Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
469

FIRST READING

Gal 5:18-25

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

PSALM

PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6

Response: Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.

He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.

Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.

GOSPEL

Lk 11:42-46

“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Daily Reflection

Paul contrasts the lives of those enslaved by the Law (i.e those whose lives are led by the flesh), with those who are free (i.e. those whose lives are led by the Spirit). He gives us two lists: notice that the “works of the flesh” are haphazard, as opposed to the list of the “Fruit of the Spirit” which are systematic. Neither list is complete – both, the ‘deeds of the flesh’ and the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ have many more manifestations! While Paul reminds us that the deeds of the flesh obscure God for us, he uses the singular “Fruit” of the Spirit to emphasise that a life led by the Spirit is not fragmented but an integrated whole. The Spirit liberates us and produces different facets of the same holiness in us.

Speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus rebukes them for their hypocrisy. They follow the smallest detail of the Law and in the bargain overlook the basic premise on which the Law is based – Justice & Love of God.

A regular introspection will help us discern whether we are following God’s Law as He intended it for us, or our own narrow understanding of it.