Daily Mass Readings for February 04, 2024: Gospel — Mc 1, 29-39

¹ “Does not humanity have hard service on earth? Are not their days also like the days of a hired man? ² Like a servant longing for the evening shadow, and like a hired man looking for his wages, ³ thus I have been made to inherit months of futility, and nights of sorrow have been appointed to me. ⁴ If I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise?’ And the night stretches on, and I toss and turn restlessly until the day dawns. 6 :¹ Then Job responded: ² “Oh, if only my grief could be weighed, and my misfortune laid on the scales too! ³ But because it is heavier than the sand of the sea, that is why my words have been wild. ⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; my spirit drinks their poison; God’s sudden terrors are arrayed against me. ⁵ “Does the wild donkey bray when it is near grass? Or does the ox bellow over its fodder? ⁶ Can food that is tasteless be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? ⁷ I have refused to touch such things; they are like loathsome food to me. ⁸ “Oh that my request would be realized, and that God would grant me what I long for! ⁹ And that God would be willing to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and kill me. 1 ⁰ Then I would yet have my comfort, then I would rejoice, in spite of pitiless pain, for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. 1 ¹ What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should prolong my life? 1 ² Is my strength like that of stones? Or is my flesh made of bronze? 1 ³ Is not my power to help myself nothing, and has not every resource been driven from me? 1 ⁴ “To the one in despair, kindness should come from his friend even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 1 ⁵ My brothers have been as treacherous as a seasonal stream, and as the riverbeds of the intermittent streams that flow away. 1 ⁶ They are dark because of ice; snow is piled up over them. 1 ⁷ When they are scorched, they dry up, when it is hot, they vanish from their place. 1 ⁸ Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish. 1 ⁹ The caravans of Tema looked intently for these streams; the traveling merchants of Sheba hoped for them. 2 ⁰ They were distressed because each one had been so confident; they arrived there, but were disappointed. 2 ¹ For now you have become like these streams that are no help; you see a terror and are afraid. 2 ² “Have I ever said, ‘Give me something, and from your fortune make gifts in my favor’? 2 ³ Or, ‘Deliver me from the enemy’s power, and from the hand of tyrants ransom me’? 2 ⁴ “Teach me, and I, for my part, will be silent; explain to me how I have been mistaken. 2 ⁵ How painful are honest words! But what does your reproof prove? 2 ⁶ Do you intend to criticize mere words, and treat the words of a despairing man as wind? 2 ⁷ Yes, you would gamble for the fatherless, and auction off your friend. 2 ⁸ “Now then, be good enough to look at me; and I will not lie to your face! 2 ⁹ Relent, let there be no falsehood; reconsider, for my righteousness is intact! 3 ⁰ Is there any falsehood on my lips? Can my mouth not discern evil things? 7 :⁵ My body is clothed with worms and dirty scabs; my skin is broken and festering. ⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. ⁷ Remember that my life is but a breath, that my eyes will never again see happiness. ⁸ The eye of him who sees me now will see me no more; your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone. ⁹ As a cloud is dispersed and then disappears, so the one who goes down to the grave does not come up again. 1 ⁰ He returns no more to his house, nor does his place of residence know him anymore. 1 ¹ “Therefore, I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 1 ² Am I the sea, or the creature of the deep, that you must put me under guard? 1 ³ If I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ 1 ⁴ then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, 1 ⁵ so that I would prefer strangling and death more than life. 1 ⁶ I loathe it; I do not want to live forever; leave me alone, for my days are a vapor! 1 ⁷ “What is mankind that you make so much of them, and that you pay attention to them? 1 ⁸ And that you visit them every morning, and try them every moment? 1 ⁹ Will you never look away from me, will you not let me alone long enough to swallow my spittle? 2 ⁰ If I have sinned—what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you set me as your target? Have I become a burden to you? 2 ¹ And why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, and you will seek me diligently, but I will be gone.”

1 ⁶ For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason for boasting, because I am compelled to do this. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 1 ⁷ For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward. But if I do it unwillingly, I am entrusted with a responsibility. 1 ⁸ What then is my reward? That when I preach the gospel I may offer the gospel free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights in the gospel. 1 ⁹ For since I am free from all I can make myself a slave to all, in order to gain even more people. 1 :¹ From Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, ² to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. ³ Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! ⁴ I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus. ⁵ For you were made rich in every way in him, in all your speech and in every kind of knowledge— ⁶ just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed among you— ⁷ so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 ⁰ I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree together, to end your divisions, and to be united by the same mind and purpose. 1 ¹ For members of Chloe’s household have made it clear to me, my brothers and sisters, that there are quarrels among you. 1 ² Now I mean this, that each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.” 1 ³ Is Christ divided? Paul wasn’t crucified for you, was he? Or were you in fact baptized in the name of Paul? 1 ⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 1 ⁵ so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name! 1 ⁶ (I also baptized the household of Stephanus. Otherwise, I do not remember whether I baptized anyone else.) 1 ⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—and not with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless. 1 ⁸ For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 ⁹ For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.” 2 ⁰ Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish? 2 ¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching. 2 ² For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom, 2 ³ but we preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 2 ⁴ But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 2 ⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 2 ⁶ Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. 2 ⁷ But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. 2 ⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, 2 ⁹ so that no one can boast in his presence. 3 ⁰ He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 3 ¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”