September 7, 2026
Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 437
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
It is widely reported that there is immorality among you,
and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans–
a man living with his father’s wife.
And you are inflated with pride.
Should you not rather have been sorrowful?
The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst.
I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit,
have already, as if present,
pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed,
in the name of our Lord Jesus:
when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit
with the power of the Lord Jesus,
you are to deliver this man to Satan
for the destruction of his flesh,
so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not appropriate.
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?
Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,
inasmuch as you are unleavened.
For our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,
not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Responsorial Psalm
R. Lead me in your justice, Lord.
For you, O God, delight not in wickedness;
no evil man remains with you;
the arrogant may not stand in your sight.
You hate all evildoers.
R. Lead me in your justice, Lord.
You destroy all who speak falsehood;
The bloodthirsty and the deceitful
the LORD abhors.
R. Lead me in your justice, Lord.
But let all who take refuge in you
be glad and exult forever.
Protect them, that you may be the joy
of those who love your name.
R. Lead me in your justice, Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and
taught,
and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.
The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely
to see if he would cure on the sabbath
so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.
But he realized their intentions
and said to the man with the withered hand,
"Come up and stand before us."
And he rose and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them,
"I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath
rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?"
Looking around at them all, he then said to him,
"Stretch out your hand."
He did so and his hand was restored.
But they became enraged
and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090726.cfm
Commentary on 1
Corinthians 5:1-8
Expel the immoral brother! We now enter a part of the letter
where Paul speaks of various moral disorders prevalent in the Christian
community of Corinth. Here Paul justifies his criticism of the ‘unspirituality’
and moral immaturity of the Christians in Corinth.
First, he tackles a problem of incest. He has been told that
one of the Christians is cohabiting “with his father’s wife”. Such a
relationship is explicitly forbidden in the Mosaic law (see Leviticus 18:8-18)
and indeed in nearly every society.
Even pagans hardly stoop to such levels, says Paul. We know,
for instance, that the famous Roman writer and orator Cicero said that incest
was practically unheard of in Roman society, although it is not certain whether
that applied to Corinth, a city notorious for its sexual liberties.
With examples like this, Paul asks how the Corinthian
Christians can have such a high opinion of themselves. Did they really think
that such behaviour was a boastful expression of freedom? On the contrary, they
should be in deep mourning for their sins.
Paul wrote that such a person should not be tolerated in the
community, and should be expelled from it. Paul, in fact, urges the church
(with which he is spiritually united, though physically absent) to do so in the
name of the Lord Jesus. As we are told in Matthew’s Gospel (18:20), whenever
the community gathers together in the name of Jesus, he is with them and they
have authority to speak and make decisions in his name.
Not only that, they are to “hand this man over to Satan”. This
may mean that he is to be left unprotected against the power of Satan. This
would follow from his being left to fend for himself, without the support of
his community, in a pagan and highly immoral society. Jesus says:
If that person [the offending member] refuses
to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if the offender refuses to listen
even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. (Matt
18:17)
In effect, the person is to be excommunicated.
The purpose of this punishment is twofold: it is hoped that
the afflictions he will experience from his being ostracised will destroy his
misguided sensuality and bring him back into the saving arms of Christ on the
day of judgement. The purpose is to heal both the community and the
sinner—Jesus came to save and not to condemn.
With examples like this, Paul tells the Corinthians there is
not much for them to boast or be proud about. Although he has been speaking of
only one person, he says they should realise that even a tiny amount of yeast
can leaven a large batch of dough. Generally in the Bible, yeast is taken as a
symbol of corruption and sin. The example is something like our saying that one
bad apple can spoil a whole barrelful. The community here is being called on to
get rid of the yeast of sin, represented by this wrongdoer, because they are
called to be an unleavened batch of dough—new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17).
Paul then links the image with Jesus as “our paschal lamb”.
Jesus is now the paschal Lamb of God who was sacrificed and his blood poured
out on the cross. Through his actions the new covenant was sealed, replacing
the old Pasch in which a lamb was sacrificed and eaten. Christ, the Lamb of
God, was crucified on Passover day, a celebration that began the evening before
the Passover meal was eaten (see Ex 12:8). By his death on the cross, Christ
fulfilled the true meaning of the Jewish sacrifice of the Passover lamb (Isaiah
53:7; John 1:29) and introduced an unending Passover.
“Let us celebrate the festival”, says Paul. He is referring
to the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, which followed the Passover. In the
Jewish calendar, Passover was followed immediately by the festival of
Unleavened Bread. In preparation for this feast all traces of old leavened
bread were removed from the house and, during the festival, only unleavened
bread was eaten. The sequence of these two feasts provides Paul with an image
of Christian living: Christ’s death (the true Passover celebration) is followed
by the life of the Christian community, marked by newness, purity and integrity
(a never-ending feast of unleavened bread). It meant living their life in total
dedication to God, removing from their lives all corrupting behaviour,
wickedness and incestuous relationships. Paul may actually have been writing
around Passover time, so his words can be taken as a small Easter homily, the
earliest in Christian literature.
