Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 

1 Sm 15:16-23

Samuel said to Saul:
“Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
Saul replied, “Speak!” 
Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem,
are you not leader of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king of Israel and sent you on a mission, saying,
‘Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction.
Fight against them until you have exterminated them.’
Why then have you disobeyed the LORD?
You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD.”
Saul answered Samuel: “I did indeed obey the LORD
and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me.
I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen,
the best of what had been banned,
to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal.”
But Samuel said:
“Does the LORD so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the command of the LORD?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission than the fat of rams.
For a sin like divination is rebellion,
and presumption is the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the command of the LORD,
he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”

Responsorial Psalm PS 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23

R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

Alleluia Heb 4:12

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mk 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

REFLECTION 

PROUD OF YOUR SELF-HATRED?

"Stop! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night." –1 Samuel 15:16

Saul "erected a trophy in his own honor" (1 Sm 15:12), though he was little in his own esteem (1 Sm 15:17). People who are proud of themselves often hate themselves. Proud people act like gods, and of course they do a very poor imitation of God. So they hate themselves for failing. If they don't repent, they lie to themselves and others about failing. Then they hate themselves for being phonies. Proud people try to compensate for their failures by doing more of their own thing, disobeying the Lord, and thereby failing some more. This makes them bigger failures and probably bigger phonies.

If they don't repent, proud people come to hate themselves so much that they consider suicide and may even commit suicide, as Saul eventually did (1 Sm 31:4). The wages of pride are escalating disobediences, failures, self-hatred, and self-deceptions. "The wages of sin is death" (Rm 6:23) – self-imposed death.

Therefore, let us repent of pride and humble ourselves (Mt 23:12). We must come to Jesus and learn from Him, for He is "gentle and humble of heart" (Mt 11:29).

PRAYER:	Father, I choose to take "the lowest place" (Lk 14:10).
PROMISE:	"No man pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does so, the wine will burst the skins and both wine and skins will be lost. No, new wine is poured into new skins." –Mk 2:22
PRAISE:	Losing his job was a blessing for Bob's spiritual life, as he sought Jesus deeply and grew ever closer to Him.