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FEBRUARY 19, 2012
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 80
READING 1 IS 43:18-19, 21-22, 24B-25
Thus says the LORD:
Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
In the desert I make a way,
in the wasteland, rivers.
The people I formed for myself,
that they might announce my praise.
Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob,
for you grew weary of me, O Israel.
You burdened me with your sins,
and wearied me with your crimes.
It is I, I, who wipe out,
for my own sake, your offenses;
your sins I remember no more.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 41:2-3, 4-5, 13-14
R. (5b) Lord, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.
Blessed is the one who has regard for the lowly and the poor;
in the day of misfortune the LORD will deliver him.
The LORD will keep and preserve him;
and make him blessed on earth,
and not give him over to the will of his enemies.
R. Lord, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.
The LORD will help him on his sickbed,
he will take away all his ailment when he is ill.
Once I said, "O LORD, have pity on me;
heal me, though I have sinned against you."
R. Lord, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.
But because of my integrity you sustain me
and let me stand before you forever.
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
from all eternity. Amen. Amen.
R. Lord, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.
READING 2 2 COR 1:18-22
Brothers and sisters:
As God is faithful,
our word to you is not "yes" and "no."
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was proclaimed to you by us, Silvanus and Timothy and me,
was not "yes" and "no, " but "yes" has been in him.
For however many are the promises of God, their Yes is in him;
therefore, the Amen from us also goes through him to God for glory.
But the one who gives us security with you in Christ
and who anointed us is God;
he has also put his seal upon us
and given the Spirit in our hearts as a first installment.
GOSPEL MK 2:1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,
it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.
After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
"Child, your sins are forgiven."
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
"Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?"
Jesus immediately knew in his mind
what they were thinking to themselves,
so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
'Your sins are forgiven,'
or to say, 'Rise, pick up your mat and walk?'
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"
-he said to the paralytic,
"I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."
SUNDAY READINGS - 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
FIRST READING: Isaiah 43:18-19; 21-22; 24-25. Thus says the Lord: Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, that the people whom I formed for myself might declare my praise.
Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! But you have burdened me with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities. I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
EXPLANATION: The prophet is in Babylon with the exiles and is encouraging his fellow sufferers with words of hope and consolation. Soon they will be set free, to return to their native land. This liberation---second Exodus---will be even greater and more astounding than the first Exodus from Egypt.
Thus...Lord: The prophets frequently use such words to show that they were speaking for God, not from themselves. remember not: All through their history the Jews looked back with longing on the great things God did for them in the past; the liberation from Egypt was among the greatest of these past favors.
I...new thing: The same true God is still there and active. He is about to perform another liberations new proof of his love and his power. He will soon set them free from Babylon.
perceive it: This Exodus from Babylon is already in God's mind, and he implies that the exiles also should see it.
a way...wilderness: The exiled Jews had to cross over miles of empty desert to return to Palestine, but God would prepare a road for them on which they could travel with all security.
rivers...desert: One of the chief hazards to life in desert travel is lack of water. God would provide abundant water for his travelers.
people I formed: These are the Chosen People, the descendants of Abraham who had been his special concern for about twelve centuries (from the eighteenth to the sixth century B.C.).
declare my praise: His Chosen People alone know him as the true God. They alone can, therefore, give him honor and praise. Did they always do so?
not call upon me: God now reprimands them for their negligence in the past. They did not call on him, they did not rely on him, but instead relied on the help of pagans. Thus they lost their freedom and were sent into exile.
I am he...sake: He who is Yahweh, God of all, pardons their transgressions, not because they deserve this mercy but because of his infinite forgiveness, and because they have a part to play in his plans for the future liberation of the human race---in the incarnation.
APPLICATION: Because of their forgetfulness of their vocation as God's Chosen People and on account of their utter worldliness, God allowed the Jews to be driven from their homes and fatherland by the king of Babylon in the year 597. Their temple and city of Jerusalem were razed to the ground. Strangers came and lived there. They remained as serfs in Babylon from 597 to 538. King Cyrus captured Babylon in 539 and, inspired by God, one of his first acts was to give the Jews permission to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple and city. Many of them returned. Because of this there were descendants of Abraham and of David in Palestine when God's appointed time came for sending his divine Son on earth.
This past history of the Jews is not something which does not concern us; it was part of God's merciful and loving plans for our redemption. Twelve centuries earlier he had chosen Abraham and revealed himself to him. He made the descendants of Abraham his own special people; he heaped love and kindness on them; but their response was far from generous. However, he tolerated them even when they ignored and insulted him, for in the incarnation which he had planned from eternity, his divine Son was to take his human nature from a descendant of Abraham.
Therefore, the liberation from the Babylonian exile which happened through God's loving intervention twenty-four hundred years ago, was a necessary step toward our salvation. If the prophet idealizes and exaggerates the happy conditions of the returning exiles, for example, "roads in the wilderness and rivers in the desert," it is because he sees in his mind's eye the true liberation of all men for which this was but a remote preparation. The life, death and resurrection of Christ not only brought men back from exile from God which sin had imposed on them, but it laid down a direct road through the desert of life to the homeland, which Christ won for us through his incarnation. Through the shedding of his blood Christ has made the treasures of divine grace available to all who seek them---rivers of life-giving water flow through the wilderness of this world for all who will drink of them.
Reflect for a few moments today on all that God has done for our salvation. Bringing back the Jewish exiles from Babylon was but one small incident in the long chain of events which he set in motion in order to make us Christians and his adopted children. The call of Abraham, thirty-eight centuries ago, the Exodus from Egypt thirty-two hundred years ago, the return from Babylon in 538 B.C., the coming of Christ on earth nearly two thousand years ago, were all links in the golden chain of God's salvific plan for all of us. He intended heaven to be our eternal home. To do this he raised us up through the incarnation of his divine Son to the status of adopted children. This gives us a claim to a share in his kingdom; this makes us heirs to heaven.
Unfortunately, there is but one thing that can spoil this plan of God as far as we are concerned, abuse of the free will which God has given us. Our free will which should follow what is right, which should choose the greatest good can, and sometimes does, choose instead what is not only not good but what is positively evil. We know from experience that this is so. We have been ungrateful, disloyal, disobedient and insulting to God in the past. But we know also that we do not have to continue in such a state. We can use our free will to choose what is right and avoid what causes offense to God. We owe so much to God that we should never hesitate in the future to do what he asks of us. The eternal happiness of heaven is worth all the crosses and sufferings and mortification of a million lives on this earth. Let us not begrudge sixty or seventy years of loyal service to him, who has prepared a place for us since the beginning of time.
