WELCOME TO OUR LITURGY:  What is it within us that makes us suspicious and mistrustful of those who are ‘different’?  It goes deep, this prejudice, and, like a persistent weed;  each time a piece is rooted out it pops up again in another place.  Jews/Arabs, black/white, Maori/Pakeha, Christian/Moslem—so many little boxes into which we put people.  Let’s pray to be set free from our prejudices, to be able to see each person as an individual, a brother or sister, a beloved child of God.

First Reading:                                                              
Zechariah 12: 10-11: 13: 1  

10      "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication, so that, when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a first-born.
11     On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadadrim'mon in the plain of Megid'do.

Second Reading:
Galatians 3: 26-29.   

26      for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
27     For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28     There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29     And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.  

Gospel Reading:
Luke 9 : 18-24.

18      Now it happened that as he was praying alone the disciples were with him; and he asked them, "Who do the people say that I am?"
19     And they answered, "John the Baptist; but others say, Eli'jah; and others, that one of the old prophets has risen."
20     And he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered, "The Christ of God."
21     But he charged and commanded them to tell this to no one,
22     saying, "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."
23     And he said to all, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
24     For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.