July 24, 2013

USCCB »  Bible »  Daily Readings

« July 23  |  July 25 »

Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time 
Lectionary: 397

Reading 1EX 16:1-5, 9-15

The children of Israel set out from Elim,
and came into the desert of Sin,
which is between Elim and Sinai,
on the fifteenth day of the second month
after their departure from the land of Egypt.
Here in the desert the whole assembly of the children of Israel
grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The children of Israel said to them,
“Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!”

The people of Israel were hungry.  So they complained to Moses that they were starving and would have preferred to go home to Egypt.

Then the LORD said to Moses,
“I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.
Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion;
thus will I test them,
to see whether they follow my instructions or not.
On the sixth day, however, when they prepare what they bring in,
let it be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

So, God gave them bread from heaven to eat.  Manna, as it is called, is a prefiguring of the true Bread of Heaven, Jesus Christ.  The manna did not give eternal life to those who ate it.  But those who eat the true Bread of Heaven, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, do receive eternal life.

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the whole congregation
of the children of Israel:
Present yourselves before the LORD,
for he has heard your grumbling.”

So, Moses told Aaron to gather the people before God.

When Aaron announced this to the whole assembly of the children of Israel,
they turned toward the desert, and lo,
the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud!

And when the assembly of the people was gathered, they turned to the desert and there was God.

The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
“I have heard the grumbling of the children of Israel.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”

And the Lord told Moses that in the evening, He would rain down quail for them to eat and in the morning, bread.

In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.
In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,
and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert
were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.
On seeing it, the children of Israel asked one another, “What is this?”
for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them,
“This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.”

And so He did.  And in the morning, when the people saw the manna, they asked, "What is it?"  And Moses reminded them that this is the bread God had given them to eat.

Responsorial PsalmPS 78:18-19, 23-24, 25-26, 27-28

R. (24b) The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
They tempted God in their hearts
by demanding the food they craved.
Yes, they spoke against God, saying,
“Can God spread a table in the desert?”
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Yet he commanded the skies above
and the doors of heaven he opened;
He rained manna upon them for food
and gave them heavenly bread.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.
He stirred up the east wind in the heavens,
and by his power brought on the south wind.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
And he rained meat upon them like dust,
and, like the sand of the sea, winged fowl,
Which fell in the midst of their camp
round about their tents.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

Manna, the bread which God rained down on the Israelites in the desert, prefigures the Eucharist.  The Bread which we eat at Communion.  Unlike the Eucharist, those who ate the manna still died.  But those who eat the Eucharist, rise to eternal life.

GospelMT 13:1-9

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore.
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:

The people gathered around Jesus and He told them the parable of the sower.

“A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.

The sower represents the preacher.  And He sows the Word of God when he preaches.  But those who hear it on the path are the ones who hear it but don't understand it and therefore succumb to Satan's temptations. 

Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.

and those who hear the Word of God on rocky ground are those who receive the word with joy and understand it, but don't care enough to hold on to it.

Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.

And those which heard the Word of God amongst the weeds are they  which receive the word but the concerns of the world choke it out them.

But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

But those who receive it in the rich soil, gather it into their hearts and live it throughout their lives, producing abundant fruit to eternal life.