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Thứ Năm, 16 tháng 7, 2020

JULY 17, 2020 : FRIDAY OF THE FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME


Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 393

When Hezekiah was mortally ill,
the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him:
“Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order,
for you are about to die; you shall not recover.”
Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD:
“O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly
I conducted myself in your presence,
doing what was pleasing to you!”
And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go, tell Hezekiah:
Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David:
I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.
I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the LORD’s temple;
I will add fifteen years to your life.
I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria;
I will be a shield to this city.”
Isaiah then ordered a poultice of figs to be taken
and applied to the boil, that he might recover.
Then Hezekiah asked,
“What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple of the LORD?”
Isaiah answered:
“This will be the sign for you from the LORD
that he will do what he has promised:
See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun
on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz
go back the ten steps it has advanced.”
So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.
Responsorial PsalmISAIAH 38:10, 11, 12ABCD, 16
R. (see 17b) You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
Once I said,
“In the noontime of life I must depart!
To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned
for the rest of my years.”
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
I said, “I shall see the LORD no more
in the land of the living.
No longer shall I behold my fellow men
among those who dwell in the world.”
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
My dwelling, like a shepherd’s tent,
is struck down and borne away from me;
You have folded up my life, like a weaver
who severs the last thread.
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
Those live whom the LORD protects;
yours is the life of my spirit.
You have given me health and life.
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
AlleluiaJN 10:27
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 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.”


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?
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)

Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: The Seventh Day, from the early Greek fathers, attributed to Eusebius of Alexandria (5th century AD)
"Now every week has seven days. Six of these God has given to us for work, and one for prayer, rest, and making reparation for our sins, so that on the Lord's Day we may atone to God for any sins we have committed on the other six days. Therefore, arrive early at the church of God; draw near to the Lord and confess your sins to him, repenting in prayer and with a contrite heart. Attend the holy and divine liturgy; finish your prayer and do not leave before the dismissal. Contemplate your master as he is broken and distributed, yet not consumed. If you have a clear conscience, go forward and partake of the body and blood of the Lord." (excerpt from SERMON 6, 1-2)


FRIDAY, JULY 17, MATTHEW 12:1-8
Weekday

(Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Psalm: Isaiah 38)
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 17 July 2020

Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8. You saved my life, O Lord, I shall not die – Isaiah 38:10-12, 16. Matthew 12:1-8.
‘What I want is mercy, not sacrifice’
In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees see Jesus’ hungry disciples picking and eating ears of corn on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees tell Jesus that it is forbidden, but Jesus reminds them of occasions in the Scriptures where God’s people break the Sabbath due to necessity without blame. Again, the Pharisees’ rigid interpretation of the law leaves no room for mercy. Jesus shows the Pharisees the better path, reminding them that he is the Son of Man who is master of the Sabbath.
Lord, I pray that I am an agent of your mercy.


Saint of the Day for July 17
Saint Francis Solano
(March 10, 1549 – July 14, 1610)


Saint Francis Solano’s Story
Francis came from a leading family in Andalusia, Spain. Perhaps it was his popularity as a student that enabled Francis in his teens to stop two duelists. He entered the Friars Minor in 1570, and after ordination enthusiastically sacrificed himself for others. His care for the sick during an epidemic drew so much admiration that he became embarrassed and asked to be sent to the African missions. Instead he was sent to South America in 1589.
While working in what is now Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay, Francis quickly learned the local languages and was well received by the indigenous peoples. His visits to the sick often included playing a song on his violin.
Around 1601, he was called to Lima, Peru, where he tried to recall the Spanish colonists to their baptismal integrity. Francis also worked to defend the indigenous peoples from oppression. He died in Lima in 1610 and was canonized in 1726. His Liturgical Feast Day is July 14.

Reflection
Francis Solano knew from experience that the lives of Christians sometimes greatly hinder the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Francis lived an exemplary life himself, and urged his fellow Spaniards to make their lives worthy of their baptisms.


Lectio Divina: Matthew 12:1-8
Lectio Divina
Friday, July 17, 2020
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.
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?
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)

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