RE: 01.26.12~Readings for Sunday, January 29th-2012 + Study Catholic Matters.org

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JANUARY 29, 2012

« January 28 | January 30 »
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 71
READING 1 DT 18:15-20
Moses spoke to all the people, saying:
"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen.
This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb
on the day of the assembly, when you said,
'Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God,
nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.'
And the LORD said to me, 'This was well said.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin,
and will put my words into his mouth;
he shall tell them all that I command him.
Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name,
I myself will make him answer for it.
But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name
an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak,
or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.'"
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
READING 2 1 COR 7:32-35
Brothers and sisters:
I should like you to be free of anxieties.
An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord,
how he may please the Lord.
But a married man is anxious about the things of the world,
how he may please his wife, and he is divided.
An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord,
so that she may be holy in both body and spirit.
A married woman, on the other hand,
is anxious about the things of the world,
how she may please her husband.
I am telling you this for your own benefit,
not to impose a restraint upon you,
but for the sake of propriety
and adherence to the Lord without distraction.
GOSPEL MK 1:21-28
Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are?the Holy One of God!"
Jesus rebuked him and said,
"Quiet! Come out of him!"
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
"What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

SUNDAY READINGS - 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
FIRST READING: Deuteronomy 18:15-20. Moses said to the people, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren---him you shall heed---just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' And the Lord said to me, 'They have rightly said all that they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not give heed to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die."'
EXPLANATION: This central section of the book of Deuteronomy (16:18-18: 22) describes the various offices and officers of the theocratic society which Yahweh, through his servant Moses, is setting up for the Chosen People. Judges, kings, priests and prophets are promised to the people, to regulate their civil and religious life. The prophet was to be the mouth-piece of Yahweh among the people. He was to be listened to because he brought the word of God, Yahweh's revelation, to them. And just as there had to be a line of kings, judges and priests, so there had to be a line of prophets, who would interpret previous revelation and add some new truths, when necessary for each generation. After the return from the Babylonian exile (c. 538 B.C.) however, the people began to interpret this text of Deuteronomy as referring to one individual eschatological prophet, the Messiah who was to come. New Testament followed this interpretation and saw these words of Moses "a prophet like me" verified in Christ (Acts 3: 22; 7: 37). That this was the opinion of our Lord's contemporaries is clear from Jn. 1: 21; 6:14; 7: 40. These verses therefore, have been chosen for today's first reading because they refer to the "preacher with authority" who is mentioned in today's gospel.
for you a prophet: Moses promises the people that after his own death God will send one of themselves ("from your brethren") to take his place as God's interpreter or mouth-piece.
him...heed: They must obey his commands and advice because he is taking God's place in their regard. at
Horeb...you said: The reference is to the giving of the ten commandments on Mount Sinai or Horeb. The people heard the voice of Yahweh which was accompanied by thunder and lightning: "they shook with fear, (Ex. 20: 18) and begged that Moses should speak to them rather than that Yahweh himself should address them. Moses now says Yahweh will grant their request. He will speak to them only through his prophets.
put my words in his mouth: Yahweh will reveal to the prophet all he wants him to tell the people.
whoever...heed: Whoever disobeys or refuses to do what the prophet commands is disobeying Yahweh and will have to answer to him.
prophet who presumes: Any man claiming the office or charism of prophecy who has not received it from Yahweh, is guilty of serious deception and is to be put to death. Likewise any Israelite who would encourage the cult of a false god deserves death.
APPLICATION: That God fulfilled his promise to send prophets to speak in his name and with his authority is evident from the pages of the Old Testament. Beginning with Joshua, the immediate successor of Moses, there was a continuous line of representatives of God, who directed the people, corrected their faults and filled them with hopes for a better future, right down to John the Baptist who was the precursor of the final and greatest of all prophets. God could, of course, have spoken directly to his people, but through Moses the people had asked him not to do so, because the hearing of his voice on Mount Sinai had struck terror into their hearts. In his mercy and love Yahweh granted their request.
