TENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Friday

Year II

Readings

First Reading
1 Kgs 19:9a, 11–16

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 27:7–8a, 8b–9abc, 13–14

Gospel
Mt 5:27–32

Meditation on Today’s Readings

Taken from the Vatican II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois

In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues to interpret the law and the prophets. He says that as anger lies at the root of murder, so lust lies at the root of adultery, adding a stern warning: “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away!” The urgency and the intimacy of his language betray his intimate knowledge of our frail and fallen humanity. After all, he is our brother. Paul too knows all about human frailty. “We are afflicted in every way,” he writes to the Corinthians. And in 1 Kings the prophet Elijah, having been “constantly…given up to death” as Paul might say, finally gains the safety of Mount Horeb (Sinai) only to have God send him back into the fray.

Elijah, Paul, and the human Jesus were all “earthen vessels” like us. Through them and through us the power of God is revealed. So like them, we must often seek out the mountain, that place of prayer, where God speaks in “a tiny whispering sound.”

The copyright for the Sunday Missal Introductions is:
Copyright (c) 2001, Daughters of St. Paul
The copyright for the Weekday Missal Introduction is:
Copyright (c) 2002, Daughters of St. Paul