2nd MONDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Gospel (Mark 2:18-22) - THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE
- NHA CHUA CHA
- Jan 20
- 4 min read
FIRST READING - 1 Sm 15:16-23
"Obedience is better than sacrifice."
A reading from the Book of Samuel
16 Samuel said to Saul: “Stop! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” “Speak!” he replied. 17 Samuel then said: “Though little in your own eyes, are you not chief of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king of Israel 18 and sent you on a mission, saying: Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction. Fight against them until you have exterminated them. 19 Why then have you disobeyed the Lord? You have pounced on the spoil, thus doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight.” 20 Saul explained to Samuel: “I did indeed obey the Lord and fulfill the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought back Agag, the king of Amalek, and, carrying out the ban, I have destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But from the spoil the army took sheep and oxen, the best of what had been banned, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 But Samuel said:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obedience to the Lord’s command?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
to listen, better than the fat of rams.
[a]23 For a sin of divination is rebellion,
and arrogance, the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
the Lord in turn has rejected you as king.”
GOSPEL OF THE DAY - Mk 2:18-22
"As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast."
✠From the Gospel according to Mark
18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to him and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast[a] while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. 22 Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
2nd MONDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Gospel (Mark 2:18-22)
THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE
Dear people of God,
In today’s Word of God, God speaks to all humanity to reverence Him, for He is Love and He bestows all blessings upon humanity. People should do everything to please God the Father. He does not want people to live hypocritically, but to live sincerely, being true from within, both in body and in soul.
God the Father desires our genuine love for Him to be authentic, a love that is expressed outwardly from our inner being, rather than merely spoken with superficial gestures or lip service.
Today, God the Father reminds His children not to be envious, not to strive for superiority, and not to judge one another. Be sincere with one another! Sincerity stems from the love that comes from God, from genuine love for our brothers and sisters, and from the prompting of the Holy Spirit Himself. Otherwise, it is merely hypocrisy!
Hypocrisy comes from Satan; Satan represents dishonesty, envy, rivalry, condemnation, and mutual criticism.
God the Father wishes all His children in this world to live in harmony and love with one another at all times and in all places. We must love our fellow human beings as ourselves, according to the calling of Jesus Christ: “Love God the Father above all things and love your neighbor as yourself.”
God the Father wishes His children to stop quarreling, stop being envious, striving for superiority, and being jealous of one another, but instead to show tolerance and unity, just as Jesus Christ taught. For wherever God is present, peace and happiness abound.
Similarly, during the time of Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God the Father came into the world as man; He came to love and accompany humanity.
He is the Messiah who brings salvation to humanity from sin. Yet, humanity did not recognize that He Himself is life, He is the source of infinite happiness. They failed to see that wherever the presence of the Only Son of God the Father is among mankind, there will be no more suffering and no more death.
Therefore, for God to dwell within our hearts, we must eliminate all wicked, sinful, and evil deeds.
God the Father desires to remind humanity to turn towards God the Father, who is true happiness in the Kingdom of Heaven. We must do everything to attain eternal life and do all good things so that God the Father may dwell within our hearts.
Thanks be to God. Amen
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