Gospel: July 18, 2025
July 18, 2025 (Friday)
15th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 3 (Green/White)
St. Camillus de Lellis, priest
Ps 116:12-13, 15 & 16bc, 17-18
I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
1st Reading: Exodus 11:10–12:14*
Gospel: Matthew 12:1-8
It happened that, Jesus was walking through the wheat fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry; and they began to pick some heads of wheat, to crush and 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, though neither he nor his men had the right to eat it, but only the priests. And have you not read in the law, how, on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple desecrate the Sabbath, 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:
“He is the Lord of the Sabbath.”
There is a story of a country parish in Ireland where the farmers asked for the priest to pray for rain after a long period of dry weather. The priest met the farmers at the door of the church, and said, “You men of little faith. Not one of you brought an umbrella!” The Israelites are dressed for departure, and they are commanded to eat hastily, but Pharaoh has not allowed them to go yet. And so, their actions and preparations all show their faith in God, trusting that he will free them from slavery that very night. God leads his people out of slavery into freedom.
Likewise, the Son of God goes before his disciples, leading them into the freedom of the children of God, achieved through the Passover of his own death on the cross, through the destruction of the temple of his own body. Christ is greater than the Temple. He is Lord of the Sabbath. And so, we are to worship in him, in his name, and follow him. We show our faith in God by our actions, just like the Israelites. May our actions reflect a deep trust in the Lord.