Had the Chosen People listened to those prophets and obeyed their instructions, their history would have been different. They would have avoided much temporal suffering, and more important still, their large percentage who lost faith in God and his promises of future happiness would have remained faithful and would now be enjoying that promised happiness. But when they got full possession of the land God gave them, they began to get too interested in the economic and political affairs of their world. They forgot God who had been so generous toward them, and took credit to themselves for all that they were and had.
Who are we, living as we are in glass-houses, to throw stones? The prophets of the Old Testament were but fore-shadowings or types of the real prophet, God's divine Son. He humbled himself to share in our humanity so that we could share in his divinity. Of this astounding fact every Christian is aware, and yet how many millions of "ex-Christians" are there in our world today? How many live their lives in total disregard of Christ's teaching and complete oblivion of what he did and suffered for them, or, what is worse still for themselves, with complete disinterest in their own future state. Yet this is the sad fact of history. More than half the people of what were once the Christian nations are no longer interested in the Christian message today. Their days and their lives are so given to acquiring things and pleasures that every thought of a future life is blotted from their minds.
This neo-paganism which has been developing over the past centuries, has reached frightening proportions today. God has little, if any, place in the councils of nations. Man-made laws have replaced the ten commandments, and the result is, of course, a world in turmoil. There is not and there cannot be any brotherhood of man if we exclude the Fatherhood of God. There will never be "peace on earth among men" until all men make their peace with the God of heaven. False prophets and promoters of false gods, advertisers of pornography and permissiveness surround us on all sides today. There are those who are trying to prevent the pollution of land, water and atmosphere but too few, if any, who oppose the mental and moral pollution of people which is being propagated daily in our midst. All would like this world of ours to be a beautiful place to live in, only very few think to provide for a beautiful place to which they can go after they leave this world.
Please God we are among that few, but instead of clapping one another on the back for this, let us rather beat our breasts in repentance for our past faults and resolve to let the light of our Christian faith shine before our neighbors in future. Every good-living Christian is a prophet, a representative, of God among his neighbors. His example will speak and its message will be the word of God and it will produce fruit in God's good time. We are our brothers' keepers in that they are God's adopted children too, and he wants them. He is looking to us to give them a helping hand. Would we refuse him, the all-loving Father who sent his Son to open heaven for us? Would we be so ungrateful as to refuse the little he asks of us in return?
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SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 7:32-35. I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
EXPLANATION: Paul devotes the whole of chapter seven of this Epistle to answering questions he was asked concerning marriage and virginity. Because the first Christian converts, not only in Thessalonica and Corinth, but everywhere, believed or strongly hoped that the end of this world and the second coming of Christ as Judge were imminent (and St. Paul himself must have, at least, encouraged this belief and hope), many of them thought they should not enter into marriage, lest marriage should interfere with their whole-hearted service of God. As regards those already married when they became converts, the Apostle tells them marriage is a holy state ordained by God and it is a life-long partnership according to the teaching of the Lord (see Mt. 5: 32; 19 :3-9). To those not yet married he recommends a life of virginity but only if they feel they can live that life in all fidelity. In today's extract St. Paul emphasizes freedom to serve God fully, freedom from earthly cares which those who choose a life of celibacy have.
The unmarried man: The celibate can give all his undivided attention to living his Christian life and pleasing God.
married man...divided: The married man on the other hand has to give a lot of his attention to pleasing his wife and to providing for her needs as well as his own. He has less time therefore for the things of God.
unmarried...woman: The same applies to women.
lay...way: St. Paul says he had no direction from the lord as regards virginity (7: 25). Our Lord's words in Mt. 19:12 are not a command but only a counsel or recommendation, and so Paul is making only a recommendation. He does not wish to restrict their choice.
your...attention: He tells those as yet unmarried that they will be in a better position to serve the Lord if they remain single.
APPLICATION: While it is true that St. Paul recommended a celibate life to those who were still single because of the general feeling at the time that the end of this world was at hand, his recommendation of celibacy and its advantages have been accepted through the ages down to our own day. The truth of his statement: "the unmarried man (or woman) is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, the married man (or woman) is anxious about worldly affairs (as well as about the affairs of God) and his interests are divided," needs no demonstration, it is self-evident. For this reason we have had a line of men (and later of women also) through the nineteen centuries of the Church's life who gladly deprived themselves of earthly comforts in order to devote their lives exclusively to God's service. The voluntary celibates of the early Church were followed by the Fathers of the Desert, later by the Eastern and Western monks, then the religious orders and in more recent centuries by various congregations for men and women.