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SECOND READING: 2 Corinthians 1:18-22. As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God. But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has commissioned us; he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
EXPLANATION: St. Paul wrote this second letter from Ephesus or from Philippi, to his Corinthian converts toward the end of his third missionary journey (53-57). There were a few among his converts, or some others who had come among the converts, who were belittling Paul and boasting of their own superiority. He does not mince his words to show that he is no mean Apostle. He has suffered and labored to spread the message of Christ and God has been generous to him with his divine revelations. He "needs no letters of recommendation" as some do (3: 1). He has words of praise and affection for his converts while he warns them against heeding the dogmatic errors of his opponents. In today's excerpt from his letter we find the Apostle asserting under oath that he was not fickle and changeable. He and his companions taught the truth for they taught Jesus Christ who is absolute, existing truth. Paul's commission to preach the gospel to the Corinthians came from God himself, and the Spirit of God was with him in his missionary activities guaranteeing success.
God is faithful: This was the introductory formula of an oath: "as true as God"; so true is my statement.
our...no: His teaching was always consistent, without deception or vacillation.
Son of God: What Paul, Silvanus and Timothy had preached to the Corinthians was Jesus Christ, who was the Son of God. There could be no contradictions, no hesitations, in such a doctrine, for:
in him...yes: Jesus Christ is truth itself.
All...in him: All the promises of God in the Old Testament were fulfilled in Christ. He was the one of whom God spoke, therefore he was the truth incarnate.
amen...glory: Christ is our sole mediator with God: through him alone are we able to give glory to God. It is by our acceptance of Christ, our saying "amen" to him, that we can glorify God. God
establishes...Christ: It is God who gave Paul and the Corinthian converts the grace and strength to become followers of Christ.
commissioned us: Paul reverts to the defense of his apostleship. It was God who appointed him for this task (see Acts 9: 15-16) of preaching Christ to the Gentiles. "Anointed us," as the Jerusalem Bible has it, is a better translation, but the meaning is the same.
seal...guarantee: God has marked Paul (and his converts) as his own property. He has made a down-payment on the reward in store for them in the future, by giving him, and them, the Holy Spirit whose presence was made evident by his gifts to Paul and the converts. How could Paul be insincere or vacillating while the Holy Spirit dwelt in him? The Blessed Trinity is mentioned here: the Father gives the grace to men to accept Jesus, his Son and on acceptance the Spirit dwells in the converts.
APPLICATION: St. Paul's principal purpose in these five verses from his letter was to prove to the converts of Corinth that he was faithful in every way to his office of preacher of the Gospel of Christ. This was an office given him by God the Father. At the same time, he stresses the Christocentric dogma of our faith. Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is the fulfillment of all God's promises, of all God's plans for the elevation and sanctification of mankind. It is through him alone that we all can give to God the honor and glory which is his due. It is through the Son's incarnation that we are made capable of sharing in God's eternal kingdom of happiness.
We men are mere creatures whose habitat, like that of all other creatures, is this earth. We are mortal like all other earthly creatures. But we have special gifts which differentiate us very clearly from all other earthly creatures---we have the spiritual gifts of intellect and free will. With our intellect we can form abstract ideas, we can reason, see truth, remember the past and to a limited extent we can foresee the future and provide for it. With our free will we can admire and love the good and beautiful; we can pick and choose; we can decide what to do or not to do whenever a time for decision presents itself.
Now these special gifts raise us above all other earthly creatures. Because of them we can master and subdue all other creatures, and make them serve our purposes. However, if these special gifts were to help us only in this world, they would be of doubtful value. If our intellect which empowers us to remember the past, plan for the present and future, enables us to build and produce objects which will outlast us by centuries, and if this same intellect were to tell us that we had only a few years to enjoy our life and faculties, it would hardly be a source of comfort. If our free will, which sees the good things that follow from life, and which of its very nature seeks the lasting good and happiness, were to learn through the intellect that such longings and desires were in vain, would we then not be better off without such a faculty?
In other words, if man's end is the grave, if all the satisfaction he can derive from his intellect and will, from his superior faculties, must be crammed into comparatively few years would he not be far better off without these faculties? The dumb beast in the field is content with satisfying its animal needs. It has no thought for the future because it has no thoughts at all. It does not fear its grave because it does not foresee the grave. It sheds no tears at parting with its fellow beasts because it does not know of its departure, nor are the others its fellow-beasts. Man, indeed, would have good reason to regret being a man, and not a cow or an ass, if life ended for him in the grave.
This is where we see God's love and goodness. Out of his sheer goodness he created us and gave us these superior faculties because he meant us to enjoy them forever in his own eternal kingdom. The means he adopted to raise us from the status of creatures and make us capable of sharing his kingdom was the incarnation. His Son was to share our human nature with us and thus give us the right to share with him his divine nature. Christ "adopted" our human nature so that God the Father would adopt us as his sons. This was God's plan, and was put into operation when Christ became man. "All the promises of God find their yes (their fulfillment) in him," says St. Paul. Not only the prophecies in the Old Testament, but the whole story of the Old Testament was God's preparation for this supreme act of love and benevolence toward mankind. The incarnation is the supreme culmination of God's love in his dealings with men.
We can, therefore, give glory and honor to God for we are brothers of Christ and adopted as sons by God. Without this elevation to sonship we could give no acceptable honor to God, could expect no divine reward. The grave would be our end. But the incarnation has changed all for those who lived before Christ, as well as for those who have since entered this world. The eternal benefits of the incarnation are not restricted to Christians only, they are available to all who do not knowingly and deliberately reject Christ and his Father.
Our knowledge of the incarnation and of the infinite love of God who planned it put us in a privileged position. If we appreciate the privileges, as we should, we ought to be ready to do all in our power to share them with our fellowmen who, through no fault of their own, are still ignorant of Christ and his incarnation. Our resolution today should be to do so.
