This blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church

Reading 1

1 Corinthians 4:6b-15

Brothers and sisters:

Learn from myself and Apollos not to go beyond what is written,

so that none of you will be inflated with pride

in favor of one person over against another.

Who confers distinction upon you?

What do you possess that you have not received?

But if you have received it,

why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?

You are already satisfied; you have already grown rich;

you have become kings without us!

Indeed, I wish that you had become kings,

so that we also might become kings with you.

For as I see it, God has exhibited us Apostles as the last of all,

like people sentenced to death,

since we have become a spectacle to the world,

to angels and men alike.

We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ;

we are weak, but you are strong;

you are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty,

we are poorly clad and roughly treated,

we wander about homeless and we toil, working with our own hands.

When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;

when slandered, we respond gently.

We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all,

to this very moment.

I am writing you this not to shame you,

but to admonish you as my beloved children.

Even if you should have countless guides to Christ,

yet you do not have many fathers,

for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.

“What do you possess that you have not received?” Paul means the question to apply to the life of faith, but it is a fundamental question about the whole of life. When I hear people talking about “my money” (usually because they have to pay taxes), or “what we’ve earned” (usually because some else is receiving state benefit) or “our nation” (usually because someone from another country wants to live here) this is the question I want to ask.

I have many faults but ingratitude is not one of them: I have had a good working life, I have been lucky in my retirement, I like living in Scotland, and all this I could not possibly have earned or deserved. I’ve received it. And I hope that if I’m ever asked to do something uncomfortable for the giver of all gifts, I’ll have the strength to become like the world’s rubbish.

Luke 6: 1-5

While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath,

his disciples were picking the heads of grain,

rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.

Some Pharisees said,

“Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”

Jesus said to them in reply,

“Have you not read what David did

when he and those who were with him were hungry?

How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,

which only the priests could lawfully eat,

ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”

Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

Jesus is telling the critics that he and his disciples were hungry. They have become poor for the sake of the good news. For those who are prepared for poverty, who know that all they possess is what they receive, Jesus’ message is that all things are theirs. God has created the earth and the Sabbath day for them. They are the “meek” who don’t grab, so they inherit the earth.

The Sabbath is the day when work and ownership cease, and all are equal before God, and receive his blessing. Its proper use is at the centre of Jesus’ ministry.