Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection July 18, 2025

18th July 2025 (Friday)

Psalter: Week 3

Readings of the Day

First Reading: Exodus 11:10-12:14

In those days: Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbour shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute for ever, you shall keep it as a feast.

Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18 (R. 13)

R/. The cup of salvation I will raise; I will call on the name of the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; and I know them, and they follow me

R/. Alleluia

Gospel: Matthew 12:1-8

At that time: Jesus went through the cornfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Daily Gospel Reflection

Friday – 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Main Point: True fidelity to the laws of religion should not be a block against charity, because there is no other law greater than the law of charity

1. Ages and times may change, but the evil in the human mentality remains. What is evil is a lack of kindness and concern toward others. Benevolence and helping others are the greatest norms of life and the law of any worthwhile religion. All the rules and traditions should ultimately lead to this supreme principle of life. Devoid of such fraternity and goodness, everything else will become empty and imperfect.

2. In the gospel today, Jesus questions such a practice of religion that neglects the needs and good of others. The disciples of Jesus were hungry. They plucked some heads of grain and began to eat. The Pharisees, who wait for any slightest occasion to find fault with Jesus, seize this opportunity.

3. They blame Jesus and his disciples for breaking the Sabbath rule. The rule is that no one does any work on the Sabbath day because it is holy. Is plucking the heads of grain considered harvesting? What a height of religious crankiness and superfluity! What about their hunger? What about their need and plight at that time?

4. Jesus retorts that even David and his companions ate the Bread of the Presence from the temple, which even the priests in the temple do not. Sabbath or any religious law is meant to deepen our devotion to God and to nurture the spirit of human concern. Any law, any tradition, any religious activity that hampers the good of the other and harms the other is not praiseworthy.

5. The whole piety is geared to the increase of charity. Otherwise, it will only become a heartless show, a shallow pretension. That is why Jesus attests, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”.

6. Is it not a shallow religion that people donate huge amounts in the temples of pilgrimage but are least bothered about their starving immediate neighbours? Is it not a heartless devotion when people venerate the Sacred Heart or Divine Mercy of Jesus but have no heart or mercy toward others? Is it not a worthless religion when people preach eloquently but breathe hatred and venom on other followers?

My Practice: Faith that fails in charity, devotion that does not lead to dedication, and tradition that does not foster genuine relations are all insipid!