Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection September 07, 2024
Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time
07th September 2024 (Saturday)
Psalter: Week 2
Reading of the Day
First Reading: 1 Corinthians 4:6b-15
Brethren: You may learn by me and Apollos not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favour of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Psalm 145:17-18, 19-20, 21 (R. 18a)
R/. The Lord is close to all who call him
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. I am the way, and the truth, and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father except through me.
R/. Alleluia.
Gospel : Luke 6:1-5
On a sabbath, while Jesus was going through the cornfields, his disciples plucked and ate some ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
Saturday – Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time
Guidelines: All that we are, all that we have, and all that we do is due to God through the benevolent mediation of some good souls. Therefore, the more we are rich with God’s gifts, the more we must be grateful, humble, and responsible
1. Laws and rules are certainly needed in life because, without them, one may easily become lawless, undisciplined, and indulgent. In that sense, adherence to laws is good. But there is always the danger of rigidity and legalism, which will breach the warmth, depth, tenderness, and promptness of charity.
2. The real spirit underlying the letter of every law is Fidelity to God’s will and charity to others. A law loses its purpose and direction, its beauty and charm, its value and worth when the letter overshadows the spirit of the law.
3. In fact, these two are the supreme laws, and all the other laws and rules must subscribe to these two and must foster them. One who is truly law-abiding, will understand and abide by this twofold spirit of the law.
4. No good law should deviate us from the Lord, or fail us in charity. Any law or any practice that pretends to be above God’s will and is contrary to the good of others is defective and questionable.
5. One who fails in this spirit will fall into hypocrisy, jealousy, and fault-finding like the Pharisees and the scribes in the gospel. It would be wrong to interpret Jesus as if he disdains or minimizes rules or directives when he says, Sabbath is made for man, or Son of Man is Lord of Sabbath. What these affirmations denote is charity and good to others, the primacy of God, and obedience to Him.
Practice: God wants us to follow rules to be disciplined and directed to Him, but not to be subservient to them. Rules are not to subjugate us with a spirit of slavery, but to facilitate and regulate us into a spirit of surrender to God
