Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Optional Memorial for the Blessed Virgin Mary)

 
On Saturdays in Ordinary Time when there is no obligatory memorial, an optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary is allowed. [1] Mass texts may be taken from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from a Votive Mass, or from the special collection of Masses for the Blessed Virgin Mary. (USCCB recommends: # 34. The Blessed Virgin Mary, Cause of Our Joy)

“Isaac Blessing Jacob”
by Govert Teunisz Flinck, 1639

 
Readings for Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time [2]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [3]
 
Readings and Commentary: [4]
 
Reading 1: Genesis 27:1-5, 15-29
 
When Isaac was so old that his eyesight had failed him,
he called his older son Esau and said to him, "Son!"
"Yes father!" he replied.
Isaac then said, "As you can see, I am so old
that I may now die at any time.
Take your gear, therefore–your quiver and bow–
and go out into the country to hunt some game for me.
With your catch prepare an appetizing dish for me, such as I like,
and bring it to me to eat,
so that I may give you my special blessing before I die."
 
Rebekah had been listening
while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau.
So, when Esau went out into the country
to hunt some game for his father,
Rebekah [then] took the best clothes of her older son Esau
that she had in the house,
and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear;
and with the skins of the kids she covered up his hands
and the hairless parts of his neck.
Then she handed her son Jacob the appetizing dish
and the bread she had prepared.
 
Bringing them to his father, Jacob said, "Father!"
"Yes?" replied Isaac.  "Which of my sons are you?"
Jacob answered his father:  "I am Esau, your first-born.
I did as you told me.
Please sit up and eat some of my game,
so that you may give me your special blessing."
But Isaac asked, "How did you succeed so quickly, son?"
He answered,
"The LORD, your God, let things turn out well with me."
Isaac then said to Jacob,
"Come closer, son, that I may feel you,
to learn whether you really are my son Esau or not."
So Jacob moved up closer to his father.
When Isaac felt him, he said,
"Although the voice is Jacob's, the hands are Esau's."
(He failed to identify him because his hands were hairy,
like those of his brother Esau;
so in the end he gave him his blessing.)
Again he asked Jacob, "Are you really my son Esau?"
"Certainly," Jacob replied.
Then Isaac said, "Serve me your game, son, that I may eat of it
and then give you my blessing."
Jacob served it to him, and Isaac ate;
he brought him wine, and he drank.
Finally his father Isaac said to Jacob,
"Come closer, son, and kiss me."
As Jacob went up and kissed him,
Isaac smelled the fragrance of his clothes.
With that, he blessed him saying,
 
"Ah, the fragrance of my son
is like the fragrance of a field
that the LORD has blessed!
 
"May God give to you
of the dew of the heavens
And of the fertility of the earth
abundance of grain and wine.
 
"Let peoples serve you,
and nations pay you homage;
Be master of your brothers,
and may your mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
and blessed be those who bless you."
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Commentary on Gn 27:1-5, 15-29
 
This passage brings us to Isaac’s deathbed. In this selection we hear the plot of Rebecca and Jacob to trick Isaac into giving his final blessing to Jacob, cheating his twin brother Esau out of it. "Here too, as in the case of Isaac (cf. Genesis 21:8-13), the part played by the mother is stressed; she ignores custom, and plays an active part in the furthering of God's plans. The passage also stresses how shrewd the patriarch is by comparison with Esau. Jacob's action is justified in the overall context of the narrative, given that he bought the birthright previously from his brother." [5]
 
 While nothing is said in this passage as to the morality of the means by which Jacob receives this inheritance, his action is condemned in other parts of Scripture (see Hosea 12:3 and Jeremiah 9:3). God punishes them for this act by separating Jacob and his mother. This action shows how God takes even the weak and undeserving and uses them to his greater glory.
 