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GOSPEL Mark 2:1-12. When Jesus returned to Capernaum, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven." Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, "Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question thus in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your pallet and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins"---he said to the paralytic---"I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home." And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and, glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
EXPLANATION: St. Mark describes an incident which occurred in Capernaum during the early days of Christ's public ministry. Friends brought a paralytic on a stretcher to Jesus to be cured. They had to go to great lengths to get him to Jesus, because the crowd was so great. Jesus admired the strong faith they and the paralytic showed, and he told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven him. This shocked the Scribes. Only God can forgive sins, they said to themselves, this man is a blasphemer, for he is claiming to have divine power. To prove to them that he had divine power, Jesus told them that to cure the paralytic also required divine power. There and then he cured him. The Scribes were confounded; the crowd glorified God.
many gathered: The news that he was a miracle-worker very quickly had spread through Galilee. Most of the crowd had come, hoping to obtain or see a miracle---they listened to his preaching but to them that was of secondary importance.
carried...men: Four men brought on a stretcher a man unable to walk. When they could not get near enough, because of the large crowd, they went up on the flat roof of the house, taking the paralytic with them. They removed the matting and a few branches. This was the usual type of roof on houses in Palestine at that time. They lowered the stretcher inside the door of the house where Jesus was standing as he taught.
saw their faith: These men were definitely expecting Jesus to cure their friend they had no doubt that he could. They would not have gone to such trouble otherwise. The paralytic also must have had the same strong faith or he would not have allowed them to do what they did.
your sins are forgiven: The man probably felt how sinful and unworthy he was when he found himself so close to the sinless one. Jesus' statement was meant to put his mind at rest: "your sins are forgiven."
Scribes...there: They were, evidently, nearest to the door---"they always chose the first places."
it is blasphemy: Their statement would have been right if their premise had been right. If Jesus was not God, then he was a blasphemer if he claimed divine power. But he was God and he proved it.
which...say: Jesus now answers their unspoken criticism. To cure a paralytic requires divine power, and the miracle-worker who does not call on God to work the miracle, but does it on his own authority and as of right, must be God. This is what Jesus did.
take...home: "That you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins," Jesus said; this I shall prove to you by showing you that I have also on my own, the power of miracles. Thereupon he commanded the paralytic to stand up and walk, fully healed.
never...like this: Jesus had worked other cures before this, but this was probably the most striking miracle they had seen so far. "They glorified God," that is, they thanked God for the presence of such a person among them. As yet, they were far from recognizing him as the Son of God. That would come in time.
APPLICATION: In this incident we have the fundamental dogma of our Christian faith, namely, that Christ was the Son of God, stated by no less an authority than Christ himself. He had said to the paralytic: "your sins are forgiven"; straight away the Scribes, who knew their Old Testament, objected. This was blasphemy. They said: only God can forgive sins, for all sins are committed against God and it is only the offended person who can forgive an offense; this man is claiming to be God. This was surely blasphemy, for according to them this man was not and could not be God. Christ, in his answer, proved to them how wrong they were. First, he showed them that he knew the thoughts they had in their minds---they had not expressed their feelings openly. Secondly, he asked them which was easier to say and to say effectively: "your sins are forgiven," or "rise, take up your pallet and walk?" Both effective statements required divine power. To prove that he had that power, and to prove it in a way that was visible to them (they could not see whether the man's sins were forgiven or not) he went on : "But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins"---he said to the paralytic---"I say to you rise, take up your pallet and go home." The sick man arose immediately, took up his stretcher and walked away in the presence of that huge crowd.
Whether the Scribes were among those who "were amazed and who glorified God" because of what they had witnessed, is doubtful. They were hard-hearted and full of pride and therefore, found the reversing of the judgements more than difficult. But we can leave them to the mercy of God. For ourselves, we can thank our divine Lord for giving us this clear proof of his divinity. He claimed to be God, when he forgave sins; he proved that claim by an outstanding miracle. He would have worked this miracle of mercy even if the Scribes had never interfered, but he tells them that he is about to work it to prove to them that he is divine. By a single word of command, given on his own authority, the paralysis leaves the sick man and he is healed instantly---a visible proof of Christ's claim to be God.
This is but one of the many proofs of his divinity which Christ gave to his disciples, and through them to us, during his public ministry. His claim to be divine was well known to his enemies, it was in fact the principal charge on which they had him crucified. "The Jews answered Pilate: we have a law and according to that law he must die because he made himself Son of God" (Jn. 19: 7). They did not say that he was God, they could never admit that, all the evidence notwithstanding; but only that he, falsely of course, claimed to be Son of God.
We who already are firm believers in the divinity of Christ our Savior have no new doctrine to learn from today's gospel. It can, however, fill us with an ever deeper gratitude to God who sent his Son as man on earth, to make us his own adopted sons and heirs to heaven. It should also make us have a greater appreciation of our own value in the sight of God. He wants us in heaven with himself and so he sent his Son among us to make us capable of going there. Christ, his Son, humbled himself so that we should be glorified. Christ bore the cross so that we might get the eternal crown. Christ died an agonizing death that we might have an unending life of happiness.
Is there anything more that God could have done for us? Like the crowd that day in Capernaum, we are amazed at the love God has shown us and the fatherly interest he has in our eternal welfare. Let us imitate the same crowd by glorifying God and his divine Son, who has made us his brothers.-b241
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Thursday, February 16, 2012
02.16.12~Readings for Sunday, Feb 26th-2012
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FEBRUARY 26, 2012
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First Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 23
READING 1 GN 9:8-15
God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."
God added:
"This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth,
and the bow appears in the clouds,
I will recall the covenant I have made
between me and you and all living beings,
so that the waters shall never again become a flood
to destroy all mortal beings."
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9.
R. (cf. 10) Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Good and upright is the LORD,
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and he teaches the humble his way.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
READING 2 1 PT 3:18-22
Beloved:
Christ suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,
who had once been disobedient
while God patiently waited in the days of Noah
during the building of the ark,
in which a few persons, eight in all,
were saved through water.
This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.
It is not a removal of dirt from the body
but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who has gone into heaven
and is at the right hand of God,
with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
GOSPEL MK 1:12-15
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."
SUNDAY READINGS - 1st Sunday of Lent
FIRST RFADING: Genesis 9: 8-15. God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."
EXPLANATION: The story of the Flood given in Genesis, chapters 6-8. is part of pre-history. It is similar in many respects to other mid-eastern accounts of a like catastrophe, but the biblical version is strictly monotheistic and the cause of the catastrophe is the sinfulness of men which compels God to re-purify the human race. The pagan stories of the Flood attribute it to jealousies and disagreement among the many gods---there is no moral lesson to be learned from this catastrophe. In the Genesis account, all men (in the region where the delude occurred) were destroyed, except Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. These were preserved by God because of Noah's innocent way of life, and were now to carry on the knowledge of God down to Abraham's day.
