July 16
Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intentions
7:45 AM – Jim Hughes / Family
Prayer for Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Readings
First Reading
Exodus 11:10—12:14
Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders in Pharaoh’s presence, the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let the children of Israel leave his land.
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it. The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb. That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole, with its head and shanks and inner organs. None of it must be kept beyond the next morning; whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.
“This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD. For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD! But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.
“This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 116:12-13, 15 and 16bc, 17-18
R. (13) I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation
John 10:27
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord,
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
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.”
“I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.”
Reflection
Today in the Gospel of Matthew, we hear about the Pharisees. They are again following close behind Jesus always on the lookout for any movement that Jesus or his followers might make that would go against the laws of the Sabbath.
Jesus and his disciples were hungry, and as they walked through a field of grain, they began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. This was unlawful, according to the Sabbath law, and the Pharisees point this out to Jesus. When we see the Pharisees act in this way, we may think of them as the self-important “faithful” that they truly were, but they provide an important counterpoint to Christ. Through their actions, Christ can explain what God desires, not an adherence to a law, but love within ones heart for God and their fellow travelers in life.
As Catholic Christians, do we find ourselves acting as the Pharisees do? Are we critical of minutiae within the actions of others, as opposed to loving them for the God given good that resides in them? If we are, may we, with God’s help and the example of Jesus, change our ways. Let us focus on love, and let God judge.
Peace,
Fr. John
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