Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 436
Lectionary: 436
Brothers and
sisters:
You once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds;
God has now reconciled you
in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death,
to present you holy, without blemish,
and irreproachable before him,
provided that you persevere in the faith,
firmly grounded, stable,
and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard,
which has been preached to every creature under heaven,
of which I, Paul, am a minister.
You once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds;
God has now reconciled you
in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death,
to present you holy, without blemish,
and irreproachable before him,
provided that you persevere in the faith,
firmly grounded, stable,
and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard,
which has been preached to every creature under heaven,
of which I, Paul, am a minister.
Responsorial PsalmPS 54:3-4, 6 AND 8
R. (6) God himself is my help.
O God, by your name save me,
and by your might defend my cause.
O God, hear my prayer;
hearken to the words of my mouth.
R. God himself is my help.
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord sustains my life.
Freely will I offer you sacrifice;
I will praise your name, O LORD, for its goodness.
R. God himself is my help.
O God, by your name save me,
and by your might defend my cause.
O God, hear my prayer;
hearken to the words of my mouth.
R. God himself is my help.
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord sustains my life.
Freely will I offer you sacrifice;
I will praise your name, O LORD, for its goodness.
R. God himself is my help.
AlleluiaJN 14:6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 6:1-5
While Jesus was
going through a field of grain on a sabbath,
his disciples were picking the heads of grain,
rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.
Some Pharisees said,
“Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Have you not read what David did
when he and those who were with him were hungry?
How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,
which only the priests could lawfully eat,
ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
his disciples were picking the heads of grain,
rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.
Some Pharisees said,
“Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Have you not read what David did
when he and those who were with him were hungry?
How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,
which only the priests could lawfully eat,
ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
Meditation: "The Son of man is lord of
the Sabbath"
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.
The Lord of the Sabbath feeds and nourishes us
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 (1 Samuel 21:2-7). On every Sabbath morning twelves loaves were laid before God on a golden table in the Holy Place. Each loaf represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel. No one was allowed to eat this bread except the priests because it represented the very presence of God. David understood that human need took precedence over rules and ritual regulations.
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 (1 Samuel 21:2-7). On every Sabbath morning twelves loaves were laid before God on a golden table in the Holy Place. Each loaf represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel. No one was allowed to eat this bread except the priests because it represented the very presence of God. David understood that human need took precedence over rules and ritual regulations.
Seek the Lord's rest and refreshment
Why didn't the Pharisees recognize the claims of mercy over rules and regulations? Their zeal for ritual observance blinded them from the demands of charity. Jesus' reference to the bread of the Presencealludes to the true bread from heaven which he offers to all who believe in him. Jesus, the Son of David, and the Son of Man, a title for the Messiah, declares that he is "Lord of the Sabbath." Jesus healed on the Sabbath and he showed mercy to those in need. All who are burdened can find true rest and refreshment in him. Do you seek rest and refreshment in the Lord and in the celebration of the Lord's Day?
Why didn't the Pharisees recognize the claims of mercy over rules and regulations? Their zeal for ritual observance blinded them from the demands of charity. Jesus' reference to the bread of the Presencealludes to the true bread from heaven which he offers to all who believe in him. Jesus, the Son of David, and the Son of Man, a title for the Messiah, declares that he is "Lord of the Sabbath." Jesus healed on the Sabbath and he showed mercy to those in need. All who are burdened can find true rest and refreshment in him. Do you seek rest and refreshment in the Lord and in the celebration of the Lord's Day?
"Lord Jesus, you refresh us with your presence and you
sustain us with your life-giving word. Show me how to lift the burden of
others, especially those who lack the basic necessities of life, and to refresh
them with humble care and service."
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, LUKE 6:1-5
Weekday
(Colossians 1:21-23; Psalm 54)
Weekday
(Colossians 1:21-23; Psalm 54)
KEY VERSE: "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath" (v 5).
TO READ: The first story of Jesus’ conflict with the Pharisees told in Luke's gospel regarded the violation of picking grain on the Sabbath. Luke showed how this controversy led to a final break with the religious leaders, and ultimately to Jesus' death. When Jesus' disciples picked and ate grain on the Sabbath, the Pharisees accused them of violating the Sabbath law, which prohibited harvesting (Ex 34:21). Jesus defended his disciples by reminding them of a precedence in scripture. The great King David fed his hungry men with the bread of offering, which was reserved for priests (1 Sm 21:1-7). Jesus said that charity must prevail over religious laws. Jesus, the "Son of Man," showed solidarity with the needs of his people and displayed his supreme authority over the law.
TO REFLECT: Am I unduly bound by scrupulosity?
