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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 122

Psalm 122^[a]

The Pilgrim’s Greeting to the Holy City

¹A song of ascents. Of David.

^[b]I rejoiced when they said to me,
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
²And finally our feet are standing
    at your gates, O Jerusalem.
³Jerusalem is built as a city
    that is firmly bound together^[c] in unity.
⁴There the tribes go up,
    the tribes of the Lord,
as it was decreed for Israel
    to celebrate the name of the Lord.^[d]
⁵For there the thrones of judgment^[e] were established,
    the thrones of the house of David.
⁶Pray for the peace^[f] of Jerusalem:
    “May those who love you rest secure.
⁷May there be peace within your walls
    and security in your palaces.”
⁸^[g]Out of love for my relatives and friends,
    I will say, “May peace be within you.”
⁹Out of love for the house of the Lord, our God,
    I will pray for your well-being.

Footnotes

Psalm 122:1 The pilgrims arrive where they can see Jerusalem, and their faces light up with joy, a joy that formed part of the Messianic hope. They come to a halt to admire the holy city restored by Nehemiah, and their remembrances sing in their heart: those of the gathering of the tribes at the Tent of Meeting (see Num 2:2) and of the happy era when David and Solomon ruled in their capital. The latter appeared to them as the symbol of unity and peace—“Shalom” signifies peace. In their desire for happiness, they already dream of the gathering together at some future time (see Isa 33:20; Zec 9:9ff).
One day Paul will speak of Christ present in his Church to reestablish the links of the human family (see Eph 2:19-22), and the visionary of Patmos will celebrate the definitively rediscovered unity in his marvelous description of a heavenly Jerusalem (see Rev 21:2—22:5). Hence, in praying this psalm, we as Christians must go beyond the original sense since we find ourselves drawn along by Christ in a spiritual pilgrimage that causes us to leave the world and enter ever further into the Church. It ultimately leads us from earth to heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Psalm 122:1 The trials of an expatriate (see Ps 120) and the hazards of travel (see Ps 121) are overshadowed now by the joy that had drawn the pilgrim to his journey. The doxology in Jude 24 is the Christian equivalent of this progress and arrival: “To him who is able to keep you from falling [see Ps 121] and to bring you safely to his glorious presence, unblemished and rejoicing [see Ps 122].” The house of the Lord: the temple (see 2 Sam 7:5, 13; 1 Ki 5:2, 4).
Psalm 122:3 That is firmly bound together: Jerusalem is the symbol of the unity of the chosen people and the figure of the unity of the Church (see Eph 2:20ff). Some versions have translated this as: “where its community is one.”
Psalm 122:4 This verse presupposes the Deuteronomic law concerning unity of sanctuary (see Deut 12; 16:16; 1 Ki 12:27). To celebrate the name of the Lord: because of God’s saving acts and blessings for his people.
Psalm 122:5 Jerusalem was both the religious center, symbolized by the “house of the Lord” (v. 1), and the political center, symbolized by the thrones of judgment. The kings of Judah ruled by God’s will and upheld his kingship to the extent that they dispensed justice, which was a feature of the Messianic Age (see Isa 9:7; 11:3-5).
Psalm 122:6 Peace: the customary greeting in Hebrew, shalom, which also includes the idea of happiness and prosperity.
Psalm 122:8 Jerusalem is transferred into an ideal, an eschatological expression of what God had planned for his people, and the psalmist prays for the fulfillment of God’s plan. What Jerusalem was to the Israelite, the Church is to the Christian.

Genesis 6:1-10

Death and Resurrection of God’s Work^[a]

Chapter 6

Widespread Perversion.^[b]¹When men began to multiply upon the earth, and they began to have daughters, ²the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married as many of them as they wanted. ³The Lord therefore said, “My spirit will not remain in them forever, for they are flesh and the length of their lives will be one hundred and twenty years.”

⁴There were giants upon the earth at this time, as well as afterward. They were the children of the sons of God who married the daughters of men. These were the heroes of times past, men of renown.

