First Reading

Reading from the Book of Isaiah

Isaiah 38, 1-6. 21-22. 7-8

At that time, King Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover’”.

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying: “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly, and how I have done what is pleasing to you”. And he wept bitterly.

Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you; in three days you shall go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will shield Jerusalem’”.

Isaiah then ordered: “Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover”. Hezekiah asked: “What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple of the Lord?” Isaiah answered: “This will be the sign for you from the Lord that he will do what he has promised: See, I will make the shadow on the stairway of Ahaz go back the ten steps it has advanced”. So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.

Gospel

Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew

Matthew 12, 1-8

One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him: “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath”.

He answered: “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.

Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on duty in the temple may break the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.

If you had known what these words mean: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath”.