Noah offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for having spared him and his family. God accepted the sacrifice and promised Noah that he would never again punish the whole earth because of man's sins. He made a covenant or pact with Noah in which this promise was enshrined.
covenant with you: A covenant is usually between two parties. Here it is unilateral. God promises to spare mankind in future even if men are sinful.
every...creature: According to the deluge story, the waters destroyed all living creatures except those that were in the Ark with Noah. In future, all creatures will share in the promise of security that God is giving to Noah and, through him, to all men for all time.
never...flood: This was the substance of the covenant.
my bow...cloud: In future the rainbow would be a sigil a reminder of this promise. The rainbow, a natural phenomenon, was always there in certain cloud formations, but henceforward it would remind both God ("I will remember my covenant") and man of the covenant.
water...all flesh: There would never again be a universal flood, to destroy all flesh as this deluge is supposed to have done.
APPLICATION: The holy season of Lent began last Wednesday. It should be a season of penance, during which we look into our hearts, and see how ungrateful, how mean we have, been to our loving God, and having seen our meanness, try to make some atonement for our past ingratitude. The lesson from Genesis that we have just read reminds us of these two facts: man's disobedience and disloyalty to the divine Benefactor who made man and gave him all the gifts of body and mind which he has, and on the other hand the magnanimity, the infinite forgiving mercy of God who puts up with his creatures, who not only forget him but who positively offend and insult him.
The deluge story was intended to show this divine mercy. Men had become so wicked and so sinful that God decided to wipe them off his universe. Yet he decided to spare one innocent family from whom the human race could grow and spread once more. This he did by getting Noah to build the Ark. When the deluge had ended and Noah had offered his thanksgiving sacrifice, God made a pact with the human race through Noah, a covenant in which he solemnly promised never again to send a similar flood on this earth.
God in his mercy gave the human race a second chance. We are here on earth today because of this divine mercy and we have his guarantee, his covenant, to assure us that we will not be struck down suddenly because of our sins. But the fact that God does not want the sinner to die in his sins should never be an excuse for a continuation in sin but rather a motive, an inspiration to the sinner to return to his loving Father. While God does not will the death of a sinner in his sins, but rather that he be converted and live, every sinner knows that death may be around the comer at any moment and if it finds him in sin, it will not be God's fault but his own. There is only one guarantee we can give ourselves of dying in God's friendship and that is: to live always in God's friendship.
Now, in this covenant that God made with all of us through Noah, all the giving was done by God himself. It was a unilateral, magnanimous covenant on the part of God. He did not demand promises from Noah in return, but yet from the very nature of the case such promises were expected of Noah and of us too. If God is ready to forgive man his sins, it follows that men must ask for that forgiveness. To ask for forgiveness implies and includes the intention of turning away from sin.
Lent is the special occasion for all Christians to turn away from sin and to do penance for all of their past offenses against God. We can fulfill our part of that pact that God made with Noah, by resolving to be faithful in future. Thus we can ensure that we shall not be cut off in our sins, as all those drowned in the deluge were, but that we shall die, as we were living, in God's friendship. You may have another Lent next year in which to repeat this resolution and you may not, but if you make it with all sincerity now and live up to it, you are giving yourself a guarantee that when death calls you, you will be found in God's friendship.
________________________________________
SECOND READING: 1 Peter 3:18-22. Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
EXPLANATION: In the passage from which these five verses are taken, St. Peter is exhorting the newly converted Christians to live according to the Christian faith, no matter what trials they may have to endure because of it. In many places Christians were being persecuted by Gentiles and Jews because of their new faith. They should accept and bear these persecutions willingly, for they know they are not guilty of any crime except that of honoring the true God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore "to suffer for being good you will count as a blessing" (3:4). Peter sets before them the example of the Innocent Christ who was put to death and who accepted his sufferings and torments for our sakes, for our sins. Through his death we have eternal life available to us. We are saved through the waters of baptism (which cleanses us of sin and makes us one with Christ) just as Noah and his family were saved at the time of the deluge.
Christ...for all: Because Christ was God in human nature, the atonement his death made to God was good for all time and for all the sins of all men.
righteous: Christ was innocence itself, but he took on himself the sin of the world; he made himself a sin-sacrifice for us.
bring us to God: This was the divine purpose of the incarnation: to make all men adopted sons of God and worthy of heaven if they die in the state of grace.
made alive...spirit: Christ died on the cross but God raised him from the dead in a glorified body which could never again die.
preached...not obey: Peter now refers to the deluge and Noah, for he saw in the waters of the flood, the life-giving waters of baptism. The spirits who did not obey are very probably the "sons of God," the rebellious angels who, according to the deluge story, were the principal cause of the sinfulness which caused the deluge (Gen. 6: 1-4). When Christ had triumphed over death and sin he announced this victory to these rebellious angels who were henceforth subjected to him.
God's patience waited: The long interval between God's resolve to send a deluge (Gn. 6 : 7) and the beginning of the flood (Gn. 7: 11), was an opportunity given the sinners to repent, but they did not.
few...persons: The few is stressed probably to show the similarity with the Christian Church at this time. The number of Christians in relation to the pagan population, was relatively very small.
baptism corresponds: Peter compares the waters of the deluge to the waters of baptism. As Noah was saved in or from the deluge, so Christians are saved in the baptismal water.
not...dirt: Probably a reference to circumcision, but it can also mean: the washing in baptism is not for a cleansing of the body but a cleansing, a new form of life for the baptized.
appeal...conscience: "A pledge" would seem to be a better translation here (as in J.B.). The baptized pledges himself to live according to the new life which faith in the resurrection of Christ promises him.
gone into heaven: Christ the man-God now in his glorified body is in heaven, in the next place of honor after the Father, "at the right hand of God."
angels...powers: The reference is to the disobedient spirits, the evil powers, who are now forever subjected to the glorified Christ. In causing his death they brought about their own undoing (see Phil. 2:10; Rom. 8: 38; Col. 2: 10-15, et passim in St. Paul).