⁵The Lord saw that the wickedness of men upon the earth was great, and that every plan that their hearts conceived was nothing but evil. ⁶The Lord regretted that he had made man upon the earth and his heart was grieved. ⁷The Lord said, “I will obliterate man, whom I created, from the earth. Together with man I will eliminate all the cattle and reptiles and the birds of the air, for I regret having made them.” ⁸But Noah found favor with the Lord.

Salvation through the Righteous.^[c] ⁹This is the story of Noah. Noah was a just and blameless man at that time and he walked with God. ¹⁰Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Footnotes

Genesis 6:1 The entire biblical tradition presents the flood as an historical event (Wis 10:4; Sir 44:17-18; Mt 24:37-39; 1 Pet 3:20; etc.), but apart from popular texts no information was available for describing the material event.
It is from these popular texts that the external elements of the story come: the structure of the ark, the duration and extent of the flood, and so on, which are not part of the historico-religious message of the writer but serve in the composition of a vivid story. As a result, the Yahwist and Elohist traditions could differ in marginal aspects that are more picturesque in the one and more detailed in the other.
Humankind is renewed in the person of Noah. In the Christian tradition he is a figure of Christ, the one true righteous man, who remained untouched by the spread of sin and then, rising unharmed from death, became the source of resurrection for humankind.
Genesis 6:1 The passage is from the Yahwist tradition. The writer seems to be using two fragments of ancient popular traditions (vv. 1-2, 4). The striking element in this chapter is the fact that human beings have gone so far in personal disintegration that they are no longer capable of thinking anything but evil (v. 5), so that any hope of recovery is morally impossible.
The tragic anthropomorphism seen in the divine regret highlights the power of evil, which is capable of destroying the work of the Creator; but the annihilation planned is the decision of the supreme Good, which is always the sole judge of its own plans (see Jer 18:1-12) and cannot allow the definitive victory of evil.
Genesis 6:9 The first part of the following passage (6:9-22) is from the Priestly tradition and links up with the end of chapter 5. First, in three verses (6:11-13), it uses the language of corruption and violence to summarize the entire history of sin and the decree of condemnation, both of which have been described in a more diffuse way in the Yahwist tradition. This is followed by the order to build the ark, which is found only in the Priestly version, and finally the announcement of the flood with the command to enter the ark. This passage from the Priestly tradition is followed by a repetition of the command to enter the ark and of the announcement of the flood from the Yahwist tradition (7:1-5). Note the difference of the two traditions when it comes to the number of animals brought into the ark: the Yahwist account, more popular in character, presupposes that in those very ancient times a distinction was already made between clean and unclean animals, whereas in fact the distinction was of later origin and codified in the Mosaic Law.
The New Testament praises the faith of Noah (Heb 11:7) and speaks of the harm done his contemporaries by their unbelief, because they were unable to accept the impulse to conversion that came from him as he was building the ark (1 Pet 3:20).

Hebrews 11:1-7

The People of Faith^[a]

Chapter 11

What Faith Is. ¹Faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the conviction about things that cannot be seen.^[b] ²Indeed, it was because of it that our ancestors were commended.

³By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen came into being from the invisible.

The Faith of the Early Patriarchs.^[c] ⁴By faith Abel^[d] offered to God a better sacrifice than that of Cain. Because of this he was attested as righteous, God himself bearing witness to his gifts. Although he is dead, he continues to speak through it.

⁵By faith Enoch^[e] was taken up so that he did not see death. He was found no more, because God had taken him, and before he was taken up he was attested to have pleased God. ⁶But without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

⁷By faith Noah,^[f] having been warned by God about things not yet seen, took heed and built an ark to save his household. Through his faith he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that derives from faith.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 122[a]

The Pilgrim’s Greeting to the Holy City

Footnotes

Death and Resurrection of God’s Work[a]

Chapter 6

Footnotes

The People of Faith[a]

Chapter 11

Footnotes

Psalm 122^[a]

Death and Resurrection of God’s Work^[a]

The People of Faith^[a]