January 19, 2026
Monday of the Second Week in
Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 311
Reading
1
Samuel said to
Saul:
“Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
Saul replied, “Speak!”
Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem,
are you not leader of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king of Israel and sent you on a mission, saying,
‘Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction.
Fight against them until you have exterminated them.’
Why then have you disobeyed the LORD?
You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD.”
Saul answered Samuel: “I did indeed obey the LORD
and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me.
I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen,
the best of what had been banned,
to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal.”
But Samuel said:
“Does the LORD so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the command of the LORD?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission than the fat of rams.
For a sin like divination is rebellion,
and presumption is the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the command of the LORD,
he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”
Responsorial
Psalm
Psalm 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and
23
R.
(23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
The disciples of
John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011926.cfm
Commentary on 1
Samuel 15:16-23
Today we see Saul rejected by Yahweh as king. In fact,
Yahweh regrets ever having made Saul king. This is a very anthropomorphic image
of God, where he admits to making mistakes. The Old Testament also presents God
as angry, jealous and vengeful, but these are really projections of the
Israelites’ own feelings, making God to be very much like themselves.
Although Saul had carried out his mandate to defeat the
Amalekites, enemies of Israel, he displeased God because he and his men used
the victory to plunder and gather all the spoils to themselves. Saul tried to
justify his behaviour by claiming that the best of the sheep and oxen seized by
his men would be sacrificed to God.
But Samuel enunciates the very important principle that
obedience to God’s will transcends any religious rituals—and that is the
central point of today’s reading.
Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice
and to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is no less a sin than divination,
and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry.
In so speaking, Samuel is not condemning sacrificial
practise as such, but rather saying that ritual which is not accompanied by
appropriate behaviour in our relationships with God and others is of no value
(see Is 1:11-17; Hos 6:6; Amos 5:21-27; Mic 6:6-8). To act against God’s known
will while doing homage to something which is not of God (e.g. personal greed
in this case) is to be guilty of a kind of idolatry (worship of Mammon). Saul’s
crime is likened to ‘sorcery’ (“divination”), and the last line in some
translations reads, “presumption a crime of teraphim”. Teraphim were the
household gods, which guarded houses and property (regarding the use of a
household idol, see 1 Sam 19:11-17).
Submissiveness to God’s will is certainly better than “the
fat of rams”. The fat of sacrificed animals always belonged to the Lord. Samuel
speaks of “rebellion”. He is charging Saul with violating the central
requirement of the covenant condition when he became king. Speaking earlier to
the people he had said:
If you will fear the Lord and serve him and heed his
voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and
the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well;
but if you will not heed the voice of the Lord but rebel against the
commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your
king. (1 Sam 12:14-15)
Now Samuel tells Saul:
…you have rejected the word of the Lord…
A king who set his own will above the command of the Lord
ceases to be an instrument of the Lord’s rule over his people, violating the
very nature of his office, where he is a vicegerent of God.
And so the Lord has rejected Saul as being king. Already
Saul had been told, because of a previous incident (see chap 13), that his
dynasty would not last because he had disobeyed the will of the Lord. Here the
judgement goes beyond the earlier one. Now Saul himself is to be set aside as
king. Although this did not happen immediately, as chapters 16-31 show, the
process was under way which would lead to his death. It included in its
relentless course the removal of God’s Spirit and favour from him (16:14), the
defection of his son Jonathan and daughter Michal to David, and the
insubordination of his own officials.
In summary, the reading is saying that to appease or
manipulate God by using sacrifices in this way was tantamount to superstition
and idolatry. For his disobedience, God now rejects Saul as king. As mentioned,
this will not occur immediately, but will unfold as the story proceeds.
We too should remember that it is God’s will in our lives
that is paramount. Our greatest good is in making God’s will our own. To think
that God will be happy with us simply by our piling up religious exercises is
misguided piety.
Remember what Jesus said:
When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the
gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many
words. (Matt 6:7)
and
…Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and
obey it! (Luke 11:28)
In other words, we can always be sure that God hears us. But
do we always hear him?
Comments Off
Commentary on Mark
2:18-22
The disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees fasted.
It was a sign of a deeper commitment to the service of God. Then, how come the
disciples of Jesus were not fasting? In their defence, Jesus speaks a kind of
parable. A wedding feast is no time for the attendants of the bridegroom to be
fasting. It is a time for joy and celebration. Jesus is clearly the bridegroom
and his disciples the attendants. A time will come when the bridegroom will no
longer be visibly with them—then will come the times when fasting will be
appropriate.
Jesus continues with another image. No one uses a piece of
new, strong cloth to patch an old garment. At the first sign of stress, the new
patch will pull and tear the weaker, old cloth. Similarly, no one puts new,
fermenting wine in old, used wineskins. When the new wine ferments and expands,
the old skins have no more stretch and will burst. The skins are ruined and the
wine lost.
In both images Jesus is saying that he and his teaching, and
the Way he is proposing, cannot be judged by the old, traditional standards.
