January 17, 2020

The First Book of Samuel 8: 4-7, 10-22

8:4	Therefore, all those greater by birth of Israel, having gathered together, went to Samuel at Ramah.
8:5	And they said to him: “Behold, you are elderly, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Appoint for us a king, so that he may judge us, just as all the nations have.”
8:6	And the word was displeasing in the eyes of Samuel, for they had said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord.
8:7	Then the Lord said to Samuel: “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they are saying to you. For they have not rejected you, but me, lest I reign over them.
8:10	And so, Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people, who had petitioned a king from him.
8:11	And he said: “This will be the right of the king who will have authority over you: He will take your sons, and place them in his chariots. And he will make them his horsemen and his runners before his four-horse chariots.
8:12	And he will appoint them to be his tribunes and centurions, and the plowmen of his fields, and the harvesters of the grain, and the makers of his weapons and chariots.
8:13	Likewise, your daughters he will take for himself as makers of ointments, and as cooks and bakers.
8:14	Also, he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your best olive groves, and he will give them to his servants.
8:15	Moreover, he will take one tenth of your grain and of the results of your vineyards, so that he may give these to his eunuchs and servants.
8:16	Then, too, he will take your servants, and handmaids, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and he will set them to his work.
8:17	Also, he will take a tenth of your flocks. And you will be his servants.
8:18	And you will cry out, in that day, from the face of the king, whom you have chosen for yourselves. And the Lord will not heed you, in that day. For you requested a king for yourselves.”
8:19	But the people were not willing to listen to the voice of Samuel. Instead, they said: “By no means! For there shall be a king over us,
8:20	and we shall be just like all the Gentiles. And our king will judge us, and he will go out before us, and he will fight our wars for us.”
8:21	And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he spoke them to the ears of the Lord.
8:22	Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice, and appoint a king over them.” And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Let each one go to his own city.”

The Holy Gospel According to Mark 2: 1-12

2:1	And after some days, he again entered into Capernaum.
2:2	And it was heard that he was in the house. And so many gathered that there was no room left, not even at the door. And he spoke the word to them.
2:3	And they came to him, bringing a paralytic, who was being carried by four men.
2:4	And when they were not able to present him to him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. And opening it, they lowered down the stretcher on which the paralytic was lying.
2:5	Then, when Jesus had seen their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
2:6	But some of the scribes were sitting in that place and thinking in their hearts:
2:7	“Why is this man speaking in this way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”
2:8	At once, Jesus, realizing in his spirit that they were thinking this within themselves, said to them: “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?
2:9	Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up, take up your stretcher, and walk?’
2:10	But so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the paralytic:
2:11	“I say to you: Rise up, take up your stretcher, and go into your house.”
2:12	And immediately he got up, and lifting up his stretcher, he went away in the sight of them all, so that they all wondered. And they honored God, by saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”