Today's Readings
First Reading
1 Corinthians 5:1–8
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord., Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 5:5–6; 7; 12
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil will not sojourn with you. The boastful will not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
so that those who love your name may exult in you.
Gospel
Luke 6:6–11
On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Daily Reflection
By Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, the Pharisees plot against Jesus because he healed a man on the Sabbath.
Christians know something of God from sources philosophical, mythological, historical, and poetic, but their deepest grasp of the nature of God comes from Jesus of Nazareth, the Logos, the spoken Word of the Father. This Jesus was the friend of the marginalized, the healer of the disabled and the sick, the advocate of the forgotten, the forgiver of sins. His mission was to carry the fire of divine mercy to all those who were cut off from it.
In doing so, he excited the wrath and opposition of the powerful, all those whose status depended upon an ideology of violence, differentiation, and exclusion. When he was born, Herod trembled, and when he came on the public scene, Pharisees schemed and protectors of the establishment plotted to do away with him.
In the end, he was put to death by a conspiracy of the secular and religious authorities, and, in his moment of greatest danger, he was betrayed, denied, and abandoned by even his dearest friends. Jesus did not simply die; he was executed, eliminated. And he died precisely because of the way he lived.
Bishop Robert Barron
Founder, Word on Fire
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.