Genesis 23:1-4, 19; 24:1-8, 62-67 / Matthew 9:9-13
The Old Testament literature is full of imagery and symbolic language.
So it may be necessary to understand the imagery and the symbols in order to understand the significance of the message.
In the 1st reading, we hear of Abraham making his steward swear an oath to choose a wife for his son Isaac according to his specific instructions.
Then we hear of a peculiar action - Abraham made the steward put his hand under his thigh to make the oath.
In other words, the steward had to reach down and grasp Abraham's manhood, and then swear an oath upon the seed of Abraham's tribe, that he would make every effort to adhere to the promise he was to make. That is a rather graphic description and rather obscene to think about.
In fact that is how the word "testimony" derives, as the Latin root "testi" refers to the glans from which the seeds of life, and each man's future progeny or legacy is propagated.
But the steward was not to take hold of his own groin while making his pledge, but that of Abraham's, and so it symbolically stood for that of every member of Abraham's tribe.
Abraham was instilling in his steward the grave importance that Abraham himself invested in what was being demanded of his steward. Abraham was staking the future of his entire tribe on this one oath.
In the gospel, we hear of a testimony, and that is from Jesus the Son of God. Jesus proclaimed to us the promise of God.
"What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners".
Only when we confess that we are sinners will we be able to understand the saving mercy of God. And only then will we be merciful and compassionate to others who sinned against us.