Truesday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING
“Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness.”
A reading from the Book of Genesis (Genesis 1:20-2:4a)

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures,
and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.”
So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves,
with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds,
and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas,
and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning,
a fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures
according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth
according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth
according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds,
and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man
in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them, and he said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply,
and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit;
you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air,
and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life,
I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything
that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening
and there was morning, a sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,
and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done,
and he rested on the seventh day from till his work which he had done.
So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work
which he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens
and the earth when they were created.

The word of the Lord.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 8:4-5.6-7a.7b-9 (R. 2ab)
R/. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name through all the earth!

When I see the heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you arranged,
what is man that you should keep him in mind,
the son of man that you care for him? R/.

Yet you have made him little lower than the angels;
with glory and honour you crowned him,
gave him power over the works of your hands. R/.

R/. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name through all the earth!

You put all things under his feet,
all of them, sheep and oxen,
yes, even the cattle of the fields,
birds of the air, and fish of the sea
that make their way through the waters. R/.

ALLELUIA Psalm 119:36a.29b
Alleluia.

Bend my heart, O God, to your decrees, grant me mercy by your law.

Alleluia.

GOSPEL
“You leave the commandment of God, and holdfast the tradition of men. ”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mark 7:1-13)

At that time: When the Pharisees gathered together to Jesus, with some of the scribes,
who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled,
that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands,
observing the tradition of the elders; and when they come from the market place,
they do not eat unless they purify themselves ; there are many other traditions which they
observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.) And the Pharisees
and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the
elders, but eat with hands defiled?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you
hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. ’ You leave the
commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.” And he said to them,
“You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!
For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother’; and ‘He who speaks evil of father
or mother, let him surely die’; but you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother,
What you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God) —
then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on.
And many such things you do.”

The Gospel of the Lord.