July 27, 2013

USCCB »  Bible »  Daily Readings

« July 26  |  July 28 »

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time 
Lectionary: 400

Reading 1EX 24:3-8

When Moses came to the people

and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD, 

they all answered with one voice,

“We will do everything that the LORD has told us.”

This is the Covenant which the people of Israel made with God.  The Covenant from which they fell away, many times.

Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and,

rising early the next day,

he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar

and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 

Then, having sent certain young men of the children of Israel

to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls

as peace offerings to the LORD,

Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls;

the other half he splashed on the altar.

Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people,

who answered, “All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do.”

Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,

“This is the blood of the covenant

that the LORD has made with you

in accordance with all these words of his.”

This foreshadowed the coming of Jesus Christ.  Scripture says:

Hebrews 10:4-10

King James Version (KJV)

4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.  5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:  6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.  7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.  8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;  9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.  10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Responsorial PsalmPS 50:1B-2, 5-6, 14-15

R. (14a) Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
“Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
“Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfill your vows to the Most High;
Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me.”
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

I don't understand why "praise" is considered a "sacrifice".  To me, a sacrifice entails some sort of pain, deprivation or want.  But praise does not cause any of those things.  

Unless the Scripture means that our sacrifices made joyfully for the love of God are a form of praise.   Elsewhere, Scripture says:

2 Corinthians 9:7

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 

GospelMT 13:24-30

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man
who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?’
He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’
His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

This is a description of the Church.  In the Church, we have righteous people, the wheat.  We also find sinners in the Church.  And sometimes, it is very difficult to distinguish one from another.  Only God knows the workings of a man's heart.  I remember a new convert who recently said, "I will be a good Catholic in an age when virtually every Catholic is in mortal sin."

In so doing, that new convert became one of the sinners and not one of the righteous wheat.  Because it is a mortal sin to judge your brother wrongfully.  The weeds are alive and well, living amongst the wheat and we don't know whether we are weeds or wheat.  God is our judge folks.  Mind your own business and do your best to do God's will.  Perhaps He will have mercy upon you and let you enter the Kingdom of Heaven:

1 Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?