APPLICATION: "Christ died for sins," for our sins. This is the thought which should dominate every true Christian's mind always, but especially during this Lenten season. The climax and culmination of these forty days during which we are constantly reminded of all God has done for us, comes on Good Friday with the commemoration of the excruciating death of our Savior on the cross. If only men would let the true significance of Good Friday sink into their minds, sin would disappear from our world, true love of God and neighbor would take over. Think of it; God so loved "the world" that is, us that he sent his only begotten Son, to suffer and die in our stead. The Son of God, the Creator and Lord of the universe became man, became one of us, so that he could take our sins on himself and nail them, with himself, to the cross. The innocent Lamb of God elected to take the whole load of all the sins and infidelities of all of us "lost sheep," on his own back, so that we could be set free.
Five centuries before that first Good Friday the prophet described the humiliations and sufferings of him who was to come: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . . . he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities . . . and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray . . . and the Lord has laid on him the iniquitity of us all. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter . . . he opened not his mouth. They made his grave with the wicked although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him . . . he offers his life in atonement" (Is. 53: 3-10). Here we have the first twelve Stations of the Cross described in words, more poignant than any painter ever succeeded in depicting them, for the prophet puts before our minds that it was for us that Jesus suffered his tortures. St. Peter reminds us today to meditate, to think seriously, on this almost incredible act of divine love for us, which moved God to send his own Son on earth as man, to suffer and die so that we might have true, everlasting life. Our finite minds can make no attempt to grasp this mystery of God's love for us, but we have before our eyes, in words and in picture, the terribly real sufferings of the human Jesus. We know the reason for his sufferings, our very real sins. This we can grasp and it is on this we should act. The future life in heaven which God has planned for us from all eternity, must be for us a good so great, so exalted that it is worth all the sufferings and humiliations his incarnate Son had to endure. Surely, then, we should gladly and willingly co-operate with God in procuring for ourselves this marvelous future life.
We are Christians. We have been put on the road to heaven by the reception of baptism. We shall get there if we follow Christ as closely as we can during our time on earth. Noah and his family were saved in the deluge because they listened to God's advice and built their Ark. We are being advised today by the inspired writers of the Old and New Testaments to spend this Lent well to turn away from sin, to do daily some little acts of mortification, to meditate often on the one and only thing that really matters---our attainment of that union with God which is so important that the Son of God suffered and died so that we could have it everlastingly.
________________________________________
GOSPEL: Mark 1: 12-15. The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel."
EXPLANATION: The reason why the first two verses of this short extract from Mark are chosen for the First Sunday of Lent is obvious. The Church appointed for us a lent of forty days of penance and of war against our evil inclinations in imitation of the forty days of struggle which Christ waged in a desert place (which implies mortification) against Satan, the recognized leader of the forces of evil. Mark does not mention that Christ fasted for the forty days and nights but the "desert" seems to imply this; nor does he specify the various "temptations" as Matthew and Luke do. But his very brief account clearly implies that Satan lost in the struggle or rather that Satan was made to realize that this Jesus was the Messiah who would eventually conquer him and his assistant evil spirits. The mention of his being among wild beasts who did not harm him, and also of the angels coming to minister to him, most probably meant to Mark that in this first encounter, Jesus had reversed Adam's defeat and had begun the process of restoring Paradise. Having briefly described Christ's victory, the Evangelist then goes on in the next two verses to outline the public ministry in Galilee where according to the Synoptics, most of Christ's public life was spent. Verse fifteen gives the essence of Christ's preaching in a very brief summary.
Spirit...wilderness: The Holy Spirit which descended on Jesus when he was baptized in the Jordan, moved him to join battle with Satan in the desert. The word "drove" seems to imply some compulsion, but Matthew and Luke in parallel places use the word "led."
forty days: Moses before receiving the Old Law on Mount Sinai fasted for forty days (Ex. 34: 28); Elijah, the first of the great prophets, sent to Israel, fasted for forty days on his journey to Mount Horeb (1 Kgs. 19: 5), so Christ also, the law giver of the New Covenant, the Prophet of God's mercy and love, spent forty days in the wilderness before beginning his mission of redemption.
tempted by Satan: The current belief of the Jews was that the Messiah would put an end to the sway of evil which had prevailed over good since sin entered the world. Satan was the name for the leader of the forces of evil---the enemies of God and of the good. Jesus, proclaimed Messiah at the Jordan, was moved by the Holy Spirit immediately to open his campaign of conquest. He did so and Satan's kingdom began to totter. Satan could still win some local battles but his day of tyranny over men was ended when Christ came.
wild beast...angels: Harmony between all creatures was a sign of the messianic age (see Is. 11: 6; Hos. 2: 18; Ez. 34: 25-28) and the ministering angels would imply that the gates of Paradise were about to reopen---"the cherubim with flaming swords" have become the assistants of the Messiah (see Gn. 3: 24).
after John was arrested: It was only when the Precursor, the herald of the Messiah, had left the stage that Christ began his final battle with the powers of evil.
the gospel of God: The good news of God's eternal plan for the elevation and the redemption of mankind.
the time is fulfilled: The moment of the coming of Christ, the beginning of the kingdom of God on earth---a kingdom which would end in heaven---had been decreed by God from all eternity. It is now here, Christ tells the people of Galilee.
repent...gospel: The first necessary step was to turn from sin and return to God, to change one's outlook on life and one's conduct (see Joel 2: 12). Having turned from sin to God it will be easier for men to accept the good news of God's plan for them.
APPLICATION: The very thought of our divine Lord's suffering hunger, loneliness, and humiliation at the hands of his enemy---and that all this was for us---should make us feel ashamed at the little bits of suffering and humiliation we are willing to suffer for our own selves. He had no sin to atone for. He was making atonement for us and for our sins. He was the Son of God and his home was heaven, but he left it for a while to assume human nature, so that he could through his humiliations and sufferings bring us to share his eternal home with him. What is the thanks he gets from us? Ingratitude, forgetfulness, and even worse: insults and disobedience.
While the Church has eased the strict fastings and penances of Lent, we are still expected to do some private fasting and penance. It need not be fasting from food, but we can all do some daily penance which will help to keep our unruly minds and bodies in check while at the same time it will show that we are grateful to our loving Savior for all that he suffered for us. A few extra prayers each day, control of our temper in the home, less talk and especially less uncharitable talk among our neighbors, a little helping hand to a neighbor in need, a fervent prayer and where we can spare it (perhaps by doing without some luxury) a donation toward helping the starving millions in other lands. The sincere Christian will find a hundred such ways in which to thank and honor Christ during this holy season of Lent. We can all keep the last verse of today's reading before our minds with great profit. "Repent and believe in the gospel." This is the essence, the marrow, of Christ's teaching. Turn away from sin and come back to God. Anyone who believes in the gospel, who believes that there is an everlasting life after death prepared by God for all those who do his will while on earth, should not find it hard to give up offending that loving God who thinks so much of him. This life is only a passing shadow, every step we take, every breath we breathe is bringing us nearer to our earthly end and to the grave. But the believing Christian knows the grave is not the end. Rather, is it the beginning of the true life---provided we use this passing shadow, these few years, properly.
