Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
392

FIRST READING

EX 3:13-20

Moses, hearing the voice of the LORD from the burning bush, said to him,
“When I go to the children of Israel and say to them,
‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’
if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”
God replied, “I am who am.”
Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the children of Israel:
I AM sent me to you.”

God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel:
The LORD, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you.

“This is my name forever;
this my title for all generations.

“Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and tell them:
The LORD, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
has appeared to me and said:
I am concerned about you
and about the way you are being treated in Egypt;
so I have decided to lead you up out of the misery of Egypt
into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites,
Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites,
a land flowing with milk and honey.

“Thus they will heed your message.
Then you and the elders of Israel
shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him:
“The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent us word.
Permit us, then, to go a three-days’ journey in the desert,
that we may offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God.

“Yet I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go
unless he is forced.
I will stretch out my hand, therefore,
and smite Egypt by doing all kinds of wondrous deeds there.
After that he will send you away.”

PSALM

PS 105:1 AND 5, 8-9, 24-25, 26-27

Response: The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.

Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name;
make known among the nations his deeds.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.

He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.

He greatly increased his people
and made them stronger than their foes,
Whose hearts he changed, so that they hated his people,
and dealt deceitfully with his servants.

He sent Moses his servant;
Aaron, whom he had chosen.
They wrought his signs among them,
and wonders in the land of Ham.

GOSPEL

MT 11:28-30

Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Daily Reflection

Let my people go!

In the first reading from Exodus, God instructs Moses on how the Israelites will migrate from the oppressive yoke of the Egyptians, to a land where ‘milk and honey flow’. The Egyptians had subjected the Israelites to hard labour and intolerable conditions, making it difficult for them to survive. God saw their distress and planned to relieve their suffering. He had made a covenant with their fathers - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and God never forgets his promises.

In the Gospel, Jesus offers us a different kind of migration. He invites us to transfer from the yoke of all that burdens us - unnecessary worry, material distractions, the oppression of worldly demands and competitiveness - and become his followers. He calls us to emulate him in humility and simplicity; when we do this, all that distresses us falls away and our weary souls truly find rest.

Moses’ cry to the Egyptian Pharaoh, ‘Let my people go!’ finds an echo in Jesus’ invitation to us to let go of a culture that kills the spirit, and move toward life in Him.