January 22, 2013

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Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time — Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
Lectionary: 312

Reading 1 from St. Paul's epistle to the Hebrews
Heb 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.

St. Paul assures the Christians of Jewish descent, that God does not overlook their good deeds towards the Church.

We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness
for the fulfillment of hope until the end,

St. Paul wants everyone to patiently continue in doing good until God rewards them with eternal life. That is what we all hope for.

so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who,
through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises.

And he gives us models of faith to follow.  The saints and the holy people in our lives who are doing their best to follow Christ and inherit the promise of salvation:

Romans 8:17
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

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.

Abraham is one of those examples.  And St. Paul offers him as an example of faith which we should follow.

Now, men swear by someone greater than themselves;
for them an oath serves as a guarantee
and puts an end to all argument.

When men swear an oath, they are using God to guarantee their words.

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,

God can go no higher than Himself.  His word is immutable and He is immutable.  Therefore He is simply emphasizing His immutability.

we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged
to hold fast to the hope that lies before us.

But we can note this oath of God's and be greatly encouraged that His promise is unfailing.

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.

And this encouragement increases our hope which is our anchor tying our soul to Christ who is in heaven, a High Priest forever because He is the Son of God.

Responsorial Psalm
ps 111:1-2, 4-5, 9 and 10c

R. (5) The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.or:
R. Alleluia.

I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart
in the company and assembly of the just.
Great are the works of the LORD,
exquisite in all their delights.

R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.or:
R. Alleluia.

He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the LORD.
He has given food to those who fear him;
he will forever be mindful of his covenant.

R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.or:
R. Alleluia.

He has sent deliverance to his people;
he has ratified his covenant forever;
holy and awesome is his name.
His praise endures forever.

R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.or:
R. Alleluia.

God's covenant is towards His faithful.  If we are faithful to Him, He will save us.

Deut 30:

19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark
Mk 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.

On a certain Sabbath, the disciples were following Jesus through a field of grain.  Thus they began to make a path through the field and picking some of the grain to eat.

At this the Pharisees said to him,
“Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”

The Pharisees objected accusing them of committing the sin of working 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.”

This is a misdirection.  The key words here are "that only the priests could lawfully eat".  Jesus is not comparing the Apostles to David and his men.  He is comparing the Apostles to the priests.  This is made clear in another recounting of the same story:
Matthew 12:5-7
King James Version (KJV)
5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?  6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

The Apostles are Christ's new priesthood and are free to eat anything on the Sabbath.