Mass Readings for January 15, 2024

1 Samuel 15:16-23
Psalms 50:8-9,16-17,21,23
Mark 2:18-22

1 Samuel 15:16-23
(16) Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what Yahweh said to me last night.” He said to him, “Say on.” (17) Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel; (18) and Yahweh sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ (19) Why then didn’t you obey Yahweh’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight?” (20) Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed Yahweh’s voice, and have gone the way which Yahweh sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. (21) But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal.” (22) Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. (23) For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected Yahweh’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”

Psalms 50:8-9,16-17,21,23
(8) I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. (9) I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens. (16) But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips, (17) since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you? (21) You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes. (23) Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”

Mark 2:18-22
(18) John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” (19) Jesus said to them, “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast. (20) But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day. (21) No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made. (22) No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.”