Wednesday Mass readings (David kills Goliath / Jesus gets angry at hardness of heart / [most people go to Hell?])

[distracted]

**January 20, 2010 **

Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 313

Reading I
1 Sm 17:32-33, 37, 40-51

David spoke to Saul:
“Let your majesty not lose courage.
I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine.”
But Saul answered David,
***“You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him,
for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth.” ***David continued:
***“The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear,
will also keep me safe from the clutches of this Philistine.”
Saul answered David, “Go! the LORD will be with you.”***Then, staff in hand, David selected five smooth stones from the wadi
and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag.
With his sling also ready to hand, he approached the Philistine.

With his shield bearer marching before him,
the Philistine also advanced closer and closer to David.
When he had sized David up,
and seen that he was youthful, and ruddy, and handsome in appearance,
the Philistine held David in contempt.
The Philistine said to David,
“Am I a dog that you come against me with a staff?”
Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods
and said to him, “Come here to me,
and I will leave your flesh for the birds of the air
and the beasts of the field.”
David answered him:
“You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar,
but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts,
the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted.
Today the LORD shall deliver you into my hand;
I will strike you down and cut off your head.
This very day I will leave your corpse
and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air
and the beasts of the field;
thus the whole land shall learn that Israel has a God.
All this multitude, too,
shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves.
For the battle is the LORD’s and he shall deliver you into our hands.”

The Philistine then moved to meet David at close quarters,
while David ran quickly toward the battle line
in the direction of the Philistine.
David put his hand into the bag and took out a stone,
hurled it with the sling,
and struck the Philistine on the forehead.
The stone embedded itself in his brow,
and he fell prostrate on the ground.
Thus David overcame the Philistine with sling and stone;
he struck the Philistine mortally, and did it without a sword.
Then David ran and stood over him;
with the Philistine’s own sword which he drew from its sheath
he dispatched him and cut off his head.

Responsorial Psalm
144:1b, 2, 9-10

R. (1) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
My refuge and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten-stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!

Gospel
Mk 3:1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue.
There was a man there who had a withered hand.
They watched Jesus closely
to see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so that they might accuse him.
He said to the man with the withered hand,
“Come up here before us.”
Then he said to the Pharisees,
***“Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?”***But they remained silent.
Looking around at them with anger
and grieved at their hardness of heart,
Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel

with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

.

*Interesting how God wins against formidable (to humans) enemies… but that doesn’t mean he always lets one of his people win. There were battles in the OT where the Israelites lost, even when they had the Ark in their camp… weird… Then there are the martyrs whose lives were not spared.

It’s also interesting how Jesus is thwarted everywhere He goes.

He gets angry at the hardness of people’s hearts… and the Pharisees, as usual, seek to kill him, along with the Herodians… i never could understand why people wanted to kill Jesus – except that, well, frankly, i think most people just don’t like goodness in general, or God in particular… no wonder most people end up in Hell (so i have heard…).*

 

[Pat_Payne]

Where does it say He gets angry? The word used is “grieved”, which can mean that He was saddened at the callousness of the Pharisees who would rather stick, unalterable to a rigid Law rather than do what was obviously right. (I believe the context of the reading is that on the Sabbath, all observant Jews were to refrain from any sort of labor or exertion to honor the day of rest that God took after creating the Universe – this same conflict arose at another point in the Gospels * when Jesus was seen to be picking kernels of wheat to eat on the Sabbath).

And I don’t see where the passage at all says anyone is going to Hell, even the Pharisees who stood around and used the miracle as ammunition to try and get Jesus condemned by the Herodians for blasphemy/sacrilige. Certainly, He rebuked them, but again, that was more of a “Am I expected to let this man suffer for something that was not of his own doing, just to keep slavish devotion to a day of the week?”*

 

[cheeto1]

"it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves"
– Is this speaking against war? But wait:
“Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war”
– The psalm seems to say otherwise

So what about the gospel? How does it relate? Is Jesus
making war on the Sabbath? Yesterday Jesus said that the
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and
that He is Lord of the Sabbath. He taught yesterday that
eating is o.k. work to do on the Sabbath, and today that
healing is o.k. work to do on the Sabbath. Here is something
curious: In Luke 18 is a story of a rich young man who asks
what he must do to be saved. Jesus lists the commandments
to him, and I notice that keeping holy the Sabbath Day is not
on the list. It’s not the only one not on there, but it’s definately
not on there.

I agree that Jesus was angry that they didn’t want Him to
heal on the Sabbath. I am angry too, because they want to
let a man suffer on a Sabbath when healing is standing in
front of him. It didn’t require any work than talking, and none
of them stopped talking in the Sabbath. Yes I have seen
people who hate another for doing good. They hate them
because they are offended that maybe that person thinks
they are better than themselves. You can’t get any better
than being the Son of God, so naturally those people would
hate Him, if they were that type.

This idea of saying most people end in hell I do not like.
If they turn from their ways, they will end in heaven. And
even if you are perfect, you do not know how long you can
stay that way.

Thank you for talking about the daily readings, I appreciate
it so much :flowers:

Today there are 2 saints, St. Fabian & St. Sebastian.
St. Fabian’s psalm says “He put a new song in my mouth,
praise of our God”.

 

[distracted]

Where does it say He gets angry?

“Looking around at them with anger”

pretty clear to me…

The word used is “grieved”,

a person can’t be angry & grieved at the same time???

which can mean that He was saddened at the callousness of the Pharisees who would rather stick, unalterable to a rigid Law rather than do what was obviously right. (I believe the context of the reading is that on the Sabbath, all observant Jews were to refrain from any sort of labor or exertion to honor the day of rest that God took after creating the Universe – this same conflict arose at another point in the Gospels * when Jesus was seen to be picking kernels of wheat to eat on the Sabbath).

And I don’t see where the passage at all says anyone is going to Hell, "*

who said it did say anything about Hell???

 

[Pat_Payne]

Point 1, I’ll give you, as I missed the word “anger.” that was my fault for not reading closely enough.

However, when the title of the thread says [most people go to hell?] I’m not sure how much clearer that point could be.

 

[distracted]

Point 1, I’ll give you, as I missed the word “anger.” that was my fault for not reading closely enough.

However, when the title of the thread says [most people go to hell?] I’m not sure how much clearer that point could be.

huh>???

 

[distracted]

Point 1, I’ll give you, as I missed the word “anger.” that was my fault for not reading closely enough.

However, when the title of the thread says [most people go to hell?] I’m not sure how much clearer that point could be.

i said IT (the Word) did not say anything about most people going to Hell…

you really are not ready things carefully… there is the Word and then there is MY commentary on it…