Daily Catholic Mass Readings for January 19, 2026
First Reading: 1 Samuel 15.16-23
16Then Samuel said to Saul, "Permit me, and I will reveal to you what the Lord has said to me this night." And he said to him, "Speak.17And Samuel said: "Was it not when you were little in your own eyes that you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you as king over Israel18And the Lord sent you on the way, and he said: ‘Go and put to death the sinners of Amalek. And you shall fight against them, even unto utter annihilation.19Why then, did you not listen to the voice of the Lord? Instead, you turned to the spoils, and you did evil in the eyes of the Lord.20And Saul said to Samuel: "On the contrary, I did listen to the voice of the Lord, and I walked in the way along which the Lord sent me, and I led back Agag, the king of Amalek, and I put to death Amalek21But the people took some of the spoils, sheep and oxen, as the first-fruits of those things that were slain, to immolate to the Lord their God at Gilgal.22And Samuel said: "Does the Lord want holocausts and victims, and not instead that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifice. And to heed is greater than to offer the fat of rams23Therefore, it is like the sin of paganism to rebel. And it is like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey. For this reason, therefore, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has also rejected you from being king.
Psalm 50
1A Psalm of Asaph. The God of gods, the Lord has spoken, and he has called the earth, from the rising of the sun even to its setting2from Zion, the brilliance of his beauty3God will arrive manifestly. Our God also will not keep silence. A fire will flare up in his sight, and a mighty tempest will surround him4He will call to heaven from above, and to the earth, to discern his people5Gather his holy ones to him, you who order his covenant above sacrifices6And the heavens will announce his justice. For God is the judge7Listen, my people, and I will speak. Listen, Israel, and I will testify for you. I am God, your God8I will not reprove you for your sacrifices. Moreover, your holocausts are ever in my sight9I will not accept calves from your house, nor he-goats from your flocks10For all the wild beasts of the forest are mine: the cattle on the hills and the oxen11I know all the flying things of the air, and the beauty of the field is with me12If I should be hungry, I would not tell you: for the whole world is mine, and all its plentitude13Shall I gnaw on the flesh of bulls? Or would I drink the blood of goats14Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High15And call upon me in the day of tribulation. I will rescue you, and you will honor me16But to the sinner, God has said: Why do you discourse on my justices, and take up my covenant through your mouth17Truly, you have hated discipline, and you have cast my sermons behind you18If you saw a thief, you ran with him, and you have placed your portion with adulterers19Your mouth has abounded with malice, and your tongue has concocted deceits20Sitting, you spoke against your brother, and you set up a scandal against your mother’s son21These things you have done, and I was silent. You thought, unjustly, that I ought to be like you. But I will reprove you, and I will set myself against your face22Understand these things, you who forget God; lest at any time, he might quickly take you away, and there would be no one to rescue you23The sacrifice of praise will honor me. And in that place is the journey by which I will reveal to him the salvation of God
Gospel: Mark 2.18-22
18And the disciples of John, and the Pharisees, were fasting. And they arrived and said to him, "Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?19And Jesus said to them: "How can the sons of the wedding fast while the groom is still with them? During whatever time they have the groom with them, they are not able to fast20But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they shall fast, in those days21No one sews a patch of new cloth onto an old garment. Otherwise, the new addition pulls away from the old, and the tear becomes worse22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the wineskins, and the wine will pour out, and the wineskins will be lost. Instead, new wine must be put into new wineskins.
Sermon
Our first reading this morning presents King Saul, confronted by the prophet Samuel for his incomplete obedience to God's command. Sent to utterly destroy the Amalekites, Saul spared their king and some choice animals, justifying it as a desire to offer sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel's stern rebuke, "obedience is better than sacrifice, and to heed is greater than to offer the fat of rams," reveals a profound truth: God desires a heart fully surrendered to His will, not merely external acts, even pious ones, if they bypass direct instruction. Saul's failure lay not just in his actions, but in his spirit – seeking to reconcile God’s absolute command with his own or his people's desires, thereby rejecting the very word of the Lord.
This theme of the spirit behind our actions resonates powerfully with the Gospel. The disciples of John and the Pharisees were accustomed to the established practice of fasting, a commendable act of piety. Yet, Jesus explains why His disciples do not fast in His presence, likening Himself to a bridegroom at a wedding feast, a time for joy. His parables of new cloth on old garments and new wine in old wineskins further clarify that the new covenant He inaugurates cannot merely be patched onto or contained within old, rigid frameworks. It demands a fundamental transformation, a new way of being and understanding God's presence among us. We cannot try to force the radical newness of Christ's grace into our old habits of thinking, our comfort zones, or our partial understanding of faith.
Both readings, therefore, call us to a deep examination of our receptivity to God's will. Are we, like Saul, seeking to negotiate with God, offering partial obedience or substituting our own good intentions for His clear direction? Or are we, like the old wineskins, unwilling to be stretched and transformed by the living, dynamic presence of Christ in our lives? True faith calls for complete surrender and a willingness to embrace the newness of His Spirit, allowing Him to remake us entirely, making our hearts truly open and obedient vessels for His boundless grace.