1st Reading – Exodus 19:2-6a
Three months after starting their exodus experience the Israelites came to Mount
Sinai. The first month is Nissan, the time of Passover and Unleavened Bread; that is when the exodus began. The second month is the entry into the Wilderness of Sin, where the manna was given (Exodus 16:1); it was the time of the cereal harvest. The third month is the Feast of Weeks (sevens, oaths), Pentecost. As early as the second century B.C. some Jewish groups were recorded as connecting the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai with the Feast of Weeks. There is no hard evidence that mainstream Judaism made the connection between the Law and Pentecost until the third century A.D. Our reading today takes place when the Israelites first arrive at the base of Mount Sinai.
2nd Reading – Romans 5:6-11
Saint Peter may have come to Rome by A.D. 42, but by the time Saint Paul wrote this
letter from Corinth around A.D. 58, there was a flourishing Christian community in the city. Saint Paul planned to evangelize Spain (Romans 15:24) and to visit the Christian
community at Rome en route. Since he was unknown to most of the Christians of Rome, he wrote this letter by way of introducing himself to them. Paul’s background is Hebrew
(family covenant) vice the Roman court where many interpreters try to place him. It is from the perspective of family covenant that he writes.
Gospel – Matthew 9:36-10:8
Jesus is in His first year of public ministry. He has performed His first miracle (turned water into wine at Cana), talked with the Samaritan woman at the well, has arrived in Galilee and preached the Sermon on the Mount (and the Lord’s Prayer, which is part of the sermon). He has healed numerous people and has recruited Matthew, who before his calling had been a tax collector. In the discourse we hear today, Jesus admits others to share both His mission and His powers, and He commissions them to proclaim on a scale wider than He could reach personally.
