TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Monday

Year I

Readings

First Reading
Jon 1:1–2:1–2, 11

Responsorial Psalm
Jon 2:3, 4, 5, 8

Gospel
Lk 10:25–37

Meditation on Today’s Readings

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

The story of Jonah and the parable of the Good Samaritan both share an element of surprise. Commanded by God to preach to the Ninevites, a people the Israelites hated for their cruelty to the nations they conquered, Jonah makes for Tarshish. While he sleeps in the hold of the ship, a violent storm threatens to destroy him and everyone else aboard. The crew soon discovers that Jonah’s flight from God has placed them in peril. But the unexpected humanity of these pagan sailors surprises the reader. They throw Jonah into the sea with great reluctance and only as a last resort. Similarly in the parable of Jesus, the surprise lies in the unexpected humanity of the hated Samaritan. Both stories aim to shock their hearers into new ways of seeing and acting.

Paul based his entire apostolate on this new way of seeing and acting. He proclaimed to the Galatians the Gospel he received as a revelation from Jesus Christ: that salvation is possible for all human beings who actively love God and neighbor.

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