Gospel and Word of the Day - 18 July 2025

A reading from the Book of Exodus
11:10—12:14

Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders
in Pharaoh's presence,
the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate,
and he would not let the children of Israel leave his land.

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;
you shall reckon it the first month of the year.
Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month
every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb,
one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb,
it shall join the nearest household in procuring one
and shall share in the lamb
in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.
You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then,
with the whole assembly of Israel present,
it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood
and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel
of every house in which they partake of the lamb.
That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole,
with its head and shanks and inner organs.
None of it must be kept beyond the next morning;
whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.

"This is how you are to eat it:
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt,
striking down every first born of the land, both man and beast,
and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!
But the blood will mark the houses where you are.
Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;
thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,
no destructive blow will come upon you.

"This day shall be a memorial feast for you,
which all your generations shall celebrate
with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution."

From the Gospel according to Matthew
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 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 response that Jesus gave to the Pharisees, who reproached His disciples for plucking heads of grain from the fields to eat on the Sabbath, thus violating the Mosaic law must be remembered. Jesus first cites the example of David and his companions, who did not hesitate to eat the 'showbread' to satisfy their hunger; and that of the priests who, on the Sabbath, do not observe the law of rest because they perform their duties in the temple. Then He concludes with two peremptory statements, unheard of for the Pharisees: 'I tell you that something greater than the temple is here ...' and: 'The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath also' (Matthew 12:6, 8; cf. Mark 2:27-28). These declarations clearly reveal the consciousness Jesus had of His divine authority. To describe Himself as 'one greater than the temple' was a rather clear allusion to His divine transcendence. Then, proclaiming Himself as 'Lord of the Sabbath,' that is, of a law given by God Himself to Israel, was an open proclamation of His authority as the head of the messianic kingdom and the promulgator of the new law. Therefore, it was not simply a matter of exceptions to the Mosaic law, which were also allowed by the rabbis in very limited cases, but rather a restoration, a fulfillment, and a renewal that Jesus proclaimed as eternal: 'Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away' (Matthew 24:35). What comes from God is eternal, as God Himself is eternal." (St. John Paul II, General Audience, 14 October 1987)