Now is the time to take these words of Christ to heart. He is asking each one of us today, to repent and to believe the gospel, that is, to act according to its teaching. Christ, in his mercy, will make this appeal to men again and again, but will we be here to hear it? If we answer his appeal now and start living our Christian faith in all sincerity, we need not care when death calls us. It will find us ready to pass over to the future, happy, unending life.b115
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FEBRUARY 26, 2012
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First Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 23
READING 1 GN 9:8-15
God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."
God added:
"This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth,
and the bow appears in the clouds,
I will recall the covenant I have made
between me and you and all living beings,
so that the waters shall never again become a flood
to destroy all mortal beings."
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9.
R. (cf. 10) Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Good and upright is the LORD,
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and he teaches the humble his way.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
READING 2 1 PT 3:18-22
Beloved:
Christ suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,
who had once been disobedient
while God patiently waited in the days of Noah
during the building of the ark,
in which a few persons, eight in all,
were saved through water.
This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.
It is not a removal of dirt from the body
but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who has gone into heaven
and is at the right hand of God,
with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
GOSPEL MK 1:12-15
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."
SUNDAY READINGS - 1st Sunday of Lent
FIRST RFADING: Genesis 9: 8-15. God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."
EXPLANATION: The story of the Flood given in Genesis, chapters 6-8. is part of pre-history. It is similar in many respects to other mid-eastern accounts of a like catastrophe, but the biblical version is strictly monotheistic and the cause of the catastrophe is the sinfulness of men which compels God to re-purify the human race. The pagan stories of the Flood attribute it to jealousies and disagreement among the many gods---there is no moral lesson to be learned from this catastrophe. In the Genesis account, all men (in the region where the delude occurred) were destroyed, except Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. These were preserved by God because of Noah's innocent way of life, and were now to carry on the knowledge of God down to Abraham's day.
Noah offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for having spared him and his family. God accepted the sacrifice and promised Noah that he would never again punish the whole earth because of man's sins. He made a covenant or pact with Noah in which this promise was enshrined.
covenant with you: A covenant is usually between two parties. Here it is unilateral. God promises to spare mankind in future even if men are sinful.
every...creature: According to the deluge story, the waters destroyed all living creatures except those that were in the Ark with Noah. In future, all creatures will share in the promise of security that God is giving to Noah and, through him, to all men for all time.
never...flood: This was the substance of the covenant.
my bow...cloud: In future the rainbow would be a sigil a reminder of this promise. The rainbow, a natural phenomenon, was always there in certain cloud formations, but henceforward it would remind both God ("I will remember my covenant") and man of the covenant.
water...all flesh: There would never again be a universal flood, to destroy all flesh as this deluge is supposed to have done.
APPLICATION: The holy season of Lent began last Wednesday. It should be a season of penance, during which we look into our hearts, and see how ungrateful, how mean we have, been to our loving God, and having seen our meanness, try to make some atonement for our past ingratitude. The lesson from Genesis that we have just read reminds us of these two facts: man's disobedience and disloyalty to the divine Benefactor who made man and gave him all the gifts of body and mind which he has, and on the other hand the magnanimity, the infinite forgiving mercy of God who puts up with his creatures, who not only forget him but who positively offend and insult him.
The deluge story was intended to show this divine mercy. Men had become so wicked and so sinful that God decided to wipe them off his universe. Yet he decided to spare one innocent family from whom the human race could grow and spread once more. This he did by getting Noah to build the Ark. When the deluge had ended and Noah had offered his thanksgiving sacrifice, God made a pact with the human race through Noah, a covenant in which he solemnly promised never again to send a similar flood on this earth.
God in his mercy gave the human race a second chance. We are here on earth today because of this divine mercy and we have his guarantee, his covenant, to assure us that we will not be struck down suddenly because of our sins. But the fact that God does not want the sinner to die in his sins should never be an excuse for a continuation in sin but rather a motive, an inspiration to the sinner to return to his loving Father. While God does not will the death of a sinner in his sins, but rather that he be converted and live, every sinner knows that death may be around the comer at any moment and if it finds him in sin, it will not be God's fault but his own. There is only one guarantee we can give ourselves of dying in God's friendship and that is: to live always in God's friendship.
Now, in this covenant that God made with all of us through Noah, all the giving was done by God himself. It was a unilateral, magnanimous covenant on the part of God. He did not demand promises from Noah in return, but yet from the very nature of the case such promises were expected of Noah and of us too. If God is ready to forgive man his sins, it follows that men must ask for that forgiveness. To ask for forgiveness implies and includes the intention of turning away from sin.
Lent is the special occasion for all Christians to turn away from sin and to do penance for all of their past offenses against God. We can fulfill our part of that pact that God made with Noah, by resolving to be faithful in future. Thus we can ensure that we shall not be cut off in our sins, as all those drowned in the deluge were, but that we shall die, as we were living, in God's friendship. You may have another Lent next year in which to repeat this resolution and you may not, but if you make it with all sincerity now and live up to it, you are giving yourself a guarantee that when death calls you, you will be found in God's friendship.
________________________________________
SECOND READING: 1 Peter 3:18-22. Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
EXPLANATION: In the passage from which these five verses are taken, St. Peter is exhorting the newly converted Christians to live according to the Christian faith, no matter what trials they may have to endure because of it. In many places Christians were being persecuted by Gentiles and Jews because of their new faith. They should accept and bear these persecutions willingly, for they know they are not guilty of any crime except that of honoring the true God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore "to suffer for being good you will count as a blessing" (3:4). Peter sets before them the example of the Innocent Christ who was put to death and who accepted his sufferings and torments for our sakes, for our sins. Through his death we have eternal life available to us. We are saved through the waters of baptism (which cleanses us of sin and makes us one with Christ) just as Noah and his family were saved at the time of the deluge.
