THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Monday

Year I

Readings

First Reading
Rom 8:12–17

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 68:2 and 4, 6–7ab, 20–21

Gospel
Lk 13:10–17

Meditation on Today’s Readings

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

At first glance today’s Gospel seems like just another controversy over sabbath regulations. But a closer look takes us to the heart of Jesus’ ministry. The messianic prophet, who came “to proclaim liberty to captives” (4:18), releases a woman from bondage and restores her dignity as a daughter of Abraham. “She at once stood up straight and glorified God.” Furthermore, as Jesus himself argues, his action is not in conflict but in continuity with the meaning of sabbath. The sabbath was to be a day of rest and release from the bondage of hard labor, for beasts of burden as well as for human beings, for women as well as for men.

For Paul, as we have seen, to be a daughter or a son of Abraham is to be by faith an adopted child of God. In today’s reading, Paul tells the Romans that no less than God’s Spirit testifies to our adoption, and that adoption secures our inheritance with Christ. To this, the passage from Ephesians adds an ethical note: as children of God, we must also “be imitators of God,” loving others as Christ has loved us.

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