Daily Catholic Mass Readings for January 19, 2026
First Reading: 1 Samuel 15.16-23
16Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night." And he said to him, "Speak."17And Samuel said, "Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel.18And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, 'Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.'19Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?"20And Saul said to Samuel, "I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction.21But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal."22And Samuel said, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.23For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king."
Psalm 50
1The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.3Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.4He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:5"Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!"6The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah7"Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.8Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.9I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.10For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.11I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.12"If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.13Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?14Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,15and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."16But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?17For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.18If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.19"You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.20You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son.21These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.22"Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!23The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!"
Gospel: Mark 2.18-22
18Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"19And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.20The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.21No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins--and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh 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.