THE GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Friday - July 15, 2022

Friday - July 15, 2022

When anyone reposes all his confidence in God, God continually exercises a special protection over him, and in this state of things he can be assured that no evil will happen to him. 

-- St. Vincent de Paul

July 15, 2022

 

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 393

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    IS 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8

 

When Hezekiah was mortally ill,

the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him:

“Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order,

for you are about to die; you shall not recover.”

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord:

 

“O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly

I conducted myself in your presence,

doing what was pleasing to you!”

And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

 

Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go, tell Hezekiah:

Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David:

I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.

I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the Lord’s temple;

I will add fifteen years to your life.

I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria;

I will be a shield to this city.”

 

Isaiah then ordered a poultice of figs to be taken

and applied to the boil, that he might recover.

Then Hezekiah asked,

“What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple of the LORD?”

 

Isaiah answered:

“This will be the sign for you from the LORD

that he will do what he has promised:

See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun

on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz

go back the ten steps it has advanced.”

So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  IS 38:10, 11, 12ABCD, 16

 

R. (see 17b) You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

 

Once I said,

“In the noontime of life I must depart!

To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned

for the rest of my years.”

R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

I said, “I shall see the LORD no more

in the land of the living.

No longer shall I behold my fellow men

among those who dwell in the world.”

R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

My dwelling, like a shepherd’s tent,

is struck down and borne away from me;

You have folded up my life, like a weaver

who severs the last thread.

R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

Those live whom the LORD protects;

yours is the life of my spirit.

You have given me health and life.

R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

 

Alleluia                                              Phil 2:8JN 10:27      

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;

I know them, and they follow me.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                           MT 12:1-8

 

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.

His disciples were hungry

and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,

“See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.”

He said to the them, “Have you not read what David did

when he and his companions were hungry,

how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,

which neither he nor his companions

but only the priests could lawfully eat?

Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath

the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath

and are innocent?

I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.

If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

you would not have condemned these innocent men.

For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

 

**********************************

IS THERE ROOM FOR MERCY IN THE LAW?

 

When our daughter was age four, my husband and I tried to sign her up for school a year before the local laws said she could start. A bright and sociable darling, she needed the daily stimulation that Kindergarten could provide, because whenever she got bored, she became a troublemaker. We presented her case to the school authorities, who judged her without meeting her or testing her. They said she wasn't ready because "that's our policy."

 

After wasting a year and starting Kindergarten when the rules permitted it, a placement test quickly moved her to First Grade. When she graduated from high school, instead of having the problems that the school board had predicted, she was a well-adjusted, ambitious young lady with high honors and a few college courses already completed.

 

The educational authorities we had faced were like the religious authorities Jesus dealt with in today's Gospel reading. The question raised in both situations was: Which is more important, the policy or the person?

 

The policy that the Pharisees were trying to protect is one of the 10 commandments: Keep the Sabbath day holy. An over-eager man-made policy had been layered on top of it to ensure obedience. It forbade any kind of work that day, including the smallest act of plucking grain. The Pharisees adhered to this interpretation of God's commandment so closely that they violated his law of mercy. It didn't matter that the disciples were hungry; the rules were more important.

 

We become like the Pharisees when we focus on what people "ought" to do while neglecting their needs. Is it merciful when altar servers are publicly corrected during Mass when they make mistakes, embarrassing them as they try to serve the Lord? Is it merciful to give parents a disapproving look when their restless children make noise in church?

 

What about putting someone into jail for a crime he committed, even though his regrets are strong enough to prevent him from doing it again? Or kicking a teenage girl out of the home because she got pregnant and chose not to have an abortion? Or condemning a couple who marry outside the Church, when what they really need is someone to compassionately journey with them into a conversation about sacramental love, so that when they finally want a Church wedding, it will be much more of a genuine commitment with the Lord than it would have been on their first wedding day?

 

Even the official Code of Canon Law encourages mercy. Dispensation from the laws is to be granted when the law works against a person's salvation (for example, see Chapter 5 of Title 4, Canon Laws 85-93). Love is the foundation of every divinely inspired rule, and mercy is the tool for bringing people into a genuine desire to obey the rules.

 

Today's Prayer

 

I want to thank You, Lord, for the freedom You gained for me. Grant me the grace to serve You free from constraints and worldly prejudices. Amen. 

 

 

God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”