Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr (†258). He pointed to the poor as the true treasure of the Church. Memorial of those who serve them in the name of the Gospel.

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Ezekiel 1,2-5.24-28

On the fifth of the month -- it was the fifth year of exile for King Jehoiachin- the word of Yahweh was addressed to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in Chaldaea by the River Chebar. There the hand of Yahweh came on him. I looked; a stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with flashing fire and brilliant light round it, and in the middle, in the heart of the fire, a brilliance like that of amber, and in the middle what seemed to be four living creatures. They looked like this: They were of human form. I also heard the noise of their wings; when they moved, it was like the noise of flood-waters, like the voice of Shaddai, like the noise of a storm, like the noise of an armed camp; and when they halted, they lowered their wings; there was a noise too. Beyond the solid surface above their heads, there was what seemed like a sapphire, in the form of a throne. High above on the form of a throne was a form with the appearance of a human being. I saw a brilliance like amber, like fire, radiating from what appeared to be the waist upwards; and from what appeared to be the waist downwards, I saw what looked like fire, giving a brilliant light all round. The radiance of the encircling light was like the radiance of the bow in the clouds on rainy days. The sight was like the glory of Yahweh. I looked and fell to the ground, and I heard the voice of someone speaking to me.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Starting from today, the Liturgy presents excerpts from the prophet Ezekiel. Very little is known about him. He was a married man and a member of a priestly family that had been formed in the shadow of the Temple of Jerusalem, but he lived out his ministry as a prophet mostly in the Babylonian diaspora. In this situation the prophet had the task of helping the people of Israel to understand again the covenant with God. Ezekiel's vocation is a call that occurs in Israel's new condition. God always speaks through human history to transform it from a condition of slavery into a history of salvation. Ezekiel describes a series of stunning images that show the profound upheaval happening to him. In truth, what Ezekiel describes is similar to that of every believer, though of course in a different way for each one. The call to conversion always implies a profound change of life. The mission Ezekiel is called to fulfil is that of serving God's plan of salvation for His people. The loftiness of this call makes the prophet "fall on his face", signifying the sense of greatness of the vocation to which the Lord calls prophets. It will be the same for Jesus' disciples, he who will say: "The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these" (Jn 14:12). In the loftiness of this call we are invited to rediscover the "fear of the Lord" that is not to belittle the great task the Lord entrusts to his disciples.