July 19, 2013

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Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time 
Lectionary: 393

Reading 1EX 11:10—12:14

Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders

in Pharaoh’s presence,

the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate,

and he would not let the children of Israel leave his land.

Why did the Lord make Pharaoh obstinate?  It is written:

Romans 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.  24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:  25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

 When someone turns away from God in a full act of will, God gives them what they want.  God knew that Pharaoh had hardened his heart against Him.   Therefore, God used Pharaoh as an example, in this life, of what would happen to those who oppose Him.

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

“This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;

you shall reckon it the first month of the year.

Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month

every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb,

one apiece for each household.

If a family is too small for a whole lamb,

it shall join the nearest household in procuring one

and shall share in the lamb

in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.

The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.

You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.

You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then,

with the whole assembly of Israel present,

it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.

They shall take some of its blood

and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel

of every house in which they partake of the lamb.

That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh

with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole,

with its head and shanks and inner organs.

None of it must be kept beyond the next morning;

whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.

“This is how you are to eat it: 

with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,

you shall eat like those who are in flight.

It is the Passover of the LORD.

This is a prefiguring of the Passover of Jesus Christ, the Mass, wherein we eat the Body and drink the Blood of our Lord in order that the angel of death may pass over us and we may live forever in Christ.

For on this same night I will go through Egypt,

striking down every first born of the land, both man and beast,

and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!

But the blood will mark the houses where you are.

Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;

thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,

no destructive blow will come upon you.

“This day shall be a memorial feast for you,

which all your generations shall celebrate

with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”

And we continue to celebrate the Passover today, in the Liturgy of the Catholic Church, the Mass.

Responsorial PsalmPS 116:12-13, 15 AND 16BC, 17-18

R. (13) I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

How shall I make a return to the LORD

for all the good he has done for me?

The cup of salvation I will take up,

and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD

is the death of his faithful ones.

I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;

you have loosed my bonds.

R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,

and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

My vows to the LORD I will pay

in the presence of all his people.

R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

The cup of salvation was given by Jesus Christ when He gave us the chalice of the New Covenant in His Blood:

Matthew 26:28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 

GospelMT 12:1-8

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.
His disciples were hungry
and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
“See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.”
He said to the them, “Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry,
how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,
which neither he nor his companions
but only the priests could lawfully eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?

Everyone focuses upon David in this metaphor which Jesus used.  But Jesus is not speaking primarily about David.  He is comparing the ministerial priests who can eat the bread of offering in the temple to the Apostles who are eating the wheat on the Sabbath.  And in the next metaphor, He is again comparing the priests who work in the temple on the Sabbath, to the Apostles who are working in His service on the Sabbath.  Jesus is revealing the ministerial priesthood of the New Testament.   His Apostles are His priests.

I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

Jesus here, reveals that He is God.  Only God is the Lord of the Sabbath.  Jesus reveals Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath, greater than any Temple and simultaneously reveals that the Apostles are His priests.