Christ...for all: Because Christ was God in human nature, the atonement his death made to God was good for all time and for all the sins of all men.
righteous: Christ was innocence itself, but he took on himself the sin of the world; he made himself a sin-sacrifice for us.
bring us to God: This was the divine purpose of the incarnation: to make all men adopted sons of God and worthy of heaven if they die in the state of grace.
made alive...spirit: Christ died on the cross but God raised him from the dead in a glorified body which could never again die.
preached...not obey: Peter now refers to the deluge and Noah, for he saw in the waters of the flood, the life-giving waters of baptism. The spirits who did not obey are very probably the "sons of God," the rebellious angels who, according to the deluge story, were the principal cause of the sinfulness which caused the deluge (Gen. 6: 1-4). When Christ had triumphed over death and sin he announced this victory to these rebellious angels who were henceforth subjected to him.
God's patience waited: The long interval between God's resolve to send a deluge (Gn. 6 : 7) and the beginning of the flood (Gn. 7: 11), was an opportunity given the sinners to repent, but they did not.
few...persons: The few is stressed probably to show the similarity with the Christian Church at this time. The number of Christians in relation to the pagan population, was relatively very small.
baptism corresponds: Peter compares the waters of the deluge to the waters of baptism. As Noah was saved in or from the deluge, so Christians are saved in the baptismal water.
not...dirt: Probably a reference to circumcision, but it can also mean: the washing in baptism is not for a cleansing of the body but a cleansing, a new form of life for the baptized.
appeal...conscience: "A pledge" would seem to be a better translation here (as in J.B.). The baptized pledges himself to live according to the new life which faith in the resurrection of Christ promises him.
gone into heaven: Christ the man-God now in his glorified body is in heaven, in the next place of honor after the Father, "at the right hand of God."
angels...powers: The reference is to the disobedient spirits, the evil powers, who are now forever subjected to the glorified Christ. In causing his death they brought about their own undoing (see Phil. 2:10; Rom. 8: 38; Col. 2: 10-15, et passim in St. Paul).
APPLICATION: "Christ died for sins," for our sins. This is the thought which should dominate every true Christian's mind always, but especially during this Lenten season. The climax and culmination of these forty days during which we are constantly reminded of all God has done for us, comes on Good Friday with the commemoration of the excruciating death of our Savior on the cross. If only men would let the true significance of Good Friday sink into their minds, sin would disappear from our world, true love of God and neighbor would take over. Think of it; God so loved "the world" that is, us that he sent his only begotten Son, to suffer and die in our stead. The Son of God, the Creator and Lord of the universe became man, became one of us, so that he could take our sins on himself and nail them, with himself, to the cross. The innocent Lamb of God elected to take the whole load of all the sins and infidelities of all of us "lost sheep," on his own back, so that we could be set free.
Five centuries before that first Good Friday the prophet described the humiliations and sufferings of him who was to come: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . . . he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities . . . and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray . . . and the Lord has laid on him the iniquitity of us all. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter . . . he opened not his mouth. They made his grave with the wicked although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him . . . he offers his life in atonement" (Is. 53: 3-10). Here we have the first twelve Stations of the Cross described in words, more poignant than any painter ever succeeded in depicting them, for the prophet puts before our minds that it was for us that Jesus suffered his tortures. St. Peter reminds us today to meditate, to think seriously, on this almost incredible act of divine love for us, which moved God to send his own Son on earth as man, to suffer and die so that we might have true, everlasting life. Our finite minds can make no attempt to grasp this mystery of God's love for us, but we have before our eyes, in words and in picture, the terribly real sufferings of the human Jesus. We know the reason for his sufferings, our very real sins. This we can grasp and it is on this we should act. The future life in heaven which God has planned for us from all eternity, must be for us a good so great, so exalted that it is worth all the sufferings and humiliations his incarnate Son had to endure. Surely, then, we should gladly and willingly co-operate with God in procuring for ourselves this marvelous future life.
We are Christians. We have been put on the road to heaven by the reception of baptism. We shall get there if we follow Christ as closely as we can during our time on earth. Noah and his family were saved in the deluge because they listened to God's advice and built their Ark. We are being advised today by the inspired writers of the Old and New Testaments to spend this Lent well to turn away from sin, to do daily some little acts of mortification, to meditate often on the one and only thing that really matters---our attainment of that union with God which is so important that the Son of God suffered and died so that we could have it everlastingly.
________________________________________
GOSPEL: Mark 1: 12-15. The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel."
EXPLANATION: The reason why the first two verses of this short extract from Mark are chosen for the First Sunday of Lent is obvious. The Church appointed for us a lent of forty days of penance and of war against our evil inclinations in imitation of the forty days of struggle which Christ waged in a desert place (which implies mortification) against Satan, the recognized leader of the forces of evil. Mark does not mention that Christ fasted for the forty days and nights but the "desert" seems to imply this; nor does he specify the various "temptations" as Matthew and Luke do. But his very brief account clearly implies that Satan lost in the struggle or rather that Satan was made to realize that this Jesus was the Messiah who would eventually conquer him and his assistant evil spirits. The mention of his being among wild beasts who did not harm him, and also of the angels coming to minister to him, most probably meant to Mark that in this first encounter, Jesus had reversed Adam's defeat and had begun the process of restoring Paradise. Having briefly described Christ's victory, the Evangelist then goes on in the next two verses to outline the public ministry in Galilee where according to the Synoptics, most of Christ's public life was spent. Verse fifteen gives the essence of Christ's preaching in a very brief summary.
Spirit...wilderness: The Holy Spirit which descended on Jesus when he was baptized in the Jordan, moved him to join battle with Satan in the desert. The word "drove" seems to imply some compulsion, but Matthew and Luke in parallel places use the word "led."
forty days: Moses before receiving the Old Law on Mount Sinai fasted for forty days (Ex. 34: 28); Elijah, the first of the great prophets, sent to Israel, fasted for forty days on his journey to Mount Horeb (1 Kgs. 19: 5), so Christ also, the law giver of the New Covenant, the Prophet of God's mercy and love, spent forty days in the wilderness before beginning his mission of redemption.
tempted by Satan: The current belief of the Jews was that the Messiah would put an end to the sway of evil which had prevailed over good since sin entered the world. Satan was the name for the leader of the forces of evil---the enemies of God and of the good. Jesus, proclaimed Messiah at the Jordan, was moved by the Holy Spirit immediately to open his campaign of conquest. He did so and Satan's kingdom began to totter. Satan could still win some local battles but his day of tyranny over men was ended when Christ came.
