Friday 17th July Feria
Gospel – 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord
The Mass intention is for Peg’s Intentions
Reflection:
In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus had been for a walk with his disciples and had stopped by to pick some ears of corn in a cornfield. In this reading we meet Jesus as one who believes that all law must serve the law of love. He calls this his commandment and in it he highlights his love for us as what must shape the way we see others and ourselves, the way we relate with God and with all creation. The law finds its fullness in Jesus, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil”.
Be with Jesus for a short while and with his essential call to believe the Good News of His love for you. This is Jesus’ call to love yourself and others as He has loved you in the many ways you have witnessed Him doing this.
- Is this how I live – putting love before all else?
Fr John
