Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For all whose personal struggles, whatever they may be, have been worsened by the pandemic, that they will receive the support and assistance that they need to make it through to better days.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 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 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.”
From the Tenth Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
Consider that the purpose of the coming of the Son of God into this world was to destroy sin. This must also be the main purpose of the establishment of the Christian Schools and therefore the first object of your zeal. It must lead you to allow nothing in the children under your guidance which could displease God. If you observe in them something that offends God, you must immediately do all that you are able to remedy the problem.
That is why, following the example of the prophet Elias, you must show your zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of your disciples. I have been roused with a very great zeal for the Lord God of armies, he says, because the children of Israel have broken the covenant which they had made with God.
Prayer
Eternal Father, Jesus taught his disciples the difference between living to serve only themselves and living to serve you. Bless us with the quiet humility to know why you made us. May we serve one another through the gifts that you have given us, using them to accomplish your will for your children, especially the young and the poor. Help us to never harden our hearts to your presence or to the miracle of your love at work among us. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.