Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Friday in the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
483

FIRST READING

Phil 1:1-11

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanksgiving and Prayer: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

PSALM

PS 111:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Response: How great are the works of the Lord!

I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart
in the company and assembly of the just.
Great are the works of the LORD,
exquisite in all their delights.

Majesty and glory are his work,
and his justice endures forever.
He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the LORD.

He has given food to those who fear him;
he will forever be mindful of his covenant.
He has made known to his people the power of his works,
giving them the inheritance of the nations.

GOSPEL

Lk 14:1-6

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things.

Daily Reflection

We begin reading from the Letter of Paul to the Philippians. What characterises this letter is the great spirit of thankfulness that Paul demonstrates in his prayer for the community. Thankfulness at all times and in every situation is clearly the way Paul prays – thanking God every time he thinks of the Philippians, wishing that they may grow to be “pure and blameless for the day of Christ”.

Pointing out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees that made them slaves to ‘their understanding’ of the Law, Jesus wishes to set them free. And so He asks two questions – one about the Law and one regarding their interpretation of it - the answers to which seem obvious. Did the Law permit healing on the Sabbath? Obviously, since the Sabbath was to heal and rejuvenate! Who would not go and save their son or their animal if they fell into a cistern on the Sabbath? Again, obviously, no one would hesitate to save their son or ox!

Prisoners of their own narrow-mindedness, the Pharisees are unable to answer.