First Reading

Letter to the Hebrews 8: 6-13

He is mediator of a better covenant.

Brothers and sisters:
Now our high priest has obtained so much more excellent a ministry
as he is mediator of a better covenant,
enacted on better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless,
no place would have been sought for a second one.
But he finds fault with them and says:

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of
Israel and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers
the day I took them by the hand to lead
them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they did not stand by my covenant
and I ignored them, says the Lord.
But this is the covenant I will establish with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds
and I will write them upon their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
And they shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen and kin, saying,
“Know the Lord,”
for all shall know me, from least to greatest.
For I will forgive their evildoing
and remember their sins no more.

When he speaks of a “new” covenant,
he declares the first one obsolete.
And what has become obsolete
and has grown old is close to disappearing.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 85: 8 and 10, 11-12, 13-14

Kindness and truth shall meet.

Show us, O LORD, your mercy,
and grant us your salvation.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.

Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.

The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and salvation, along the way of his steps.

Gospel

Alleluia. Alleluia.

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3: 13-19

Jesus summoned those whom he wanted to be with him.

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted
and they came to him.
He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles,
that they might be with him
and he might send them forth to preach
and to have authority to drive out demons:
He appointed the Twelve:
Simon, whom he named Peter;
James, son of Zebedee,
and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges,
that is, sons of thunder;
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus;
Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,
and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Letter to the Hebrews 7: 25 — 8: 6

He offered sacrifices when he offered up himself.

Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.

It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.

The main point of what has been said is this:
we have such a high priest,
who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne
of the Majesty in heaven, a minister of the sanctuary
and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up.
Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices;
thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer.
If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest,
since there are those who offer gifts according to the law.
They worship in a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary,
as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tabernacle.
For God says,

“See that you make everything
according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry
as he is mediator of a better covenant,
enacted on better promises.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 40: 7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17

Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”

“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”

I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.

May all who seek you
exult and be glad in you,
And may those who love your salvation
say ever, “The LORD be glorified.”

Gospel

Alleluia. Alleluia.

Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3: 7-12

The unclean spirits cried out, “You are the Son of God”. And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout,

“You are the Son of God.”

He warned them sternly not to make him known.

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Letter to the Hebrews 7: 1-3, 15-17

You are a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High,
met Abraham as he returned from his defeat of the kings
and blessed him.
And Abraham apportioned to him a tenth of everything.
His name first means righteous king,
and he was also "king of Salem," that is, king of peace.
Without father, mother, or ancestry,
without beginning of days or end of life,
thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

It is even more obvious if another priest is raised up
after the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become so,
not by a law expressed in a commandment concerning physical descent
but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed.
For it is testified:

You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 110: 1, 2, 3, 4

You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.

The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
till I make your enemies your footstool.”

The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from Zion:
“Rule in the midst of your enemies.”

“Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you.”

The LORD has sworn, and he will not repent:
“You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Gospel

Alleluia. Alleluia.

Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3: 1-6

Is it lawful on the sabbath to save life or to kill?

Jesus entered the synagogue.
There was a man there who had a withered hand.
They watched Jesus closely
to see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so that they might accuse him.
He said to the man with the withered hand,

“Come up here before us.”

Then he said to the Pharisees,

“Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?”

But they remained silent.
Looking around at them with anger
and grieved at their hardness of heart,
Jesus said to the man,

“Stretch out your hand.”

He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel
with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

— The Gospel of the Lord.