Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary
Time
Lectionary: 393
Lectionary: 393
Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders
in Pharaoh's presence,
the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate,
and he would not let the children of Israel leave his land.
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;
you shall reckon it the first month of the year.
Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month
every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb,
one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb,
it shall join the nearest household in procuring one
and shall share in the lamb
in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.
You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then,
with the whole assembly of Israel present,
it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood
and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel
of every house in which they partake of the lamb.
That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole,
with its head and shanks and inner organs.
None of it must be kept beyond the next morning;
whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.
"This is how you are to eat it:
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt,
striking down every first born of the land, both man and beast,
and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!
But the blood will mark the houses where you are.
Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;
thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,
no destructive blow will come upon you.
"This day shall be a memorial feast for you,
which all your generations shall celebrate
with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution."
in Pharaoh's presence,
the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate,
and he would not let the children of Israel leave his land.
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;
you shall reckon it the first month of the year.
Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month
every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb,
one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb,
it shall join the nearest household in procuring one
and shall share in the lamb
in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.
You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then,
with the whole assembly of Israel present,
it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood
and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel
of every house in which they partake of the lamb.
That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole,
with its head and shanks and inner organs.
None of it must be kept beyond the next morning;
whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.
"This is how you are to eat it:
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt,
striking down every first born of the land, both man and beast,
and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!
But the blood will mark the houses where you are.
Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;
thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,
no destructive blow will come upon you.
"This day shall be a memorial feast for you,
which all your generations shall celebrate
with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution."
Responsorial
PsalmPS 116:12-13, 15 AND
16BC, 17-18
R.(13) I
will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
AlleluiaJN 10:27
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord,
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord,
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMT 12:1-8
Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.
His disciples were hungry
and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
"See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath."
He said to them, "Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry,
how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,
which neither he nor his companions
but only the priests could lawfully eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."
His disciples were hungry
and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
"See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath."
He said to them, "Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry,
how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,
which neither he nor his companions
but only the priests could lawfully eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."
Meditation:
"I desire mercy and not sacrifice"
What
does the commandment "keep holy the Sabbath" require of us? Or better
yet, what is the primary intention behind this command? The religious leaders
confronted Jesus on this issue. The "Sabbath rest" was meant to be a
time to remember and celebrate God's goodness and the goodness of his work,
both in creation and redemption. It was a day set apart for the praise of God,
his work of creation, and his saving actions on our behalf. It was intended to
bring everyday work to a halt and to provide needed rest and refreshment.
Mercy
and not sacrifice
Jesus' disciples are scolded by the scribes and Pharisees, not for plucking and eating corn from the fields, but for doing so on the Sabbath. In defending his disciples, Jesus argues from the Scriptures that human need has precedence over ritual custom. In their hunger, David and his men ate of the holy bread offered in the Temple. Jesus also quoted of the Sabbath work involved in worship in the Temple. This kind of work was usually double the work of worship on weekdays. Jesus then quotes from the prophet Hosea (6:6): I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. While the claims of ritual sacrifice are important to God, mercy and kindness in response to human need are even more important. Do you honor the Lord in the way you treat your neighbor and celebrate the Lord's Day?
Jesus' disciples are scolded by the scribes and Pharisees, not for plucking and eating corn from the fields, but for doing so on the Sabbath. In defending his disciples, Jesus argues from the Scriptures that human need has precedence over ritual custom. In their hunger, David and his men ate of the holy bread offered in the Temple. Jesus also quoted of the Sabbath work involved in worship in the Temple. This kind of work was usually double the work of worship on weekdays. Jesus then quotes from the prophet Hosea (6:6): I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. While the claims of ritual sacrifice are important to God, mercy and kindness in response to human need are even more important. Do you honor the Lord in the way you treat your neighbor and celebrate the Lord's Day?