Expelling someone from our community is something that
rarely happens, except where the Church officially excommunicates some person
according to the norms of Church Law. This can happen by formal declaration or
automatically, depending on the offence committed. We may have some
difficulties with the idea of excommunication although there are clear
precedents in the Old and New Testaments. We may feel it contradicts Jesus’
command to forgive 70 times 7 times. However, we must not confuse two issues.
It is true that we must always be ready to forgive and be
reconciled with the truly repentant person no matter how many times he or she
falls. On the other hand, a Christian community, e.g. a parish, is called on to
give witness to the gospel message and to be an agent in the building up of the
Kingdom of God. It is difficult for a community to do this if there is a member
or a number of members who are repeatedly acting in ways which are
diametrically opposed to the way of life that the gospel represents and who,
after this has been pointed out to them, still refuse to change.
The community lives by certain standards with which it cannot
in conscience compromise. It would seem that, in certain (hopefully rare)
cases, the only option the community has is to ask these people to separate
themselves from the community as long as they continue doing what they are
doing. Of course, if they change and sincerely ask for reconciliation, they
will be welcomed back with open arms. Sadly, we do see a form of
semi-excommunication in our churches when we see people, known to be baptised
Catholics, staying away from the Communion table.
It is probably true to say that in many places we Catholics
(and other Christians too) have a poor awareness of the importance of corporate
witness to the gospel. We tend to think that being a ‘good Catholic’ is a
purely personal affair and that the ‘Church’ is the place where we get the help
we need. As a result, we may at times be too tolerant of “bad apples” among us
and thus greatly weaken the witness we are called to give.
Commentary on Luke
6:6-11
Immediately following the incident of Jesus’ disciples
plucking the grains in the cornfield, we have another confrontation with
religious leaders also on a Sabbath day. This one is even more sinister as it
involves what is called in some police movies a ‘set up’ or ‘entrapment’.
Jesus had gone into the local synagogue, as was his practice
on the Sabbath, and began to teach. Right in front of him was a man “whose
right hand was withered”—no doubt a condition he was born with. There were
scribes and Pharisees in the congregation and, we are told, they “were watching
him” to see whether he would heal the man on a Sabbath day so that they could
accuse him of breaking the Law.
Medical work was forbidden on the Sabbath because it
normally took time. Jesus, of course, healed with just a word, but even if he
did not, could one say that healing was against the spirit of the Sabbath? At
the same time, it is also worth noting that the man was suffering from a
chronic and probably non-painful disability. There was no need for him to be
cured on the spot; it could easily have waited until the next day.
That gives further point to Jesus’ argument. The poor man
had clearly been ‘planted’ by the religious authorities. He was being used as
bait for their malicious ends. For the Pharisees and their co-conspirators, the
man and his plight were secondary. Their goal was to prove their point and the
man was seen as a useful tool.
Jesus, of course, is fully aware of what is going on. He
speaks directly to the man with the withered hand:
Come and stand in the middle.
In some translations, the word “come” is stated as “Rise up”
and is used as an indication of what is going to take place; the man is going
to be given new life. Nor is there any secrecy. What Jesus is going to do will
be seen by all.
But first he puts a question to the whole congregation,
scribes and Pharisees included:
I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the
Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?
There is really no question because the answer is so
obvious. But it was not the way these Pharisees were thinking.
Their question would be very different: “Is it right to obey
the Law or to violate it?” For them the Law—every letter of the Law—was
paramount. There is an irony in Jesus’ question because Jesus is planning to
bring healing into a man’s life, while they were preparing to bring about his
destruction. Who was really breaking the Sabbath?
In contrast to the Pharisees’ perspective, for Jesus the Law
was relative to the true and the good. No implementation of a law can offend
the true and the good. And sometimes the following of the true and the good may
have to go against the letter of the law. What is legal is not always moral. It
can be immoral, that is, evil, to obey a law in certain circumstances. What is
moral sometimes transcends the law and may even contradict the law.
Jesus, hearing no dissenting answer, and:
After looking around at all of them…said to him, “Stretch
out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored.
The scribes and Pharisees:
…were filled with fury and began discussing with one
another what they might do to Jesus.
Their plans had been brought to nought. They showed no
pleasure that a crippled man had been made whole. Their interpretation of the
Law had been shown to be wanting and they had to get back at Jesus.
Such situations are by no means unknown in our Christian
life and in our Church. We will run into situations where doing good may be in
conflict with traditional regulations and legal formulae.
