The theme of today's reading is "The Lord puts down the mighty and raises up the lowly". The first reading tells how David was sent by his old father Jesse to visit three of his brothers fighting alongside with Saul against the Philistines. Goliath, a redoubtable Philistine champion, has terrified the Israelites, so the young shepherd boy's offer to take up the Philistine's challenge seems foolhardy. For David the Lord is his strength. David prefigures Christ who came into this world in all human weakness and humility to challenge and overthrow the power of evil.

It is Jesus that we fully see in the binding of evil and the power to check the destructive forces of life in humankind. Jesus cures a man with the withered hand in a synagogue and restores life to the hand. This miracle points to the fact that Jesus came into this world to conquer death and to give life. He brings the kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice, peace and love into the lives of sinful men.