Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
it is easier for us to seek safety
in observing laws and customs
than to be personally responsible
for the people around us
and to serve you with the freedom of love.
Give us a bit of your own fantasy,
send us the Holy Spirit to fill us
with your own inventive and creative love,
that we may ever seek new ways
to reach out to you and to one another.
Grant this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading Introduction

God's ways are not our ways... What is weak attracts his strength. He confounds the mighty by selecting the least and the powerless to do his work. This perennial inversion of values is found in the vocation and election stories of the Old Testament, like David's in today's first reading, and will be deepened and presented as fundamental in the New Testament. Is not, after all, the scandal of the cross the deepest expression of this?

First Reading: 1 Sm 16:1–13

The LORD said to Samuel: “How long will you grieve for Saul,
whom I have rejected as king of Israel? Fill your horn with oil,
and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem,
for I have chosen my king from among his sons.” But Samuel
replied: “How can I go? Saul will hear of it and kill me.” To
this the LORD answered: “Take a heifer along and say, ‘I have
come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and
I myself will tell you what to do; you are to anoint for me the
one I point out to you.”
Samuel did as the LORD had commanded him. When he
entered Bethlehem, the elders of the city came trembling to
meet him and inquired, “Is your visit peaceful, O seer?” He
replied: “Yes! I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. So cleanse
yourselves and join me today for the banquet.” He also had
Jesse and his sons cleanse themselves and invited them to the
sacrifice. As they came, he looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely
the LORD’s anointed is here before him.” But the LORD said to
Samuel: “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty
stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does
God see, because he sees the appearance but the LORD looks
into the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him
before Samuel, who said, “The LORD has not chosen him.”
Next Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, “The LORD
has not chosen this one either.” In the same way Jesse presented
seven sons before Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD
has not chosen any one of these.” Then Samuel asked Jesse,
“Are these all the sons you have?” Jesse replied, “There is still
the youngest, who is tending the sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse,
“Send for him; we will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here.” Jesse sent and had the young man brought to
them. He was ruddy, a youth handsome to behold and making
a splendid appearance. The LORD said, “There—anoint him,
for this is he!” Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand,
anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and from that day
on, the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David. When Samuel
took his leave, he went to Ramah.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 89:20, 21–22, 27–28

R/  I have found David, my servant.

Once you spoke in a vision,
and to your faithful ones you said:
“On a champion I have placed a crown;
over the people I have set a youth.”
R/  I have found David, my servant.

“I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
That my hand may be always with him,
and that my arm may make him strong.”
R/  I have found David, my servant.

“He shall say of me, ‘You are my father,
my God, the Rock, my savior.’
And I will make him the first-born,
highest of the kings of the earth.”
R/  I have found David, my servant.

Gospel Introduction

The function of laws is to order relationships within the community so as to safeguard the rights of God and of the people around us, and to make us aware of our social responsibilities. Yet experience tells us that it is a perpetual human temptation to turn laws into absolutes, to make people servants of the law rather than the law a servant of people. Jesus reminds us of the priority of people and the human community over the letter of the law.

Gospel Reading: Mk 2:23-28

One sabbath Jesus was walking through grainfields. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of grain and crush them in their hands. Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, "Look! they are doing what is forbidden on the sabbath!"

And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did in his time of need, when he and his men were very hungry? He went into the house of God when Abiathar was High Priest and ate the bread of offering, which only the priests are allowed to eat, and he also gave some to the men who were with him." Then Jesus said to them, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. So the Son of Man is master even of the sabbath."