First Reading - 1 Corinthians 5:1-8
Gospel - Luke 6:6-11
In the first reading, St Paul is dealing with a serious situation in the Christian community at Corinth. There is a grave moral problem among them, and Paul is deeply concerned—not simply because a rule has been broken, but because the sin is affecting the whole community.
He compares sin to leaven. “A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough.” The image is powerful. A small amount of yeast can spread throughout the entire dough. In the same way, sin that is tolerated and ignored can gradually influence the attitudes and life of an entire community.
Paul therefore calls the Corinthians to remove the “old leaven” and to become a new batch of dough.
But what does this mean for us?
It means that we should never become comfortable with sin, whether in our personal lives or in our communities. At the same time, Paul's concern is not about creating a community that simply excludes sinners. His deeper desire is that the community may become renewed in Christ.
That brings us directly to the Gospel.
Jesus enters the synagogue on the Sabbath and sees a man whose right hand is withered. The scribes and Pharisees are watching Jesus carefully. They are not primarily concerned about the suffering man. They are waiting to see whether Jesus will heal him on the Sabbath so that they can find something against him.
Jesus knows what is in their hearts.
He asks them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?”
What a powerful question.
The man is standing in front of them, suffering, but their attention is somewhere else. They are thinking about the rule. Jesus is thinking about the person.
Jesus then says to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
And when he does so, his hand is restored.
This is at the heart of the Gospel: God's law is never opposed to God's mercy. True holiness does not make us indifferent to human suffering. It makes us more sensitive to it.
The first reading speaks about removing the old leaven. The Gospel shows us what the new life looks like. The old way of thinking is concerned with appearances, judgment, and protecting one's position. The new life in Christ looks at the person who is suffering and asks, “How can I bring healing?”
This is also a challenge for us.
Sometimes we can easily see the weaknesses of others while remaining blind to our own. We may know exactly what another person should change, but we may be slow to examine what needs to change in us.
The scribes and Pharisees were watching Jesus, but they were not allowing themselves to be transformed by what they saw.
We can do the same. We can come to church, listen to the Word of God, pray, and participate in religious practices, yet still carry bitterness, pride, jealousy, resentment, or unforgiveness within us.
That is the old leaven that Christ wants to remove.
Christian faith is not simply about looking holy from the outside. It is about becoming new from within.
And the healing of the man with the withered hand gives us another beautiful message. Jesus tells him, “Stretch out your hand.”
Perhaps that hand had become something he was ashamed of. Perhaps he had learned to hide it. But Jesus asks him to stretch it out.
Sometimes we also have parts of our lives that we prefer to hide—our weaknesses, failures, wounds, fears, or painful memories. We think that if we hide them, nobody will see them.
But Jesus says, “Stretch out your hand.”
Bring that wounded part of your life before me. Do not hide it. Let me touch what is broken.
And once Christ heals us, our healed life can become a source of healing for others.
The challenge, therefore, is not only to ask, “What is wrong with others?” but also, “What is Christ asking me to allow him to heal in me?”
The first reading tells us that a little leaven can spread through the whole dough. This can happen negatively through sin, but it can also happen positively through grace. A little forgiveness can change a family. A little kindness can transform someone's day. A little patience can prevent a relationship from breaking. A small act of love can become the beginning of something much greater.
So let us choose what we allow to spread through our lives.
If we allow anger to grow, it will affect everything. If we allow resentment to grow, it will poison our relationships. If we allow pride to grow, it will separate us from others and from God.
But if we allow Christ's love to grow within us, that love will also spread.
Today, Jesus asks us to look beyond the external rules and appearances and to discover the heart of God's law: life, mercy, restoration, and love.
May we allow Christ to remove the old leaven from our hearts. May he heal what is withered within us. And may the healing we receive from him become, in turn, a source of healing for the people around us.
For the true sign that Christ is transforming us is not that we become better at judging others, but that we become more capable of loving, forgiving, and bringing life.
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