"Lord,
make us to walk in your way: Where there is love and wisdom, there is neither
fear nor ignorance; where there is patience and humility, there is neither
anger nor annoyance; where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor
avarice; where there is peace and contemplation, there is neither care nor
restlessness; where there is the fear of God to guard the dwelling, there no
enemy can enter; where there is mercy and prudence, there is neither excess nor
harshness; this we know through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (Prayer
of Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226)
FRIDAY, JULY 19, MATTHEW 12:1-8
Weekday
(Exodus 11:10 ̶ 12:14; Psalm 116)
Weekday
(Exodus 11:10 ̶ 12:14; Psalm 116)
KEY VERSE: "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" (v. 8).
TO KNOW: As Jesus and his disciples continued their journey, the Pharisees criticized him for allowing his hungry followers to glean grain on the Sabbath, since the law forbade manual labor on the Lord's Day. The religious leaders defined "work" as thirty-nine forbidden actions. Among them were reaping, winnowing, threshing and preparing a meal. By plucking the corn Jesus' disciples were guilty of reaping; by rubbing it in their hands they were guilty of threshing, and by separating the grain from the chaff they were guilty of winnowing. Furthermore, the whole process constituted preparing a meal, another violation of the Sabbath law. In defense of his disciples, Jesus cited the example of David who fed his hungry men with the "bread of offering" usually reserved for priests (1 Sm 21:4-7). And Jesus argued that priests did not incur guilt by preparing the offering of the lambs on the Sabbath (Nm 28:9). He quoted the prophet Hosea who said: "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice" (Hos 6:6). Jesus was liberating God's people from the burdens of a restrictive law, which they had labored under for so long (Mt 11:28).
TO LOVE: Do I have a legalistic view of God's Law?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, teach me to observe the Lord's Day through worship and service to your people.
Friday 19 July 2019
Day of Penance
Exodus 11:10 – 12:14. Psalm 115(116):12-13, 15-18. Matthew 12:1-8.
I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord – Psalm 115(116):12-13, 15-18
‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.’
Exodus 11:10 – 12:14. Psalm 115(116):12-13, 15-18. Matthew 12:1-8.
I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord – Psalm 115(116):12-13, 15-18
‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.’
In today’s gospel we are reminded that it is easy to get stuck
on the rules and lose sight of the deeper meaning behind religious customs and
traditions. The Sabbath was meant to be, among other things, a day of rest and
remembrance. Over time, rigid interpretations of the Law saw Sabbath observance
become constricted by regulations proscribing work of any kind. These rigid
interpretations still exist today.
Jesus’ reaction to the Pharisees is a liberating reminder that
the Lord of the Sabbath always invites us to greater freedom. He calls us to
let go of the conceptions of reality and frames on experience which hold us
back from fullness of life. In his presence, he encourages us to remove the
blocks of mind and heart which get in the way. In an age of obsessions and
compulsions, such an invitation is good news indeed!
Saint Mary MacKillop
Saint of the Day for July 19
(January 15, 1842 – August 8, 1909)
 |
| Stained glass window at Saint Mary MacKillop shrine, Penola South Australia | photo by Pru.mitchell |
Saint Mary MacKillop’s Story
If Saint Mary MacKillop were alive today, she would be a
household name. It’s not that she sought the limelight. On the contrary, she
simply wanted to serve the poor wherever she found them in her native
Australia. But along the way, she managed to arouse the ire of some rather
powerful churchmen. One even excommunicated her for a time.
Born in Melbourne in 1842, to parents who had emigrated from
Scotland, Mary grew up in a family that faced constant financial struggles. As
a young woman she was drawn to religious life but could not find an existing
order of Sisters that met her needs. In 1860, she met Father Julian Woods, who
became her spiritual director. Together they founded a new community of
women—the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, also known as the
Josephite Sisters. Its members were to staff schools especially for poor children,
as well as orphanages, and do other works of charity.
As the congregation grew, so did Mary MacKillop’s problems. Her
priest-friend proved unreliable in many ways and his responsibilities for
direction of the Sisters were removed. Meanwhile, Mary had the support of some
local bishops as she and her Sisters went about their work. But the bishop in
South Australia, aging and relying on others for advice, briefly excommunicated
Mary—charging her with disobedience—and dispensed 50 of her Sisters from their vows.