TO RESPOND: Lord Jesus, help me to avoid legalism and act with compassion and justice.
OPTIONAL MEMORIAL OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Chapter V of the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, issued by the Holy See in December 2001, describes the Church's traditional dedication of Saturday to the Virgin Mary. "Saturdays stand out among those days dedicated to the Virgin Mary. These are designated as memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (218). The chapter also describes the importance of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in Catholic devotional life, including the Liturgy, and includes reflections on popular devotions to Mary, her feast days, and the Rosary.
Saturday 5 September 2015
SAT 5TH.Colossians 1:21-23.
God himself is my help—Ps 53(54):3-4, 6, 8. Luke 6:1-5.
'The son of man is Lord of
the Sabbath.'
I think I have always loved
that Jesus broke the rules and did things his way. He did not let tradition get
in the way of common sense. There are many examples throughout the Gospels of
Jesus scandalising the Pharisees with his behaviour, but when you look at it,
it makes perfect sense for him to act the way that he does. Let us value
tradition, but not let it get in the way of common sense and being the best we
can be. Let us always examine our actions to see if there is a better way. This
will ensure that our faith is a true one and that we don’t just do things
without thinking about the meaning.
MINUTE MEDITATIONS
|
The Bride of Christ
|
A healthy marriage is that it is a witness of Jesus’s love for the
Church. We are the bride of Christ, and the greatest declaration of the groom’s
love is found at the cross. The complete gift of self by Jesus at Calvary is so
entire that it is life-giving.
September
5
Blessed Teresa of Kolkata (Calcutta)
(1910-1997)
Blessed Teresa of Kolkata (Calcutta)
(1910-1997)
Mother Teresa of Kolkata, the tiny woman recognized throughout the
world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified October 19,
2003. Among those present were hundreds of Missionaries of Charity, the order
she founded in 1950 as a diocesan religious community. Today the congregation
also includes contemplative sisters and brothers and an order of priests.
Born to
Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia (then part of the Ottoman
Empire), Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who
survived. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father's
construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his
unexpected death.
During
her years in public school Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality and showed
a strong interest in the foreign missions. At age 18 she entered the Loreto
Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye to her mother for the
final time and made her way to a new land and a new life. The following year
she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There she chose the
name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was assigned to a high
school for girls in Kolkata, where she taught history and geography to the
daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the realities around her—the
poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people.
In 1946,
while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what
she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to
leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a
call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and, instead, to “follow
Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”
After
receiving permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community and
undertake her new work, she took a nursing course for several months. She
returned to Kolkata, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor
children. Dressed in a white sari and sandals (the ordinary dress of an Indian
woman) she soon began getting to know her neighbors—especially the poor and
sick—and getting to know their needs through visits.
The work
was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her
in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries
of Charity. Others helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, the use of
buildings. In 1952 the city of Kolkata gave Mother Teresa a former hostel,
which became a home for the dying and the destitute. As the order expanded,
services were also offered to orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the
aging, and street people.
For the
next four decades Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her
love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading
for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the
poor. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God
called her home.
Comment:
Mother Teresa's
beatification, just over six years after her death, was part of an expedited
process put into effect by Pope John Paul II. Like so many others around the
world, he found her love for the Eucharist, for prayer and for the poor a model
for all to emulate.
Quote:
Speaking in a
strained, weary voice at the 2003 beatification Mass, Pope John Paul II
declared her blessed, prompting waves of applause before the 300,000 pilgrims
in St. Peter's Square. In his homily, read by an aide for the aging pope, the
Holy Father called Mother Teresa “one of the most relevant personalities of our
age” and “an icon of the Good Samaritan.” Her life, he said, was “a bold
proclamation of the gospel.”
LECTIO DIVINA:
LUKE 6,1-5
Lectio:
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Almighty God,
every good thing comes from you.
Fill our hearts with love for you,
increase our faith,
and by your constant care
protect the good you have given us.
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.
every good thing comes from you.
Fill our hearts with love for you,
increase our faith,
and by your constant care
protect the good you have given us.
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 - Luke 6,1-5
It happened that one Sabbath Jesus was walking through the
cornfields, and his disciples were picking ears of corn, rubbing them in their
hands and eating them.
Some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath day?’
Jesus answered them, ‘So you have not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry- how he went into the house of God and took the loaves of the offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which the priests alone are allowed to eat?’
And he said to them, ‘The Son of man is master of the Sabbath.’
Some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath day?’
Jesus answered them, ‘So you have not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry- how he went into the house of God and took the loaves of the offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which the priests alone are allowed to eat?’
And he said to them, ‘The Son of man is master of the Sabbath.’
