“Jesus … said to the Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?’ … Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out and his hand was restored.”
Mass Readings 1.21.15 – HEB 7:1-3, 15-17 – PS 110:1, 2, 3, 4 – MK 3:1-6 – Find a Mass: MassTimes.org – Find a Mass: TheCatholicDirectory.com – Readings excerpts and brief annotations follow below
GOSPEL
Jesus heals a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath in the synagogue, arousing the legalistic antagonism of the Pharisees.
Jesus … said to the Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?’ … Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
Indeed, the Pharisees begin conspiring with Herodians to murder the Son of God in response to His Act of Mercy for the ill man.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
FIRST READING
FIRST READING: Hebrews 7:1-3, 15-17
The Letter to the Hebrews recalls Abraham encountering Melchizedek, king of Salem, a precursor of Jerusalem, and a priest of God Most High.
Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, met Abraham as he returned from his defeat of the kings and blessed him. … Abraham apportioned to him a tenth of everything. His name first means righteous king, and he was also “king of Salem,” that is, king of peace. Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.
We encounter aspects of Christ as the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of another Priest raised up by the Power of Life that cannot be destroyed.
It is even more obvious if another priest is raised up after the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become so, not by a law expressed in a commandment concerning physical descent but by the Power of a Life that cannot be destroyed. For it is testified: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
LINKS & RESOURCES