These celibates, of course, were always a small minority of the body of the faithful and it was always understood (as it was by St. Paul) that while their vocation was a call to the exclusive service of God it was by no means the only way of serving God and earning heaven. The married life is also a Christian vocation, a vocation indeed ordained by God for the vast majority. For the Christian who is sincere in his service of God, it entails many difficulties and trials from which his celibate life sets the religious free. On the other hand the life of a religious, of a celibate for God, has its own difficulties. But for both the married and the religious there is always available for the asking, the grace of God to help them over life's hurdles. When God calls a man or woman for a task, he gives him or her the strength to carry it out, he fits the shoulder for the cross.
While the married life is indeed a vocation, a means of earning heaven, and an ordinance of God necessary for the procreation of citizens of heaven, the religious life, this voluntary abstention from marriage, by those so called, is a divine plan to help the married (as well as the religious themselves). Apart from the spiritual and material help which religious give to their married neighbors---teaching their children, caring for the disabled, running homes for the aged, helping families in need and the thousand other ways in which the spiritual and corporal works of mercy are joyously done in our midst each day---the special value of this total dedication of self to God, which the religious life demands and gives, is that it is a sign, a reminder, not only to all Christians but to all men, of the real purpose of life on earth.
God created us in order to raise us up after death to a new and endless life of happiness. Our few years on this earth are but the apprenticeship we must serve in order to earn our eternal standing or status as heirs of God in the eternal kingdom. But because man's human nature can, and does so often, get so enmeshed in the things of earth we need reminders. We need signs and sign-posts to keep our true purpose in life before our minds. This is exactly what the few of our members who dedicate their whole life to God's exclusive service, do for us. They remind us, urge us on by their noble example to serve God in our own limited, but sufficient way so that we too can reach the future life prepared for us.
Both the married life and the religious celibate life are vocations from God. While the religious help the married and their families on the road to heaven, the married can and must help the religious to continue their exclusive and devoted service to God, by providing them with the material necessities of life. This is part of their own devoted service of God, this is one of the ways in which they fulfill, their vocation. Heaven is the goal of both religious and married people. Where each of the parties devotedly and loyally fulfilIs the duties arising from each one's vocation, that goal will be successfully reached by both.
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GOSPEL: Mark 1: 21-28. They went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching! With authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
EXPLANATION: St. Mark enters abruptly into the public ministry of Christ. He describes very briefly the preaching of the Baptist, the temptation in the desert place, the call of the first four Apostles and then tells of Jesus beginning to preach the good news in Galilee. It was in east Galilee that he called the first Apostles and it was in the town called Capernaum, a day or two later, that he preached one of his first sermons to his fellow Jews. It was in their synagogue on the Sabbath day that he also worked a miracle.
Jesus...synagogue: Every town of any size in Palestine had a synagogue, a sacred building where all pious Jews gathered on the Sabbath day (Saturday) to recite prayers and to hear the scriptures read, and explained by the local rabbi or teacher.
he taught them: Jesus was probably invited by the local rabbi to address the people because it seems to have been the custom of the time to invite any stranger present to speak to the congregation (see Acts 13: 15).
taught as...authority: Unlike the scribes and the rabbis, he did not quote others to prove his words. He laid down the law himself on his own authority (see Mt. 5: 21: "You have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you"). He was the Messiah and the Son of God but the people did not grasp this though the "unclean spirit" did.
man...spirit: A devil or evil spirit dwelt in this man. This seems clear from the remarks that follow. The others present in the synagogue did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. The evil spirit could have this knowledge and he used it with the hope of embarrassing Jesus in some way.
you...us: That the Messiah would put an end to the reign of Satan and sin in the world was the general expectation among the Jews. This particular spirit is aware of this and realizes that he and his fellow fallen angels are about to be conquered.
you come...us: To end our reign, is what is implied. This is what Christ did, for by his incarnation, death and resurrection, he gave all men the means of becoming sons of God, free from the snares of Satan and sin.
the Holy...God: One very close to God. To the unclean spirit and to Mark and his Christian readers, the title equaled "the Son of God," but the Jews of Capernaum did not attach such a meaning to it.