3) Reflection
• The Gospel today speaks about the conflict concerning the
observance of the Sabbath –Saturday. The observance of the Sabbath was a central
law, one of the Ten Commandments. This was a very ancient Law the value of
which was stressed after the Exile. During the Exile, the people had to work
seven days a week from morning until evening, without any conditions to meet
and meditate on the Word of God, to pray together and to share faith, their
problems and their hopes. Therefore, there was an urgent need to stop at least
one day a week to get together and encourage one another during the very
difficult situation of the exile. Otherwise they would have lost their faith.
It was then that faith was reborn and the observance of Saturday was
re-established.
• Luke 6, 1-2: The cause of the conflict. On Saturday the disciples were walking across the cornfields and they were picking ears of corn. Matthew 12, 1 says that they were hungry (Mt 12, 1). The Pharisees invoke the Bible to say it was a transgression of the Law of Saturday: Why do you do this which is not permitted to do on Saturday?” (cf. Ex 20, 8-11).
• Luke 6, 3-4: The response of Jesus. Immediately Jesus responds recalling that David himself also did things which were prohibited, because he took the sacred bread from the Temple and gave it to the soldiers to eat because they were hungry (I S 21, 2-7). Jesus knew the Bible and referred to it to show that the arguments of others had no foundation. In Matthew, the response of Jesus is more complete. He not only recalls the story of David, but also quotes the Legislation which permits the priests to work on Saturday and he quotes Prophet Hosea: “Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice”. He quotes a Biblical text or a historical text, a legislative text and a prophetic text (cf. Mt 12, 1-18). At that time there was no printed Bible as we have it today. In each community there was only one Bible, hand written, which remained in the Synagogue. If Jesus knew the Bible so well, it means that in the 30 years of his life in Nazareth he participated intensely in the life of the community, where every Saturday the Scriptures were read. We still lack very much to have the same familiarity with the Bible and the same participation in the community.
• Luke 6, 5: The conclusion for all of us. And Jesus ends with the following phrase: The Son of Man is Master of the Sabbath! The Lord of Saturday! Jesus, Son of Man, who lives in intimacy with God, discovers the sense of the Bible not from outside, from without, but from inside, that is, discovers the sense starting at the roots, beginning from his intimacy with the author of the Bible who is God himself. Because of this, he calls himself Master of Saturday. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus revitalizes the law of Saturday saying: “Saturday was instituted for man and not man for Saturday”.
• Luke 6, 1-2: The cause of the conflict. On Saturday the disciples were walking across the cornfields and they were picking ears of corn. Matthew 12, 1 says that they were hungry (Mt 12, 1). The Pharisees invoke the Bible to say it was a transgression of the Law of Saturday: Why do you do this which is not permitted to do on Saturday?” (cf. Ex 20, 8-11).
• Luke 6, 3-4: The response of Jesus. Immediately Jesus responds recalling that David himself also did things which were prohibited, because he took the sacred bread from the Temple and gave it to the soldiers to eat because they were hungry (I S 21, 2-7). Jesus knew the Bible and referred to it to show that the arguments of others had no foundation. In Matthew, the response of Jesus is more complete. He not only recalls the story of David, but also quotes the Legislation which permits the priests to work on Saturday and he quotes Prophet Hosea: “Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice”. He quotes a Biblical text or a historical text, a legislative text and a prophetic text (cf. Mt 12, 1-18). At that time there was no printed Bible as we have it today. In each community there was only one Bible, hand written, which remained in the Synagogue. If Jesus knew the Bible so well, it means that in the 30 years of his life in Nazareth he participated intensely in the life of the community, where every Saturday the Scriptures were read. We still lack very much to have the same familiarity with the Bible and the same participation in the community.
• Luke 6, 5: The conclusion for all of us. And Jesus ends with the following phrase: The Son of Man is Master of the Sabbath! The Lord of Saturday! Jesus, Son of Man, who lives in intimacy with God, discovers the sense of the Bible not from outside, from without, but from inside, that is, discovers the sense starting at the roots, beginning from his intimacy with the author of the Bible who is God himself. Because of this, he calls himself Master of Saturday. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus revitalizes the law of Saturday saying: “Saturday was instituted for man and not man for Saturday”.
4) Personal questions
• How do you spend Sunday, which is our “Sabbath”? Do you go to
Mass because it is an obligation, in order to avoid sin or to be with God?
• Jesus knew the Bible almost by heart. What does the Bible represent for me?
• Jesus knew the Bible almost by heart. What does the Bible represent for me?
5) Concluding Prayer
My mouth shall always praise Yahweh,
let every creature bless his holy name
for ever and ever. (Ps 145,21)
let every creature bless his holy name
for ever and ever. (Ps 145,21)
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