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 135:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6
 
R. (3a) Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
Praise the name of the LORD;
Praise, you servants of the LORD
Who stand in the house of the LORD,
in the courts of the house of our God.
R. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
sing praise to his name, which we love;
For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself,
Israel for his own possession.
R. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
For I know that the LORD is great;
our LORD is greater than all gods.
All that the LORD wills he does
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and in all the deeps.
R. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps 135:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6
 
Psalm 135 is a song of praise and thanksgiving. The reference in the second strophe is to God choosing Jacob, which he did at the birth of the twins telling his mother: “the older shall serve the younger.”
 
CCC: Ps 135:6 269
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Gospel: Matthew 9:14-17
 
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
"Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?"
Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.
No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,
for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."
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Commentary on Mt 9:14-17
Jesus is approached by St. John the Baptist’s disciples about the Pharisaic practices of ritual fasting. In Old Testament usage this action was a token of repentance or of mourning. No fast is actually prescribed in the Law of Moses, except the fast on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29 and 23:27 and Numbers 29:7). Given this understanding of the Law of Moses, what was being practiced by the Pharisees (and St. John’s disciples) was tradition. Jesus' response, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them,” speaks to the fact that his disciples do not have anything to repent from or mourn for, as long as they are following him.
 
The next section of the reading seems to contradict an earlier statement of Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20), when he said he had not come to abolish the Law of Moses but to fulfill it. But his metaphors about the wineskins and the cloth refer to a completely new understanding of God’s revelation that cannot be a “patchwork” of ideas, rather a consistent application of Christ’s law of love, mercy, and hope.
 
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Reflection:
 
We reflect today upon the cautionary message embedded in the Gospel of St. Matthew.  In the passage given, the Lord is challenged by some of the disciples of St. John the Baptist (of which at least one of his own disciples, Andrew, was formerly a member).  They ask why Jesus and his disciples do not practice the Pharisaic traditions of ritual fasting.  Jesus, also of the Pharisaic tradition, was not following their scrupulous rules and neither were his disciples.  It was important that Jesus strike just the right tone in his reply.  Recognizing that the Pharisees were following a tradition developed out of their understanding of the law (not prescriptions of the law), he explains that his disciples do not need to mourn or repent while he is with them (coming as he does to fulfill the law and the prophets - we understand this).
 
Where, one may ask is the cautionary message here?  Jesus is defending his disciples' actions because what they do, they do out of understanding.  They understand that they do not fast because the Son of God is with them, and they cannot mourn while he is present.  The Pharisees and St. John’s disciples have forgotten the underlying spiritual reason for what they do and focus on the actions of their worship instead of upon the reason for those actions.  In other words, the actions themselves become important rather than the spiritual driver that caused them to be enacted in the first place.
 
In a faith so rich in ritual and tradition, we can sometimes fall into the same trap.  Our focus might be on the ritual or tradition, and we might forget that the reason we do what we do is for God’s greater glory, not simply following the rules or rubrics.  We are reminded by this gospel story that when we do the ritual things of our faith, be they as simple as making the sign of the cross or genuflecting, or as complex as the rosary or the Divine Mercy devotionals, we recall the underlying reasons for what we do at each step.
 
Today we thank God for giving us his word and the means to worship him through our faith.  We also pray that when we participate with our brothers and sisters in the practice of that faith, we focus on the spiritual aspects of what we do as well as the rubrics of the faith.
 
Pax
 

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[1] General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar Miscellaneous Notes no. 5: “Outside Advent, Christmas Time, Lent, and Easter Time, on Saturdays which have no commemoration having the rank of Obligatory Memorial or higher, a Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary may be celebrated. This is indicated in the calendar by “BVM.” The readings and prayers may be selected from the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
[2] The picture is “Isaac Blessing Jacob” by Govert Teunisz Flinck, 1639.
[3] S.S. Commemoratio (Saturday of the 13^th Week in Ordinary Time)
[4] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[5] The Navarre Bible: “Pentateuch”, Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2003, p. 139.