Be silent...out: As Jesus does not want his true relationship with God known as yet, he forbids the spirit to say anymore, but orders him to leave the man whom he had possessed.
They were all amazed: Exorcisms were often practiced by their rabbis but a long liturgical formula was used. Here, by a simple word of command, Jesus makes the spirit depart.
a new teaching: The authority with which he expounded the Scriptures in his sermon, and the same super-human authority exercised over the unclean spirit, gave the people food for thought. They would understand it later.
his fame...Galilee: The people of Capernaum told their fellow-Jews in the other towns of Galilee what had happened in their synagogue. Therefore before he left Capernaum to preach and work miracles in other parts of Galilee, his fame as a man with super-human power had reached these outlying districts and towns.
APPLICATION: St. Mark makes it clear that, from the very first day of Christ's public ministry, his messianic power began to be manifested to those who saw and heard him. The Jews of Capernaum were "astonished" at his teaching and "amazed" at his power over the evil spirits. "What is this," they asked one another, "a new teaching and the unclean spirits obey him!" But they were still a long way from recognizing him for what he was, the Messiah and Son of God. This is as might be expected, the astounding mystery of the incarnation was away beyond human expectation or human imagination. And it was our Lord's own plan to reveal this mystery, slowly and gradually, so that when the chain of evidence had been completed by his resurrection, his followers could look back and see each link in that chain. Then they would be ready to accept without hesitation the mystery of the incarnation and realize the infinite love and power of God that brought it about. We look back today through, the eyes of the Evangelists, and, like them, know that Christ was God as well as man-two natures in one person. We should not therefore be "amazed" at the teaching of Jesus or at his power over the unclean spirits. What should amaze us really is the love that God showed mankind in becoming one of our race.
We are creatures with nothing of our own to boast of. We were created by God, and every talent or power we possess was given us by God. God's benevolence could have stopped them and we would have no right to complain. But when we recall the special gifts he gave man, which raise him above all other created things, we see that he could not, because of his own infinitely benevolent nature, leave us to an earthly fate. What thinking man could be content with a short span of life on earth? What real purpose in life could an intelligent being have who knew that nothing awaited him but eternal oblivion in the, grave? What fulfillment would man's intellectual faculties find in a few years of what is for the majority of people perpetual struggle for earthly survival? No, God created us to elevate us, after our earthly sojourn, to an eternal existence where all our desires and potentialities would have their true fulfillment. Hence the incarnation, hence the life, death and resurrection of Christ, who was God's Son, as the central turning point of man's history.
Today, while amazed at God's love for us, let us also be justly amazed at the shabby and grudging return we make for love. Many amongst us even deny that act of God's infinite love, not from convincing historical and logical proofs, but in order to justify their own unwillingness to cooperate with the divine plan for their eternal future. This is not to say that their future, after death, does not concern them; it is a thought which time and again intrudes on all men, but they have allowed the affairs of this world which should be stepping stones to their future life, to become instead mill-stones which crush their spirits and their own true self-interests.
While we sincerely hope that we are not in that class, we can still find many facets in our daily Christian lives which can and should make us amazed at our lack of gratitude to God and to his incarnate Son. Leaving out serious sin which turns us away from God if not against him, how warm is our charity, our love of God and neighbor? How much of our time do we give to the things of God and how much to the things of Caesar? How often does our daily struggle for earthly existence and the grumbles and grouses which it causes, blot out from our view the eternal purpose God had in giving us this earthly existence. How often during the past year have we said from our heart: "Thank you, God, for putting me in this world, and thank you a thousand times more, for giving me the opportunity and the means of reaching the next world where I shall live happily for evermore in your presence"? If the true answer for many of us is "not once," then begin today. Let us say it now with all sincerity, and say it often in the years that are left to us.-b093
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