Faith Daily | 15 July 2022

PRAYER of the DAY - APBA p558

O Lord, we beseech you

mercifully to receive the prayers of your people

who call upon you,

and grant that they may both perceive and know

what things they ought to do,

and also may have grace and power

faithfully to fulfil them’

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

GOSPEL for the Day: Matthew 12: 1-8

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” 3He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

GOSPEL REFLECTION: Pamela Davey

Again I looked to Richard Rohr for reflection on this passage:

By definition, the prophet has to be on the edge of the inside of institutional religion. It’s a hard position to hold, and it must be held both structurally and personally, with wisdom and grace. There are many times it would be easier to leave the system or to play the company man/woman and just go along with the game. Jesus understood this. He loved and respected his Jewish religion, yet he pushed the envelope wide open.

With this understanding Jesus was able to break open the rules for the sake of a larger and more essential value. A prophet critiques a system by quoting its own documents, constitutions, heroes, and Scriptures against its present practice.

Richard Rohr quotes others who have done this effectively - Martin Luther King Jr. & Gandhi. Others might be known to you – cartoonists?

What a relief!

FINAL PRAYER Michael Leunig

God bless our contradictions, those parts of us which seem out of character. Let us be boldly and gladly out of character. Let us be creatures of paradox and variety: creatures of contrast; of light and shade; creatures of faith. God be our constant. Let us step out of character into the unknown, to struggle and love and do what we will.

Amen.