Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection September 07, 2026
Monday – 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
07th September 2026 (Monday)
Psalter: Week 3
Here are the Catholic Mass readings and a daily Gospel reflection for Monday, September 07, 2026. Paul says a little old leaven spreads through the whole batch, and Jesus looks on a man with a withered hand and makes him whole.
Catholic Mass Readings
Readings of the Day
First Reading:1 Corinthians 5:1-8
Brethren: It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among Gentiles, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Psalm 5:5-6, 7, 12
R/. Lead me, Lord, in your justice.
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: Luke 6:6-11
On another Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Monday – 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
Daily Gospel Reflection
Main Point: Before anyone in the synagogue moves, Jesus is already looking at the man with the withered hand. His gaze reaches the wound first. Everything in the story begins with how Christ sees.
1. A man with a withered hand is in the synagogue, and Jesus notices him. That is where the story starts, not with the rule, not with the critics, but with the eyes of Christ resting on one suffering person. He sees the man before He does anything else.
2. The scribes are watching too, but for a different reason. They want to see whether Jesus will heal on the Sabbath, so they can accuse Him. Two kinds of looking fill the same room. One searches for a fault. The other rests on a wound.
3. Jesus does not wait for the man to ask. He calls him to stand in the middle, in front of everyone, and tells him to stretch out his hand. As the man obeys, the hand is restored. Christ acts first. The man simply lets himself be healed.
4. This matters more than we may notice. We often think our task is to work up mercy for other people, to try harder to be less critical. But we cannot generate that from nothing. The mercy has to reach us before it can flow through us. Christ’s eyes rest on our own wounds first.
5. Many of us know how a heart hardens. A marriage where we now keep score. A parish where old grievances have set like concrete. The slow habit of noticing what is wrong with everyone. We did not choose it in one day. It grew, quietly, the way Paul says a little leaven spreads through the whole batch of dough.
6. Christ is already at work on that hardness, if we will let Him look at us. He does not shame the withered thing in us. He calls it out into the open and heals it. Our part is only to stretch out the hand we have kept hidden, and let His grace do what our effort could not.
7. So the healing of how we see others does not begin with our resolve to judge less. It begins under His gaze. He looks on us with the same mercy He showed that man, and slowly, from inside that mercy, we start to look on others differently. We love because He first looked on us.
My Practice: Before you try to be less critical of anyone today, sit for a moment under the gaze of Christ, who sees your own wounds and does not turn away. Let Him look at what has hardened in you, and stretch out that hidden hand to Him.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You saw the man with the withered hand before anyone spoke, and You see us the same way now. You know the places in us that have hardened, the resentment we have nursed, the eyes that search for faults. We cannot soften our own hearts. Only You can. Look on us with the mercy You showed that man, and call our withered places out into the open. We stretch out to You the hand we have kept hidden. Heal what we cannot heal, and teach us to see others from inside the mercy You have first shown us. Amen.
Question to Reflect Today
- Where has your heart quietly hardened, and can you let Christ look on that place today, rather than trying to fix it by force?
Thank You 🙏🙏🙏
Tags: Daily Mass Reflection, Ordinary Time, Gospel of Luke, Catholic Mass Readings, September 2026