In truth, the bishop’s quarrel was about power and who had authority over whom.
He ultimately rescinded his order of excommunication.
Mary insisted that her congregation should be governed by an
elected mother general answerable to Rome, not to the local bishop. There also
were disputes about whether or not the congregation could own property. In the
end, Rome proved to be Mary’s best source of support. After a long wait
official approval of the congregation—and how it was to be governed—came from
Pope Leo XIII.
Despite her struggles with Church authorities, Mary MacKillop
and her Sisters were able to offer social services that few, if any, government
agencies in Australia could. They served Protestants and Catholics alike. They
worked among the aborigines. They taught in schools and orphanages and served
unmarried mothers.
Money, actually the lack of it, was a constant worry. But the
Sisters who begged from door to door, were bolstered by faith and by the
conviction that their struggles were opportunities to grow closer to God.
By the time Mary was approaching the end of her life, the
congregation was thriving. She died in 1909 at the age of 67. Pope
John Paul II beatified her in 1995. In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI
canonized her, she became Australia’s first saint. Her Liturgical Feast
Day is August 8.
Reflection
The story of many foundresses of religious communities and the
tales of the early days of those communities can make for fascinating reading.
Those women were dedicated and tough and fought for those they served. Let’s
thank the Lord for raising up such wonderful examples of faith.
Lectio Divina: Matthew 12:1-8
Lectio Divina
Friday, July 19, 2019
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
God our Father,
Your light of truth
guides us to the way of Christ.
May all who follow Him
reject what is contrary to the Gospel.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Your light of truth
guides us to the way of Christ.
May all who follow Him
reject what is contrary to the Gospel.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 12:1-8
Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His
disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When
the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "See, your disciples are doing
what is unlawful to do on the sabbath." He said to the them, "Have
you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went
into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his
companions but only the priests could lawfully eat? Or have you not read in the
law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent? I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If
you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have
condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."
3) Reflection
• In today’s Gospel we see that there are many conflicts between
Jesus and the religious authority of that time. They are conflicts regarding
the religious practices of that time: fasting, purity, observance of the
Sabbath, etc. In our day, they would be conflicts regarding, for example,
matrimony between divorced persons, friendship with prostitutes, acceptance of
homosexuals, communion without being married by the Church, Sunday mass obligation,
fasting on Good Friday. The conflicts were many: at home, in school, in
work, in the community, in the Church, in personal life, in society. They were
conflicts regarding growth, relationship, age, mentality. So many of
them! To live life without conflicts is impossible! Conflict is part of
life and starts at birth. We are born with birth pangs. Conflicts are not
accidents along the way, but form part of the journey, of the process of
conversion. What strikes us is the way in which Jesus faces the conflicts. In
the discussion with His enemies, He was not trying to show them that He was
right, but wished to make the experience which He, Jesus, had of God, Father
and Mother, prevail. The image of God which others had was that of a severe
Judge who only threatened and condemned. Jesus tries to have mercy prevail,
since the objective of the Law is the practice of Love.
• Matthew 12:1-2: To pick grain on the Sabbath day and the
criticism of the Pharisees. On a Sabbath day, the disciples went
through the fields and they picked grain to eat them. They were hungry. The
Pharisees arrived and invoke the Bible to say that the disciples were
transgressing the law of the Sabbath (cf. Ex 20:8-11). Jesus also uses
the Bible and responds invoking three examples taken from Scripture: (1) that
of David, (2) that of the legislation on work of the priests in the temple and
(3) from the action of the Prophet Hosea, that is, He quotes a historical book,
a legislative book and a prophetic book.
• Matthew 12:3-4: The example of David. Jesus
recalls that David himself did something which was forbidden by the Law,
because he took the sacred bread of the temple and gave it to the soldiers to
eat, because they were hungry (1 Sam 21:2-7). No Pharisee had the courage to
criticize King David!
