Gospel: July 4, 2025
July 4, 2025 (Friday)
13th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 1 (Green/White)
St. Elizabeth of Portugal
Ps 106:1b-2, 3-4a, 4b-5
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
1st Reading: Genesis 23:1-4, 19; 24:1-8, 62-67
Sarah lived 127 years. She died at Kiriatharba that is Hebron in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to weep and mourn for Sarah. Abraham left his dead one and spoke to the Hittites, “I am only a stranger among you; give me a burial place among you, so that I may bury my dead.” After this Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of Machpelah. Abraham was now old and well on in years, and the Lord had blessed him in every way.
Abraham said to his senior servant, who was his steward, “Put your hand under my thigh and you will swear to me by the Lord, God of heaven and earth, that you will not choose a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom we live; rather it is to my country and my kinsfolk that you will go to choose a wife for my son, Isaac.” The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not want to follow me to this country.
In that case should I take your son to the country you came from?” Abraham said to him, “In no way will you take my son back. For the Lord, God of heaven and God of earth, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, spoke to me and swore to me that he would give this country to my race. He will send his angel before you, that you may find a wife for my son. But if the woman is unwilling to follow you, you will be free of this oath.
In any case you are not to take my son down there.” Now Isaac had come from the well of Lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negeb. As Isaac went out in the early evening to meditate in the field, he looked up and saw camels coming. Rebekah also looked up and when she saw Isaac she alighted from her camel and said to the servant, “Who is this man in the field coming to meet us?” He replied, “It is my master!” She then covered her face with her veil.
The servant related to Isaac all that he had done and Isaac brought Rebekah into the tent of Sarah, his mother. He made her his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus moved on from there, he saw a man named Matthew, at his seat in the custom-house; and he said to him, “Follow me!” And Matthew got up and followed him. Now it happened, while Jesus was at table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and his disciples.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why is it that your master eats with sinners and tax collectors?” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. Go, and find out what this means: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Reflection:
“He eats with sinners and tax collectors.”
The Pharisees kept to a strict form of observance of the Jewish Law. The name coming from the Hebrew and Aramaic parush literally means “one who is separated.” They kept away from everything that was impure according to the Law. The Scriptures encourage us to keep away from evil and from all that would lead us away from God (Ps 1:1-2). Likewise, the Church teaches that we should not place ourselves into occasions of sin.
However, the Pharisees turned separation from sin into a separation from people, thinking that they were religiously superior (Jn 7:49). Jesus, on the other hand, “eats with sinners and tax collectors.” Jesus is not placing himself in an occasion of sin. Rather, he is sitting with the sinful to bring God’s mercy to them and invite them to a new way of living. Here God is reaching out to humanity in its frailty rather than separating himself from it.
The Church has the mission to continue this same task, to bring God’s mercy into people’s lives so that they might draw closer to God rather than feel rejected. Thus, Pope Francis describes the Church as a “field hospital for the vulnerable.”
