DAILY- HOMILY

July 21, 2017 – FRIDAY, 15th Week in Ordinary Time 

St. Lawrence of Brindisi

Priest and Doctor of the Church

Green

Ex 11:10 - 12,14 / Mt 12:1 - 8

     St. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559 - 1619), an Italian Capuchin priest, preached against Luther.

GOSPEL READING:           Mt 12: 1 - 8

     It happened that Jesus walked through the wheat fields on a sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and began to pick some heads of wheat and crush them to eat the grain. When the Pharisees noticed this, they said to Jesus, "Look at your disciples; they are doing what is prohibited on the sabbath!"

     Jesus answered, "Have you not read what David did when he and his men were hungry? He went into the house of God, and they ate the bread offered to God, although neither he nor his men had the right to eat it, but only the priests. And have you not read in the Law that on the sabbath the priests in the Temple break the sabbath rest, yet they are not guilty?

     "I tell you, there is greater than the Temple here. If you really knew the meaning of the words: It is mercy I want, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. Besides the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."

REFLECTION

     The Gospel reading tells us of the continuing controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees. Walking through a wheat field on the sabbath, his disciples in their hunger picked heads of wheat to eat: the Pharisees criticized them for violating the sabbath, doing forbidden work.

     Jesus defends his disciples by reminding the Pharisees how David and his companions, when hungry, seemed to have ignored regulations by eating bread in the Temple reserved for the priests and how priests at the Temple did not violate the sabbath rest in their work.

     In the parallel passage in Mark, Jesus says, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. So the Son of Man is master even of the sabbath." (Mk

2:27)

     What was the sabbath? "Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you will labor and do your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath for Yahweh, your God. Do no work on that day, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servants, men or women, nor your animals, nor the stranger who is staying with you." (Ex 20: 8 -10)

     Jesus healed on the sabbath. At the cure of a man with a paralyzed hand, "What does the Law allow us to do on the sabbath? To do good or to do harm?" (Mk 3: 4) Curing a crippled woman, "Should she not be freed from her bonds on the sabbath?" (Lk 13: 16) At the cure of the man born blind, "How can a sinner perform such miraculous signs?" (Jn 9: 16)

     What does it mean "to keep holy the sabbath day"?

WE PRAY FOR MTQ DAILY PRAYER INTENTIONS:

BIRTHDAY

     APOLLO U. JIMENEZ

     JJEWELLYN YANG

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most. 

Have a good day!

**************************************************

These reflections are distributed free and are for personal use only. Feel free to send the Daily Prayer reflections to your friends, colleagues and relatives; however, if you do, please include the following: 

  +================================================+

   |  The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the

   |  priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish

   |  distributed free and for personal use only.  

  +================================================+