious.

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, shown to be a letter of Christ administered by us, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.

Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.

Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualification comes from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

 

Gospel – Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to him and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.

Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”