Saturday of 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
Hungry for the Message
A messenger comes to announce to David that King Saul and his Son Jonathan have died in battle and David mourns them deeply, even though Saul had sought David’s life.
The few verses of today’s Gospel tell us no more than that the crowd was so eager to hear Jesus’ message, that they left him and the disciples not even the time to eat.
First Reading: 2 Sm 1:1-4, 11-12, 19, 23-27
Shortly after Saul died, David returned to Ziklag from his rout of the Amalekites. Three days later a man showed up unannounced from Saul’s army camp.
2-3 Disheveled and obviously in mourning, he fell to his knees in respect before David. David asked, “What brings you here?”
He answered, “I’ve just escaped from the camp of Israel.”
4 “So what happened?” said David. “What’s the news?”
He said, “The Israelites have fled the battlefield, leaving a lot of their dead comrades behind. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.”
In lament, David ripped his clothes to ribbons. All the men with him did the same. They wept and fasted the rest of the day, grieving the death of Saul and his son Jonathan, and also the army of God and the nation Israel, victims in a failed battle.
Oh, oh, Gazelles of Israel, struck down on your hills,
the mighty warriors—fallen, fallen!
Don’t announce it in the city of Gath,
don’t post the news in the streets of Ashkelon.
Don’t give those coarse Philistine girls
one more excuse for a drunken party!
No more dew or rain for you, hills of Gilboa,
and not a drop from springs and wells,
For there the warriors’ shields were dragged through the mud,
Saul’s shield left there to rot.
Gospel Mk 3:20-21
Jesus came home and, as usual, a crowd gathered—so many making demands on him that there wasn’t even time to eat. His friends heard what was going on and went to rescue him, by force if necessary. They suspected he was believing his own press.
Prayer
Our saving God,
you have shown your people mercy
in your Son, Jesus Christ.
May we belong to him,
that we may come to love him deeply
and in this way, know him as he is,
and also know you as our Father.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Video available at: bibleclaret.org