First Reading
Isaia 50:
4-9a
The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may
know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens— wakens
my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was
not rebellious, I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who
struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my
face from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore
I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he
who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare
me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
Psalm 116
1I love
the Lord, because he has
heard my voice and my supplications.
2Because
he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3The
snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol
laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
4Then I
called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, save my
life!”
5Gracious
is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6The Lord protects the simple; when I
was brought low, he saved me.
7Return,
O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has
dealt bountifully with you.
8For you
have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my
feet from stumbling.
9I walk
before the Lord in the
land of the living.
Second Reading
James 3: 1-12
3Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters,
for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.2For all
of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect,
able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3If we
put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole
bodies. 4Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong
winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the
will of the pilot directs. 5So also
the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a
forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6And the
tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of
iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is
itself set on fire by hell. 7For
every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and
has been tamed by the human species, 8but no
one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it
we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the
likeness of God.10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and
sisters, this ought not to be so. 11Does a
spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12Can a
fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more
can salt water yield fresh.
Gospel
Mark 8: 27-38
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea
Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And
they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one
of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter
answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to
tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo
great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the
scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this
quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But
turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind
me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human
things.”
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If
any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their
cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will
save it.For what will it profit them to gain the
whole world and forfeit their life?Indeed, what can
they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my
words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will
also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”