Jesus has brought about a radical shift in the ways we are to relate to God and
to each other. The traditional ways, identified with the Pharisees and with
John the Baptist, were basically those where loyalty to God was expressed
through strict observation of laws and external practices of commitment, like
fasting. The Way of Jesus is quite different. It is primarily interior, rather
than just exterior. It is ultimately rooted in relationships based on love, a
love that always seeks the well-being of the other. If we judge what Jesus does
by the old ways, we will have difficulties. We need, as Paul says:
…the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:16)
This is still relevant in our Church today. There are many
who still are living their Catholic life with the Pharisee mindset. Many
decades now after the Second Vatican Council, there are still people who have
not understood the radical shift in thinking that was introduced. In the
liturgy, for instance, the changes in some places are often just cosmetic—only
on the surface. There are people who still ‘go to Mass’ (note the expression)
with basically unchanged attitudes or understanding. Others try to cling to the
‘old days’—Tridentine Masses, continuing to eat fish on Friday, following old
devotions (some of which border on the superstitious). There is still a good
deal of individualism and ‘saving my soul’, or staying in ‘the state of grace
to get to heaven’ mentality.
There are people who still see sin as primarily the breaking
of laws and rules, rather than as a breakdown in loving relationships with God,
with others and with self. It is possible to be perfectly ‘orthodox’, affirming
the doctrinal teaching of the Church to the last detail, and yet be devoid of
love in the way one’s life is lived, and showing very little concern for the
needy of this world. Sad to say, Pharisaism is alive and well among Christians.
But it is like trying to force the ‘new thinking’ of Vatican II into the ‘old
wineskins’ of past behaviour.
The new wine of Jesus’ teaching needs to be contained in new
wineskins. And some of the problems of the Church in parts of the world where
Christians are falling away can be traced to our unwillingness to let go of old
wineskins.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2022g/
Monday, January 19,
2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father of heaven and earth, hear
our prayers and show us the way to your peace in the world.
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.
Gospel Reading - Mark 2: 18-22
John's disciples and the Pharisees were
keeping a fast, when some people came to him and said to him, 'Why is it that
John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do
not?'
Jesus replied, 'Surely the bridegroom's attendants cannot fast
while the bridegroom is still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom
with them, they cannot fast. But the time will come when the bridegroom is
taken away from them, and then, on that day, they will fast. No one sews a
piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from
it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. And nobody puts new wine
into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is
lost and the skins too. No! New wine into fresh skins!'
Reflection
•
The five conflicts between Jesus and the
Religious authority. In Mark 2: 1-12 we have seen the first conflict. It was
about the forgiveness of sins. In Mark 2: 1317, the second conflict is on
communion around the same table, with sinners. Today’s Gospel presents the
third conflict concerning fasting. Tomorrow we have the fourth conflict,
concerning the observance of the Sabbath (Mk 2: 1328). Day after tomorrow, the
last conflict concerning the cure on the Sabbath (Mk 3: 1-6). The conflict
concerning fasting has a central place. For this reason, the words on sewing a
piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak and the new wine into fresh skins (Mk
2: 21-22) should be understood in the
light which radiates clearly also on the other conflicts, two before and two
after.
•
Jesus does not insist on the practice of
fasting. Fasting is a very ancient practice, practiced by practically all
religions. Jesus himself practiced it during forty days (Mt 4: 2). But he does
not insist with his disciples so that they do the same thing. He leaves them
free. This is why the disciples of John the Baptist and those of the Pharisees,
who were obliged to fast, want to know why Jesus does not insist on fasting.
•
When the bridegroom is with them they do not
have to fast. Jesus responds with a comparison. When the bridegroom is with the
friends of the bridegroom, that is, during the wedding feast, they do not need
to fast. Jesus considers himself as the bridegroom. The disciples are the
friends of the bridegroom During the time in which Jesus is with the disciples,
there is the wedding feast. A day will come in which the bridegroom will be
absent and then, if they wish they can fast. Jesus refers to his death. He
knows and feels that if he wishes to continue on this path of freedom, the
religious authority will want to kill him.
•
To sew a new piece of cloth on an old cloak, new
wine in new skins. These two affirmations of Jesus, which Mark places here,
clarify the critical attitude of Jesus before religious authority. One does not
sew a piece of new cloth on an old cloak. When the cloak is washed, the new
piece of cloth tears the cloak and the tear becomes bigger. Nobody puts new
wine in old skins, because the fermentation of the new wine will tear the old
skins. New wine in new skins! The religion defended by the authority was like
an old cloak, like an old skin. It is not necessary to want to change what is
new and brought by Jesus, for old customs. The novelty brought by Jesus cannot be
reduced to fit the measure of Judaism. Either one or the other! The wine which
Jesus brings tears the old skins. It is necessary to know how to separate
things. Jesus is not against what is “old.” What he wants to avoid is that the
old imposes itself on the new and, thus he begins to manifest it. It would be
the same as reducing the message of the Vatican Council II to the catechism of
the time before the Council, as some are wanting to do.
Personal Questions
•
Beginning with the profound experience of God
which encouraged him interiorly, Jesus had great freedom concerning the
relationship to the norms and religious practices. And today, do we have this
same liberty or do we lack the freedom of the mystics?
•
A new piece of cloth on an old cloak, new wine
in old skins. Does this exist in my life?
Concluding Prayer
We have recognized for ourselves, and put our faith in, the
love God has for us. (1 Jn 4: 16)
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