First Reading

Book of Tobit (Tb 11: 5-17)

God was scourged me, but behold that I see my son.

Anna sat watching the road by which her son was to come.
When she saw him coming, she exclaimed to his father,

“Tobit, your son is coming, and the man who traveled with him!”

Raphael said to Tobiah before he reached his father:

“I am certain that his eyes will be opened.
Smear the fish gall on them.
This medicine will make the cataracts shrink and peel off from his eyes;
then your father will again be able to see the light of day.”

Then Anna ran up to her son, threw her arms around him,
and said to him,

“Now that I have seen you again, son, I am ready to die!”

And she sobbed aloud.

Tobit got up and stumbled out through the courtyard gate.
Tobiah went up to him with the fish gall in his hand,
and holding him firmly, blew into his eyes.

“Courage, father,“ he said.

Next he smeared the medicine on his eyes, and it made them smart.
Then, beginning at the corners of Tobit’s eyes,
Tobiah used both hands to peel off the cataracts.

When Tobit saw his son, he threw his arms around him and wept.
He exclaimed,

“I can see you, son, the light of my eyes!”

Then he said:

“Blessed be God,
and praised be his great name,
and blessed be all his holy angels.
May his holy name be praised
throughout all the ages,
Because it was he who scourged me,
and it is he who has had mercy on me.
Behold, I now see my son Tobiah!”

Then Tobit went back in, rejoicing and praising God with full voice
for everything that had happened.
Tobiah told his father that
the Lord God had granted him a successful journey;
that he had brought back the money;
and that he had married Raguel’s daughter Sarah,
who would arrive shortly,
for she was approaching the gate of Nineveh.

Tobit and Anna rejoiced
and went out to the gate of Nineveh
to meet their daughter-in-law.
When the people of Nineveh saw Tobit walking along briskly,
with no one leading him by the hand, they were amazed.
Before them all Tobit proclaimed
how God had mercifully restored sight to his eyes.
When Tobit reached Sarah, the wife of his son Tobiah,
he greeted her:

“Welcome, my daughter!
Blessed be your God for bringing you to us, daughter!
Blessed is your father, and blessed is my son Tobiah,
and blessed are you, daughter!
Welcome to your home with blessing and joy.
Come in, daughter!”

That day there was joy for all the Jews who lived in Nineveh.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 146: 1b-2, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

Praise the Lord, my soul!

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.

The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.

The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.

The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts
The LORD shall reign forever,
your God, O Zion, through all generations! Alleluia.

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him
and we will come to him.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint (Mk 12: 35-37)

How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?

As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,

“How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?
David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:

The Lord said to my lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I place your enemies under your feet.’

David himself calls him ‘lord’;
so how is he his son?”

The great crowd heard this with delight.

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Book of Tobit (Tb 6: 10-11 ; 7: 1bcde, 9-17 ; 8: 4-9a)

Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a old age.

When the angel Raphael and Tobiah had entered Media
and were getting close to Ecbatana,
Raphael said to the boy,

“Tobiah, my brother!”

He replied:

“Here I am!”

He said:

“Tonight we must stay with Raguel, who is a relative of yours.
He has a daughter named Sarah.”

So he brought him to the house of Raguel,
whom they found seated by his courtyard gate.
They greeted him first.
He said to them,

“Greetings to you too, brothers!
Good health to you, and welcome!”

And he brought them into his home.

Raguel slaughtered a ram from the flock
and gave them a cordial reception.
When they had bathed and reclined to eat, Tobiah said to Raphael,

“Brother Azariah, ask Raguel to let me marry
my kinswoman Sarah.”

Raguel overheard the words; so he said to the boy:

“Eat and drink and be merry tonight,
for no man is more entitled
to marry my daughter Sarah than you, brother.
Besides, not even I have the right to give her to anyone but you,
because you are my closest relative.
But I will explain the situation to you very frankly.
I have given her in marriage to seven men,
all of whom were kinsmen of ours,
and all died on the very night they approached her.
But now, son, eat and drink.
I am sure the Lord will look after you both.”

Tobiah answered,

“I will eat or drink nothing until you set aside what belongs to me.”

Raguel said to him:

“I will do it.
She is yours according to the decree of the Book of Moses.
Your marriage to her has been decided in heaven!
Take your kinswoman;
from now on you are her love, and she is your beloved.
She is yours today and ever after.
And tonight, son, may the Lord of heaven prosper you both.
May he grant you mercy and peace.”

Then Raguel called his daughter Sarah, and she came to him.
He took her by the hand and gave her to Tobiah with the words:

“Take her according to the law.
According to the decree written in the Book of Moses
she is your wife.
Take her and bring her back safely to your father.
And may the God of heaven grant both of you peace and prosperity.”

Raguel then called Sarah’s mother and told her to bring a scroll,
so that he might draw up a marriage contract
stating that he gave Sarah to Tobiah as his wife
according to the decree of the Mosaic law.
Her mother brought the scroll,
and Raguel drew up the contract, to which they affixed their seals.

Afterward they began to eat and drink.
Later Raguel called his wife Edna and said,

“My love, prepare the other bedroom and bring the girl there.”

She went and made the bed in the room, as she was told,
and brought the girl there.
After she had cried over her, she wiped away the tears and said:

“Be brave, my daughter.
May the Lord grant you joy in place of your grief.
Courage, my daughter.”

Then she left.

When the girl’s parents left the bedroom
and closed the door behind them,
Tobiah arose from bed and said to his wife,

“My love, get up.
Let us pray and beg our Lord to have mercy on us
and to grant us deliverance.”

She got up, and they started to pray
and beg that deliverance might be theirs.
And they began to say:

“Blessed are you, O God of our fathers,
praised be your name forever and ever.
Let the heavens and all your creation
praise you forever.
You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve
to be his help and support;
and from these two the human race descended.
You said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone;
let us make him a partner like himself.’
Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine
not because of lust,
but for a noble purpose.
Call down your mercy on me and on her,
and allow us to live together to a happy old age.”

They said together,

“Amen, amen,”

and went to bed for the night.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 128: 1-2, 3, 4-5

Blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
Blessed shall you be, and favored.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.

Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

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

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark (Mk 12: 28-34)

There is no other commandment greater than these.

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,

“Which is the first of all the commandments?”

Jesus replied,

“The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”

The scribe said to him,

“Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,

“You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

— The Gospel of the Lord.