July 17, 2015

Reading

Exodus 11: 10- 12: 14

11:10 Now Moses and Aaron did all the wonders that are written, in the sight of Pharaoh. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh; neither did he release the sons of Israel from his land.

12:1 The Lord also said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

12:2 “This month will be for you the beginning of the months. It will be first in the months of the year.

12:3 Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and say to them: On the tenth day of this month, let everyone take a lamb, by their families and houses.

12:4 But if the number is less than may suffice to be able to consume the lamb, he shall accept his neighbor, who has been joined with his house according to the number of souls that may suffice to be able to eat the lamb.

12:5 And it shall be a lamb without blemish, a one year old male. According to this rite, you shall also take a young goat.

12:6 And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month. And the entire multitude of the sons of Israel shall immolate it toward evening.

12:7 And they shall take from its blood, and place it on both the door posts and the upper threshold of the houses, in which they will consume it.

12:8 And that night they shall eat the flesh, roasted by fire, and unleavened bread with wild lettuce.

12:9 You shall not consume anything from it raw, nor boiled in water, but only roasted by fire. You shall devour the head with its feet and entrails.

12:10 Neither shall there remain anything from it until morning. If anything will have been left over, you shall burn it with fire.

12:11 Now you shall consume it in this way: You shall gird your waist, and you shall have shoes on your feet, holding staves in your hands, and you shall consume it in haste. For it is the Passover (that is, the Crossing) of the Lord.

12:12 And I will cross through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man, even to cattle. And I will bring judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.

12:13 But the blood will be for you as a sign in the buildings where you will be. And I will see the blood, and I will pass over you. And the plague will not be with you to destroy, when I strike the land of Egypt.

12:14 Then you shall have this day as a memorial, and you shall celebrate it as a solemnity to the Lord, in your generations, as an everlasting devotion.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   12: 1-8

12:1	At that time, Jesus went out through the ripe grain on the Sabbath. And his disciples, being hungry, began to separate the grain and to eat.
12:2	Then the Pharisees, seeing this, said to him, “Behold, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbaths.”
12:3	But he said to them: “Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him:
12:4	how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
12:5	Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbaths the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath, and they are without guilt?
12:6	But I say to you, that something greater than the temple is here.
12:7	And if you knew what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would never have condemned the innocent.
12:8	For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”