July 21, 2023 — Friday, Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time — Odd Year — My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord, I know them, and they follow me — Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (Mt 12: 1-8)

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.
His disciples were hungry
and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,

“ See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.”

He said to the them,

“ Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry,
how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,
which neither he nor his companions
but only the priests could lawfully eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”