Saturday Mass readings

[distracted]

Saturday (Aug 1)

Reading 1
Lv 25:1, 8-17

The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
“Seven weeks of years shall you count–seven times seven years–
so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years.
Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, let the trumpet resound;
on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo
throughout your land.
This fiftieth year you shall make sacred
by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.
It shall be a jubilee for you,
when every one of you shall return to his own property,
every one to his own family estate.
In this fiftieth year, your year of jubilee,
you shall not sow, nor shall you reap the aftergrowth
or pick the grapes from the untrimmed vines.
Since this is the jubilee, which shall be sacred for you,
you may not eat of its produce,
except as taken directly from the field.

“In this year of jubilee, then,
every one of you shall return to his own property.
Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor
or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly.
On the basis of the number of years since the last jubilee
shall you purchase the land from your neighbor;
and so also, on the basis of the number of years for crops,
shall he sell it to you.
When the years are many, the price shall be so much the more;
when the years are few, the price shall be so much the less.
For it is really the number of crops that he sells you.
Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God.
I, the LORD, am your God.”

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 67:2-3, 5, 7-8

R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
The earth has yielded its fruits;
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

Gospel
Mt 14:1-12

Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus
and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist.
He has been raised from the dead;
that is why mighty powers are at work in him.”

Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison
on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip,
for John had said to him,
“It is not lawful for you to have her.”
Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people,
for they regarded him as a prophet.
But at a birthday celebration for Herod,
the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests
and delighted Herod so much
that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for.
Prompted by her mother, she said,
“Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
The king was distressed,
but because of his oaths and the guests who were present,
he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison.
His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl,
who took it to her mother.
His disciples came and took away the corpse
and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.

*With this psg on Herod We see how humans always (usually) care more about what other people think (the guests…) than what God or conscience dictates…

probably one reason BHO was elected…

or do people really think that God doesn’t care about unborn babies being mutilated and discarded like trash?*

 

[Huiou_Theou]

The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
“Seven weeks of years shall you count–seven times seven years–
so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years.
Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, let the trumpet resound;

The idea of Pentecost is repeated, but in years instead of weeks.
The day of Atonement, is the year before the Pentecostal year.
It is the time of prayer of the Apostles in the upper room, the ninth day (novena), corresponds to when the trumpet blew on the day of Atonement. That’s why atonement can be in the seventh month of the year, long after pentecost – but still be so tightly associated with the passion death and resurrection. It is the pentecost of years where the Atonement comes, not the pentecost of days.

Jesus was with them 40 of 49 days symbolically. Atone, here, is not the sacrifice – but rather the reconciliation and purification from sin. Jesus took the sins upon himself, was offered in sacrifice, and only then does the atonement ceremony begin.

on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo
throughout your land.

In the upper room, the wind made a sound – I wonder, was it rushing like that out of a trumpet, perhaps?

In the law of Moses, the land is leased out for up to 49 years; but then is given back/restored to the original owner. The increase or crops is the focus of the lease. The seven weeks (of days) between Easter and Pentecost are the time (I think) each year between the first and second crops of the season. Barley was the earlier crop, a fast growing one. I am thinking, too, that the temple itself, was built on the threshing floor where grain was separated from chaff.

The psalm doesn’t jump out at me, other than “fruits”, as in the children of the womb and the produce of the fields. The first fruits were the sacrificial/holy ones.

Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus
and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist.
He has been raised from the dead;
that is why mighty powers are at work in him.”

John and Jesus were both first-fruits of their mothers. John was born in the same year, but a few months earlier than Jesus. It is as if John were the first of the first-fruits; though that doesn’t make much sense.

hmmm…

or pick the grapes from the untrimmed vines.
Since this is the jubilee, which shall be sacred for you,
you may not eat of its produce,
except as taken directly from the field.

The untrimmed vines, like the long hair of the Nazarite – John was a Nazarite, for he drank no wine or strong drink. Jesus was from Nazareth – but he ate and drank.

The grapes are what wine is made from; it is as if Moses were pointing that the earlier grapes are consecrated from the beginning not to be made into wine; but only eaten – however the later fruit (of grapes only) can still be made into wine; apparently even in a Sabbath year.

What was it Jesus said, or perhaps a psalm – “I have trodden the winepress alone?”

“Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
The king was distressed,

The king of the Jews, illicitly destroying the first grapes. The people had come to John straight from the vine to eat of his teaching; and here the King, Ironically the purple robed majesty – like the blood of grapes, violating the law not to make wine from the earlier grape.

Interesting, I wonder how many other scriptures harmonize on this theme.

The people are restored at Pentecost of years (The Jubilee) to what was once theirs before; as if the people who became entrapped in the desert after the 70 elders received of the spirit (and the sin of the calf) will once more have the spirit poured out on them.

Wine, the “spirits” as they are called in English, and then too – the Apostles at Pentecost are mocked by people as having “too much wine”. Perhaps those people are more guilty than it would first seem – for they do associate the correct sign.

Too much to think about… Until Monday, then, adieu.