Daily Bible Readings Friday July 18 2008 15th Week of Ordinary Time

July 18 2008 Friday 15^th Week of Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – Blessed Angeline of Marsciano

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/071808.shtml – Note. The Official Liturgical readings may not match the current NAB you may have.

Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8
Notice that the order of verses is rearranged.
This appears to be done to clarify the story for public reading.
DR Challoner

In those days Ezechias (Hezekiah) was sick even to death, and Isaiah the son of Amos the prophet cane unto him, and said to him:

Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live.

And Ezechias turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, And said:

I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.

And Ezechias wept with great weeping. And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying:

Go and say to Ezechias: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: behold I will add to thy days fifteen years: And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.

Now Isaiah had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as a plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed. And Ezechias had said:

What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

And this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word which he hath spoken:

Behold I will bring again the shadow of the lines, by which it is now gone down in the sun dial of Achaz with the sun, ten lines backward. And the sun returned ten lines by the degrees by which it was gone down.

Responsorial Psalm Isaiah 38:10, 11, 12abcd, 16
DR Challoner Text Only

I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell:
I sought for the residue of my years.
I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living.
I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest.
My generation is at an end,
and it is rolled away from me,
as a shepherd’s tent.
My life is cut off, as by a weaver:
whilst I was yet but beginning, he cut me off:
O Lord, if man’s life be such,
and the life of my spirit be in such things as these,
thou shalt correct me, and make me to live.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 12:1-8
Haydock New Testament

AT that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath-day: and his disciples being hungry, began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. And the Pharisees seeing them, said to him:

Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath-days.

But he said to them:

Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and they that were with him: How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the loaves of proposition, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for them that were with him, but for the priests only? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath-days the priests in the temple break the sabbath, and are without blame?

But I tell you that there is here a greater than the temple. And if you knew what this meaneth: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: you would never have condemned the innocent. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath.

Haydock Commentary Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 22. Lord. The answer is given, (4 K. xx. 9.) which seems to evince that this is only an extract. C. — The prophet prescribed the medicine, and the king asked for a sign before he sung the canticle. W.

Haydock Commentary Matthew 12:1-8

• Ver. 1. And his disciples being hungry. How truly admirable is the conduct of the apostles, who would not depart from the company of Jesus, though pressed by the greatest hunger and fatigue, not even to take a little refreshment for the body. S. Chrys. — It is remarked by S. Jerom, that the Pharisees did not accuse the disciples of theft, but of a breach of the sabbath. S. Luke calls this sabbath, Sabbatum secundo primum, which is differently explained by interpreters. Ribeira, following S. Chrysostom and Theophilactus, thinks that every sabbath was so called, which followed immediately any feast. Maldonatus is of opinion that some particular sabbath is pointed out by this name, and conjectures that it was the sabbath of Pentecost, because it is the second of the great feast, viz. the Passover, Pentecost, Scenopegia, or of the Tabernacles. — In the Greek, sabbath is in the plural, and means the days of the sabbath or rest, which were a part of the feast. The three great feasts lasted a whole week each. They were all three called prwta, i.e. great, solemn feasts. The first was that of the Passover, with the seven days of unleavened bread, called prwtoprwton, the first-first sabbath by excellence: the second was the great feast of Pentecost, deuteroprwton, the second-first sabbath, (which seems to have been the feast meant by the evangelist in this place, as at this season the corn was ripe in Palestine) and the third was the feast of tabernacles, tritoprwton, the third-first great sabbath. Many, however, are of the opinion, that by the second-first sabbath is meant the octave day of the feast, which was ordered to be equally solemnized with the first day of the feast. Liv. xxiii. 36. 39. and Num. xxix. 35.
• Ver. 2. That which is not lawful to do on the sabbath-days. The Pharisees blame not the disciples for plucking the ears of corn, as they passed by, (this being allowed, Deut. xxiii. 25.) but for doing it on a sabbath-day, as if it had been a breach of the sabbath. Wi. — Behold, &c. The Pharisees here mildly rebuke our Lord; but afterwards, when he restored the withered hand, they rose up against him with such rage, that they formed upon the spot designs of killing him, as in ver. 14. When there is nothing great or sublime, they are more quiet, but when with his word only he restores health to the infirm, like furious beasts, they grow enraged. S. Chrysos. hom. xl.
• Ver. 3. What David, &c.[1] Christ shews them that the law need not always be taken according to the bare letter. — Into the house of God; i.e. where the tabernacle was then kept: not into the temple, which at that time was not built. — Eat the loaves, &c. Christ speaks of those loaves which were ordered to be placed on a table within the tabernacle, and changed from time to time. This translation seems as literal as may be, and more intelligible than loaves of proposition, or shew-bread. Wi. — To refute this calumny of the Jewish leaders, Jesus reminds them of the conduct of David when pursued by Saul, who, reduced to the like extremity, eat of that bread which the priests alone were allowed to touch. Achimelec, the high priest, thinking it a more pleasing sacrifice to God to preserve the life of man, than to make an offering of bread. S. Jerom. — And they that were with him. In the place alluded to, (1 K. xxi.) it is said, that he was alone. It may be answered, that no one was with him when he received the loaves. M.
• Ver. 4. How he entered, &c. The house of God was then at Nobe. In S. Mark, the high priest is called Abiathar. See C. ii. 26. To this difficulty some answer, that the father and son bore these two names, Achimelec and Abiathar. This they attempt to prove from 2 K. viii. 19, and 1 Paral. xxiv. 3. Others say that Abiathar, son of Achimelec, was present, and sanctioned the action of his father, thus making it his own. Others again contend, that it ought to have been translated, in the chapter called Abiathar, instead of under Abiathar: for the Jews divided the Scriptures into parts, and called them by the names of the most remarkable person or thing spoken of in them. Thus Romans, ii. 2. In Elias, means in the part called Elias. — The loaves of proposition. So were called the twelve loaves which were placed before the sanctuary, in the temple of God. Ch. — These were exposed every sabbath, on the golden table, before the Lord. V.
• Ver. 5. Break the sabbath; i.e. they do that, which if the divine worship did not require, would not be allowed on the sabbath, as the work they do, of its own nature, is servile.
• Ver. 6. A greater than the temple: so what can be done for the temple without a sin, may be done for him without a crime. V.
• Ver. 7. Mercy, and not sacrifice. Osee vi. 6. The meaning of this is, if you then approve of the mercy of the high priest, who refreshed the famished fugitive David, why do you condemn my disciples? S. Jerom.
• Ver. 8. Lord . . . of the sabbath. He proves that he can dispense with the observation of the feast, because he is master of the feast. In S. Mark (ii. 27.) it is written, the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath; i.e. man’s salvation is to be preferred to the observation of the sabbath. M. — In the concurrence of two incompatible precepts, we must give the preference to that which is the end and object of the other; thus we must prefer the preservation of life to the observance of the sabbath. A. — These loaves were twelve, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. They were set six and six, one upon another, at each end of the table. Upon the uppermost loaf of each heap stood a vessel, smoking with the sweetest incense. These loaves at the week’s end were, according to God’s order, eaten by the priests only, when they were replaced by twelve fresh ones, made like them, with the finest flour, tempered with oil. This offering of the shew-bread before the Lord, was a continual sacrifice, as the holy Fathers observe, and a figure of a more excellent kind of shew-bread, viz. Jesus Christ himself in the holy eucharist. A.