Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Monday in the Twenty-Eighth Week of Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
467

FIRST READING

Gal 4:22-24,26-27,31-5:1

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.”So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

PSALM

PS 113:1B-2, 3-4, 5A AND 6-7

Response: Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.

Praise, you servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD.
Blessed be the name of the LORD
both now and forever.

From the rising to the setting of the sun
is the name of the LORD to be praised.
High above all nations is the LORD;
above the heavens is his glory.

Who is like the LORD, our God,
who looks upon the heavens and the earth below?
He raises up the lowly from the dust;
from the dunghill he lifts up the poor.

GOSPEL

Lk 11:29-32

When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Daily Reflection

Paul, in the first reading, uses the story of Abraham symbolically. He speaks of Abraham’s two sons: Ishmael - born of the flesh and of a slave girl; and Isaac - born of a free woman through the promise of God. This is an allegory to describe the covenants – the old, made at Mount Sinai and the new, through Jesus. The people’s rigid interpretation of the letter of the law, rather than its spirit, caused the Mosaic Law (received at Sinai), to enslave, insofar as one adhered to it in order to be justified through one’s own effort. But through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Father offers us daughterhood and sonship, that is truly liberating!

In the Gospel Jesus, refers to the crowd as “wicked” and “evil” because although they have heard Him and seen His works, they still ask Him for a “sign” to prove that He is from God. Jesus offers them only the “sign of Jonah”. Like Jonah emerged from the captivity of the fish, so will Jesus rise from the captivity of death! Like Jonah, Jesus walked through Palestine proclaiming a message of repentance and conversion. It is only in listening and acting upon Jesus’ message that they will truly be free!