• Matthew 12:5-6: The example of the priests. Accused
by the religious authority, Jesus argues beginning from what they themselves,
the religious authority, do on the Sabbath day. On the Sabbath day, in the
Temple of Jerusalem, the priests worked very much more than the other days of
the week, because they had to sacrifice the animals for the sacrifices; they
had to clean, sweep, carry burdens, kill the animals, etc. Yet nobody said that
this was against the Law. They thought of it as normal! The Law itself obliged
them to do all this (Num 28:9-10).
• Matthew 12:7: The example of the prophets. Jesus
quotes a verse from the prophet Hosea: I want mercy and not
sacrifice. The word mercy means to have the heart (cor) in the
misery (miseri) of others, that is, the merciful person has to be very
close to the suffering of the people, has to identify himself/herself with
them. The word sacrifice means to have (ficio) a thing consecrated (sacri), that
is, that the one who offers a sacrifice separates the sacrificed object from
profane use and places it at a distance from the daily life of the people.
If the Pharisees had had this way of looking at the life of the prophet
Hosea, they would have known that the most pleasing sacrifice for God is not
that the consecrated persons lives far away from reality, but that he/she
places his/her consecrated heart totally in the service of the brothers
and sisters in order to relieve them from their misery. They would not have
considered guilty those who in reality were innocent.
• Matthew 12:8: The Son of Man is the master of the Sabbath.
Jesus ends with this statement: The Son of Man is the master of the
Sabbath! Jesus Himself is the criterion for interpretation of the Law of
God. Jesus knows the Tanakh (the Hebrew bible) by heart and
invokes it to indicate that the arguments of the others had no foundation. At
that time, there were no printed bibles as we have today. In every community
there was only one copy written by hand, which remained in the synagogue.
If Jesus knew the bible so well, it means that during the thirty years of His
life in Nazareth, He had participated intensely in the life of the community,
where Scripture was read every Saturday. The new experience of God the Father
made Jesus discover God’s intention in decreeing the laws of the Old Testament.
Having lived thirty years in Nazareth and feeling as His own the oppression and
exclusion of so many brothers and sisters, in the name of the law, Jesus must
have perceived that this could not be the meaning of the law. If God is Father,
then He accepts all as sons and daughters. If God is Father, then we should be
brothers and sisters among ourselves. Jesus lived this and prayed for this,
from the beginning until the end. The law should be at the service of life and
of fraternity. “The human being is not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath
for the human being” (Mk 2:27). Because of His great fidelity to this
message, Jesus was condemned to death. He disturbed the system, and the
system defended itself, using its force against Jesus, because He wished that
the Law be placed at the service of life, and not vice-versa. We need to
know the bible in depth and to participate deeply in the community, as Jesus
did.
4) Personal questions
• What type of conflicts do you find in the family, in society,
in the Church? What are the conflicts which concern religious practices
which cause suffering to people nowadays and which are a cause of
discussion and polemics? What is the image of God behind all these
preconceptions, behind all these norms and prohibitions?
• What has conflict taught you during all these years? What is the message which you draw from all this for our communities today?
• What has conflict taught you during all these years? What is the message which you draw from all this for our communities today?
For further study
To know the bible in depth can be difficult. Various passages
may seem to contradict each other, unless put into a broader context where all
of a particular reference can be put together in one place. This is one way
people use bible quotations to distort their real meaning. The Vatican has
tools online to help. The bible is online in searchable form in an approved
version at http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM
along with a concordance which lists and links every word in the bible in an
index at http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_FA.HTM
and allows a user to collect similar words and ideas in one place to help
discern their real meaning. Look at these online and see if they can help
you learn the bible to a greater depth and understanding.
5) Concluding Prayer
Lord, I muse on You in the watches of the night,
for You have always been my help;
in the shadow of Your wings I rejoice;
my heart clings to You,
Your right hand supports me. (Ps 63:6-8)
for You have always been my help;
in the shadow of Your wings I rejoice;
my heart clings to You,
Your right hand supports me. (Ps 63:6-8)
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