Italian Father Capuchin. Papal diplomat.
Canonized in 1881 Elevation to church teacher in 1959
Invitation
May I hereby call your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with you the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, no one except,
can experience that joy by opening his heart
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Considerations
We read today the text we also know from Holy Week:The ritual of the paschal lamb celebrated to this day by Jews in remembrance of the night when God led the people of Israel out of Egypt. On Pessach, the Jews say, a free Jewish nation was born. At the same time, this reading announces the tenth plague. The nine plagues could still be seen as extraordinary natural phenomena. This tenth plague is presented as the work of God Himself.
FIRST READING Ex. 11, 10-12, 14
In the evening twilight you must slaughter the lamb ;
when I see the blood on your houses, I will pass you by.
From the Book of Exodus
In those days
Moses and Aaron performed many miracles before Pharaoh ,
but the Lord made Pharaoh obstinate;
he would not let the Israelites leave his land.
God the Lord addressed the word
to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, and spoke :
“This month ye must regard as the beginning month ,
as the first month of the year.
“Make known to all the community of Israel the following :
On the tenth of this month
every family must choose a lamb,
each house one lamb.
“If a family is too small for a lamb ,
then, taking into account the number of persons,
do it together with their nearest neighbor.
“When distributing the lamb
everyone’s appetites must be taken into account.
“The lamb must be unblemished, of the male sex and one-year-old.
“Ge can take a sheep or a goat for it.
“You must keep the animals
Until the fourteenth of the month.
“Then all the gathered community of Israel must slaughter them
at dusk.
“After that thou must take some blood
and smear it on both the doorposts
and over the upper beam of the door
of all the houses where the lamb is eaten.
“In the same night the meat is to be eaten,
roasted on the fire.
“It is to be eaten with unleavened bread
and bitter herbs.
“You may not eat it raw or boiled in water,
but only roasted on the fire,
with head, feet and entrails.
“Take care that there is nothing left of it when the sun rises.
“What would be left at sunrise thou must burn.
“And this is the way thou must eat the lamb :
Gird up thy loins, shod thy feet,
and thy rod in thy hand.
“Haste ye must eat it, for it is Easter before the Lord.
“This night I will pass through Egypt
and all the firstborn of Egypt,
both men and animals, I will smite.
“To all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.
“But the blood on the houses will be a sign
that ye dwell there.
“When I see the blood on your houses ,
I will pass you by.
“No destructive plague will strike you when I strike Egypt.
“This day ye must make it a day of remembrance,
you must celebrate it as a feast to the glory of the Lord.
“From generation to generation
ye must celebrate him as an everlasting institution.”
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 116(115), 12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18
I lift the sacrificial cup,
the Name of the Lord I call upon.
Or : Alleluia.
How can I give thanks
For all that the Lord gave me?
I lift the sacrificial cup,
I call upon the name of the Lord.
For precious in his eyes
the life of whoever worships Him.
O Lord, I am your servant,
thy servant, the son of thy handmaid,
Thou hast slain my fetters.
With sacrifices I will praise Thee,
the Name of the Lord I call upon.
I will fulfill my vows
where all His people see it.
ALLELUIA Ps. 119(118), 18
Alleluia.
Open my eyes to behold, Lord,
the glory of your law.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mt. 12, 1-8
The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
Once Jesus went through the cornfields on a Sabbath ;
now his disciples became hungry
and began to pick ears of corn and eat them.
The Pharisees saw this and said to Him :
“Your disciples are doing something there that is not lawful on the Sabbath.”
He answered them :
“Have ye not read what David did
When he and his companions became hungry ?
“How he went into the house of God and ate the showbread
which neither he nor his companions ,
but only the priests were allowed to eat ?
“Or have ye not read in the Law,
that the priests violate every Sabbath in the temple
and yet are not guilty ?
“However, I say to you :
Here is more than the temple.
“If only
realized to you what it means :
I want mercy rather than sacrifice,
then ye would not have condemned these innocents.
“For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
237. On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the “first day” of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality. It also proclaims “man’s eternal rest in God”. In this way, Christian spirituality incorporates the value of relaxation and festivity. We tend to demean contemplative rest as something unproductive and unnecessary, but this is to do away with the very thing which is most important about work: its meaning. We are called to include in our work a dimension of receptivity and gratuity, which is quite different from mere inactivity. Rather, it is another way of working, which forms part of our very essence. It protects human action from becoming empty activism; it also prevents that unfettered greed and sense of isolation which make us seek personal gain to the detriment of all else. The law of weekly rest forbade work on the seventh day, “so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant, and the stranger, may be refreshed” (Ex 23:12). Rest opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centred on the Eucharist, sheds it light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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