We will find ourselves in situations where contemporary
Pharisees will try to put the Church into a straitjacket of narrow-mindedness
and fundamentalism whether it involves our understanding of the Scripture or
the liturgy or morality or something else. These are people who put the letter
of the laws, regulations and rubrics before love. For them it is more important
to observe the externals of rules than to be a loving person. Let us pray that
we are not such people.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Monday,
September 7, 2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
God our Father,
You redeem us and make us Your children
in Christ. Look upon us, give us true freedom and bring us to the inheritance
You promised.
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 - Luke 6: 6-11
On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught,
and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the
Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that
they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions
and said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up and stand before
us." And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, "I ask
you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save
life rather than to destroy it?" Looking around at them all, he then said
to him, "Stretch out your hand." He did so and his hand was restored.
But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.
Reflection
•
Context: This passage presents Jesus who cures a
man with a withered hand. Different from the context of chapters 3 and 4 in
which Jesus is alone, now here He is surrounded by His disciples and the women
who go around with Him. Therefore, here we have Jesus always moving. In the
first stages of this journey the reader finds different ways of listening to
the Word of Jesus on the part of those who follow Him and which, definitively,
could be summarized in two experiences, which recall, in turn, two types of
approaches: that of Peter (5: 1-11) and that of the centurion (7: 1-10). The
first one encounters Jesus who invites Him after the miraculous catch to become
a fisher of men; then he falls on his knees before Jesus: “Leave me, Lord, I am
a sinful man” (5: 8). The second one does not have any direct communication
with Jesus: he has heard people speak very well about Jesus and he sends his
envoys to ask for the cure of one of his servants who is dying; he is asking
for something not for himself, but for a person who was a favorite of his. The
figure of Peter expresses the attitude of the one who, discovering himself a
sinner, places all his acts under the influence of the Word of Jesus. The
centurion, showing solicitude for the servant, learns to listen to God. Well,
between these itineraries or attitudes which characterize the itinerant journey
of Jesus, is placed the cure of the man who presents the withered hand. This
event of the miracle takes place in a context of debate or controversy: the
ears of corn picked on the Sabbath and on the act of curing on a Saturday,
precisely the withered hand. Between the two discussions there is the crucial
role played by the Word of Jesus: “The Son of man is master of the Sabbath” (6:
5). Continuing with this passage we ask ourselves what is the meaning of this
withered hand? It is a symbol of the salvation of man who is taken back to the
original moment, that of creation. The right hand, then, expresses human
acting. Jesus then, gives back to this day of the week, Saturday, the deepest
significance: it is the day of joy, of the restoration and not of limitation.
What Jesus shows is the Messianic Saturday and not the legalistic one: the
cures that He does are signs of the Messianic times, of restoration, of the
liberation of man.
•
The dynamic of the miracle. Luke places before
Jesus a man who has a withered hand, dry, paralyzed. Nobody is interested in
asking for his cure, much less the one concerned. And just the same, the
sickness was not only an individual problem, but its effects had repercussion
on the whole community. But in our account, we do not have so much the problem
of the sickness as that of the aspect that it was done on Saturday. Jesus is
criticized because He cured on Saturday. The difference with the Pharisees is
that they on Saturday do not act on the basis of the commandment of love, which
is the essence of the Law. Jesus, after having ordered the man to get in the
middle of the assembly, formulates a decisive question: “Is it permitted on the
Sabbath to do good or to do evil?” The space for the answer is restricted: to
cure or not to cure, or rather, to cure or to destroy (v.9). Let us imagine the
difficulty of the Pharisees: it is forbidden that evil be done on Saturday or
lead man to damnation, and even less to cure, because help was permitted only
in case of extreme need. The Pharisees feel provoked and this causes
aggressiveness in them. But it is evident that Jesus’ intention in curing on
Saturday is for the good of man and in the first place, for the one who is
sick. This motivation of love invites us to reflect on our behavior and to
found it on that of Jesus who saves. Jesus is not only attentive to cure the
sick person but is interested also in the cure of His enemies: to cure them
from their distorted attitude in their observance of the Law; to observe
Saturday without freeing their neighbor from their misery and sickness is not
in accordance with the will of God. According to the Evangelist, the purpose of
the Sabbath is to do good, to save, like Jesus has done during His earthly
life.
Personal Questions
•
Do you feel involved in the words of Jesus: how
do you commit yourself in your service to life? Do you know how to create the
necessary conditions so that others may live better?
•
Do you know how to place at the center of your
attention and of your commitment every person and all their requirements?
•
Reflect on times you had a choice (big or small)
to help another person, to do good, versus fulfill a requirement or rule. Did
you choose rightly? Did you choose as Jesus would have?
Concluding Prayer
Joy for all who take refuge in You, endless songs of gladness!
You shelter them, they rejoice in You, those who love Your
name. (Ps 5: 11)
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