From: Mark 3:1-6

The Curing of the Man with a Withered Hand

[1] Again He (Jesus) entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a
withered hand. [2] And they watched Him, to see whether He would heal him
on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. [3] And He said to the man
who had the withered hand, “Come here.” [4] And He said to them, “Is it lawful
on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were
silent. [5] And He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of
heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his
hand was restored. [6] The Pharisees went out, and immediately held counsel
with the Herodians against Him, how to destroy Him.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

5. The evangelists refer a number of times to the way Jesus looks at people (e.g.
at the young man: Mark 10:21; at St. Peter: Luke 22:61, etc). This is the only
time we are told He showed indignation—provoked by the hypocrisy shown in
verse 2.

6. The Pharisees were the spiritual leaders of Judaism; the Herodians were those
who supported the regime of Herod, benefiting politically and financially thereby.
The two were completely opposed to one another and avoided each other’s com-
pany, yet they combined forces against Jesus. The Pharisees wanted to see the
last of Him because they considered Him a dangerous innovator. The most re-
cent occasion may have been when He pardoned sins (Mark 2:1ff) and interpre-
ted with full authority the law of the Sabbath (Mark 3:2); they also want to get rid
of Him because they consider that He lowered their own prestige in the eyes of
the people by the way He cured the man with the withered hand. The Herodians,
for their part, despised the supernatural and eschatological tone of Christ’s mes-
sage, since they looked forward to a purely political and temporal Messiah.

*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Readings at Mass

First reading

Hebrews 7:1-3,15-17 ©

You remember that Melchizedek, king of Salem, a priest of God Most High, went to meet Abraham who was on his way back after defeating the kings, and blessed him; and also that it was to him that Abraham gave a tenth of all that he had. By the interpretation of his name, he is, first, ‘king of righteousness’ and also king of Salem, that is, ‘king of peace’; he has no father, mother or ancestry, and his life has no beginning or ending; he is like the Son of God. He remains a priest for ever.

This becomes even more clearly evident when there appears a second Melchizedek, who is a priest not by virtue of a law about physical descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it was about him that the prophecy was made: You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and for ever.

Psalm

Psalm 109:1-4 ©