Thursday, July 2, 2026
Thursday of the Thirteenth week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 9:1-8
Listen to the whole reading — MP3
First reading
Amos 7:10-17
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’” Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!” Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore listen to the Lord’s word: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore the Lord says: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”
Responsorial psalm
Psalms 19:7,8,9,10
The Lord’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. The Lord’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The Lord’s ordinances are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb. Moreover by them is your servant warned. In keeping them there is great reward.
Gospel
Matthew 9:1-8
He entered into a boat, and crossed over, and came into his own city. Behold, they brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a bed. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, cheer up! Your sins are forgiven you.” Behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes.” Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins-” (then he said to the paralytic), “Get up, and take up your mat, and go to your house.” He arose and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
Lectio
Amos was a herdsman, a tender of sycamore figs, an ordinary man who never sought the role of prophet. Yet when the Lord took him from following the flock, he could not unsay what God had given him to speak — not even when the powerful Amaziah told him to take his troublesome words elsewhere. There is something bracing in Amos's refusal. He does not defend his credentials; he simply tells the truth about how he came to stand where he stands. The word he carries is not his own, and so he is not free to soften it for the comfort of kings.
In the Gospel, that same divine authority moves through Jesus, and again it disturbs the settled order. The scribes calculate quietly in their hearts that this man blasphemes. They are not wrong that forgiveness belongs to God alone — they are wrong that God is not standing before them. Jesus, who knows the secret reasoning of every heart, asks which is easier: to forgive or to heal. We tend to want the visible miracle, the man rising from his mat. But Christ reaches first for the deeper paralysis, the one no one can see, and speaks pardon before he speaks healing. The psalm calls God's precepts sweeter than honey and more desirable than fine gold — and here is the sweetness made flesh: a love that addresses the wound beneath the wound.
Both readings invite us to notice how often we, like Amaziah, prefer the truth that protects our arrangements, and how often we, like the scribes, judge in the silence of our own hearts what God is doing right in front of us. The Lord's word still comes through unlikely messengers and still forgives before we have even asked to walk.
Where in your life has God asked you to speak or live a truth that threatens your own comfort, and like Amaziah, who has been pressuring you to take that truth somewhere quieter?
Jesus addressed the paralytic's hidden sin before his visible illness — what is the deeper paralysis in you right now that you keep hoping he will overlook in favor of an easier, more external fix?
Saint of the day
St. Bernardino Realino, Priest (1530-1616)
Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora