Friday in the fifteenth week in Ordinary Time

Invitation

May I take this opportunity to draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?

This invitation is intended to share with you the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, without exception,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.

Available every day

Consideration

The illness and healing of King Hezekiah may well be historical facts, but they also have a symbolic meaning. Hezekiah’s illness is the illness of Israel. You will not live any longer. Hezekiah’s healing, achieved through repentance and prayer, may therefore hold a promise for Israel. We regularly read Hezekiah’s beautiful song of thanksgiving following his healing in the Office (Morning Prayer for the second Tuesday). It encapsulates the whole tension of illness, death and healing. It fits well here as an interlude.

FIRST READING                       Isa. 38, 1–6, 21–22, 7–8

I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.

From the Prophet Isaiah

In those days, Hezekiah became mortally ill.
The prophet Isaiah, son of Amos,
went to him and said to him:
“Thus says the Lord:
Put your house in order,
for you are going to die;
you will not live any longer.”
Then Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall
and prayed to the Lord:
“O Lord,
remember how I have lived before your eyes,
with a faithful and devoted heart,
and how I have done what pleases you!”
And Hezekiah wept aloud.
Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:
“Go to Hezekiah and say to him:
Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David:
I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears.
“Now, I will add fifteen years to your life;
I will save you and this city
from the hand of the king of Assyria;
I will protect this city.”

Isaiah then ordered a fig cake to be brought
and placed on the tumour:
then he would be healed.
And Hezekiah asked:
“By what sign shall I know,
that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”
Isaiah replied:
“This is the sign the Lord will give you
to let you know,
that He will fulfil His word:
The shadow,
which has gone down the steps of Ahaz by the sun,
I will make go back ten steps.”
And the sun went back ten steps on the sundial,
which it had already descended.

INTERLUDE                          Isa. 38, 10, 11, 12abcd, 16

You keep me from the pit of death
and shake off my sins.

I said: in the prime of my life
I reach the gates of the realm of the dead,
deprived of the rest of my years.

I said: ‘I shall never again behold the Lord,
nor shall I ever see another human being.’

My dwelling on earth is being torn down
and brought low like a shepherd’s tent.
The weavers are rolling up my life
and cutting me off from the warp.

I can only live by Your grace,
in You alone does my spirit find courage again.
You can heal me, preserve my life.

GOSPEL                        Matthew 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, on a Sabbath, Jesus was walking through the cornfields;
his disciples grew hungry
and began to pluck and eat ears of corn.
The Pharisees saw this and said to Him:
“Your disciples are doing something that is not permitted on the Sabbath.”
He replied to them:
“Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry?
“How he entered the house of God and ate the showbread,
which neither he nor his companions,
but only the priests were allowed to eat?
“Or have you not read in the Law
that the priests, every Sabbath, in the temple, break the Sabbath
and yet are not guilty?
“But I say to you:
Here is something greater than the temple.
“If only
it had dawned on you what this means:
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice,”
then you would not have condemned these innocent people.
“For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
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