Practical Needs
Jul 19: Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Because God made us as embodied souls, unlike the angels, He knew we would have physical as well as spiritual needs. Which is what today’s readings are all about.
Reading 1
Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8
When Hezekiah was mortally ill, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him: "Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover."
Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD: "O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you!" And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: "Go, tell Hezekiah: Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the LORD's temple; I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will be a shield to this city."
Isaiah then ordered a poultice of figs to be taken and applied to the boil, that he might recover. Then Hezekiah asked, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple of the LORD?"
Isaiah answered: "This will be the sign for you from the LORD that he will do what he has promised: See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz go back the ten steps it has advanced." So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.
The steps of Hezekiah's temple were a kind of sundial. The sun going back up ten steps literally means God is unwinding time.
That's what it's like when we ask God for forgiveness with contrite hearts. God rolls back the clock, and forgives our sins as if they never happened.
Responsorial Psalm
Isaiah 38:10, 11, 12abcd, 16
R. (see 17b) You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
Once I said,
"In the noontime of life I must depart!
To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned
for the rest of my years."
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
I said, "I shall see the LORD no more
in the land of the living.
No longer shall I behold my fellow men
among those who dwell in the world."
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
My dwelling, like a shepherd's tent,
is struck down and borne away from me;
You have folded up my life, like a weaver
who severs the last thread.
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
Those live whom the LORD protects;
yours is the life of my spirit.
You have given me health and life.
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
This is a part of Isaiah 38 that the first reading skips over. After Hezekiah learns he's going to die (in the "noontime" of his life), but before God extends his life.
But even staring death in the face, Hezekiah thanks God for the life and health he's had up to that point. It's a positive view of gratitude that not many people could conjure up on their deathbed.
Alleluia
Jn 10:27
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord,
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Sometimes we don’t understand the things God is asking us to do, just as sheep don’t know why they’re being shepherded in a certain direction. But we trust that it’s the right thing.
Gospel
Mt 12:1-8
Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath."
He said to the them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat? Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent? I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."
The Pharisees are upset Jesus and the Apostles aren’t following the letter of the law (technically, they’re “harvesting” on the sabbath). Jesus has a few answers—for one thing, the priests have to work on the sabbath, so the law requires some people to work, right?
But first, he mentions David and his men, on the run from Saul, eating the Temple Bread.1 They did it for practical reasons—they had to eat!
In the modern church, we’re supposed to fast, briefly, before receiving communion. It’s a way of showing honor and respect to the Body of Christ.
However, if you have a genuine, practical reason that you can’t fast,2 an exception is made. God knows you don’t mean disrespect or sacrilege. He gave you this body, and expects you to take care of it.
Our actions don’t cause God to do anything. At the consecration, the priest asks Jesus to come down into the host. We’re not binding God to come at our whim.
Fasting isn’t a magic spell that forces Jesus to confer grace, so not fasting doesn’t prevent it, either. What it prevents is our own participation (again, if we do it capriciously and not for practical reasons).
The ritual, the Sabbath for the Jews and mass for us, is not what’s important to God. It’s conforming our will to His that He desires. As long as we do our best to follow that, the physical limitations of our earthly bodies (hunger, sickness, etc) are irrelevant.
Because your medication requires being taken with food and at a particular time is a common reason.