Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection January 21, 2025
2nd Week in Ordinary Time
21st January 2025 (Tuesday)
Psalter: Week 2
Readings of the Day
First Reading: Hebrews 6:10-20
Brothers and sisters: God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones. We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises. When God made the promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, and said, I will indeed bless you and multiply you. And so, after patient waiting, Abraham obtained the promise. Now, men swear by someone greater than themselves; for them an oath serves as a guarantee and puts an end to all argument. So when God wanted to give the heirs of his promise an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose, he intervened with an oath, so that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us. This we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil, where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner, becoming high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Psalm 111:1-2, 4-5, 9, 10c (R. 5)
R/. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call.
R/. Alleluia.
Gospel: Mark 2:23-28
As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
Tuesday – 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
Guidelines: There is no greater law and rule in life than the good and happiness of fellow human beings. A law which fails to do good, is no good law
1. Certainly, laws and rules are needed for the smooth running of any society. They provide order and direction. They check and control anti-social or selfish tendencies and acts. They guard against indiscipline and irresponsible freedom. A lawless society or person will be chaotic. Thus, every law is meant ultimately for the welfare and progress of human persons. Any law and rule that threatens the dignity and happiness of the person, and subverts and oppresses his life, is not good.
2. Therefore, the value of every rule and regulation should be judged, only on the basis of its usefulness. The true success of a law is not in a meticulous following of it, but in bringing progress and happiness. In simple, a law is good when it does good to the persons, and when it makes good persons. The heart of a rule is the rule of the heart. The true efficacy of a rule is the ability to look into the heart, to look at the needs of the other. In the words of the first reading, from the letter to the Hebrews, to be truly law-abiding is “not to be sluggish, but to serve others in all love and earnestness”. This is the perfect following of the law: to be steady “imitators of those who inherit the eternal promises, through faith and patience”.
3. The whole fault of the Pharisees and scribes was failing to see and go beyond the letter to this spirit and purpose of the laws. For them, Sabbath was a law, and that must be followed at any cost, even at the cost of neglect of good. Hence, they criticize Jesus’ disciples for breaking the Sabbath, instead of seeing their hunger.
4. But, on the contrary, Jesus looks at the heart of the disciples. He sees their deeper simplicity of heart beyond the apparent violation of Sabbath. He sees the need of their hunger beyond the heartless and uncharitable practice of law of the Pharisees. Hence his famous attestation: “Sabbath for man, and not man for Sabbath.”
Practice: Heart is more important than heartless reasoning. Good is more important than dry rule. Loving and helping the other is more important than keeping the law