wild beast...angels: Harmony between all creatures was a sign of the messianic age (see Is. 11: 6; Hos. 2: 18; Ez. 34: 25-28) and the ministering angels would imply that the gates of Paradise were about to reopen---"the cherubim with flaming swords" have become the assistants of the Messiah (see Gn. 3: 24).
after John was arrested: It was only when the Precursor, the herald of the Messiah, had left the stage that Christ began his final battle with the powers of evil.
the gospel of God: The good news of God's eternal plan for the elevation and the redemption of mankind.
the time is fulfilled: The moment of the coming of Christ, the beginning of the kingdom of God on earth---a kingdom which would end in heaven---had been decreed by God from all eternity. It is now here, Christ tells the people of Galilee.
repent...gospel: The first necessary step was to turn from sin and return to God, to change one's outlook on life and one's conduct (see Joel 2: 12). Having turned from sin to God it will be easier for men to accept the good news of God's plan for them.
APPLICATION: The very thought of our divine Lord's suffering hunger, loneliness, and humiliation at the hands of his enemy---and that all this was for us---should make us feel ashamed at the little bits of suffering and humiliation we are willing to suffer for our own selves. He had no sin to atone for. He was making atonement for us and for our sins. He was the Son of God and his home was heaven, but he left it for a while to assume human nature, so that he could through his humiliations and sufferings bring us to share his eternal home with him. What is the thanks he gets from us? Ingratitude, forgetfulness, and even worse: insults and disobedience.
While the Church has eased the strict fastings and penances of Lent, we are still expected to do some private fasting and penance. It need not be fasting from food, but we can all do some daily penance which will help to keep our unruly minds and bodies in check while at the same time it will show that we are grateful to our loving Savior for all that he suffered for us. A few extra prayers each day, control of our temper in the home, less talk and especially less uncharitable talk among our neighbors, a little helping hand to a neighbor in need, a fervent prayer and where we can spare it (perhaps by doing without some luxury) a donation toward helping the starving millions in other lands. The sincere Christian will find a hundred such ways in which to thank and honor Christ during this holy season of Lent. We can all keep the last verse of today's reading before our minds with great profit. "Repent and believe in the gospel." This is the essence, the marrow, of Christ's teaching. Turn away from sin and come back to God. Anyone who believes in the gospel, who believes that there is an everlasting life after death prepared by God for all those who do his will while on earth, should not find it hard to give up offending that loving God who thinks so much of him. This life is only a passing shadow, every step we take, every breath we breathe is bringing us nearer to our earthly end and to the grave. But the believing Christian knows the grave is not the end. Rather, is it the beginning of the true life---provided we use this passing shadow, these few years, properly.
Now is the time to take these words of Christ to heart. He is asking each one of us today, to repent and to believe the gospel, that is, to act according to its teaching. Christ, in his mercy, will make this appeal to men again and again, but will we be here to hear it? If we answer his appeal now and start living our Christian faith in all sincerity, we need not care when death calls us. It will find us ready to pass over to the future, happy, unending life.b115
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Thursday, February 9, 2012
RE: 02.09.12~Readings for Sunday, Feb 12th-2012
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ADULT FAITH ENRICHMENT
A Quick Journey Through The Bible – 8 week session
A Biblical Walk Through The Mass—5 week session
Please Contact Parish Office 941/743-6877 or Sue Puleo susanp@stmaxcatholic.org for details
FEBRUARY 12, 2012
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 77
READING 1 LV 13:1-2, 44-46
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
"If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch
which appears to be the sore of leprosy,
he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest,
or to one of the priests among his descendants.
If the man is leprous and unclean,
the priest shall declare him unclean
by reason of the sore on his head.
"The one who bears the sore of leprosy
shall keep his garments rent and his head bare,
and shall muffle his beard;
he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!'
As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean,
since he is in fact unclean.
He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp."
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 32:1-2, 5, 11
R. (7) I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
READING 2 1 COR 10:31-11:1
Brothers and sisters,
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,
do everything for the glory of God.
Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or
the church of God,
just as I try to please everyone in every way,
not seeking my own benefit but that of the many,
that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
GOSPEL MK 1:40-45
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched him, and said to him,
"I do will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning the him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
SUNDAY READINGS - 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
FIRST READING: Leviticus 13:1-2; 45-46. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests.
"The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, 'Unclean, unclean.' He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean, he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp."
EXPLANATION: This book which is concerned with the regulating of Israelite worship, gets the name Leviticus because this worship was to be carried out by the tribe of Levi. It was the Septuagint, the Greek translation, which first gave the book this name. As well as laws regulating worship, the ordination of priests, their duties and rights, it has rules concerning food, legal purity and impurity. It also lays down regulations as regards certain bodily diseases which made a person unclean and a menace to the health of his neighbors. Leprosy was one such disease. It was the duty of the priests to declare a man infected or not by leprosy. The priest examined a patient and declared him a leper; the patient had then to live in isolation outside the camp or the dwelling-place of the people, to prevent the spread of the dreaded disease. In this chapter 13, other skin diseases are included for the possibility of a cure occurring is mentioned, but real leprosy at that time and for centuries after was deemed incurable. But any infectious skin disease made the patient unfit to take part in the religious rites, and, to protect the others, he was isolated until cured.
swelling...spot: Any of these symptoms could be the beginning of leprosy.
Aaron...priests: Aaron was the first Chief Priest and all his sons were associated with him in the priesthood. All the male members of the other families of the tribe of Levi were "Levites" whose office and duty was to help the priests in the offering of sacrifices and other acts of divine worship.
wear torn clothes: The poor unfortunate had not only to live in isolation but he had to warn anyone approaching him both by his dress and by word of mouth, that he was unclean and should be avoided.
cover...lip: The patient had to let the hair of his head grow long and also cover his face with a beard so that nobody could mistake him for a healthy person.
as long...disease: As said above, the fact that one could gradually get rid of this skin-affection indicates that it was not leprosy in the strict sense.
dwell alone: The man pronounced a leper had to live away from his fellow-men. He could take no part in their life or their liturgy, for according to the Hebrew mentality, one having such a disease was struck by God and therefore unfit to worship him.
APPLICATION: Man was made to live in the society of his fellowman. His nature needs the comfort and the sustaining support of his family and neighbors. To be isolated from them, to be compelled to live a life apart must be the hardest lot that could befall a human being. This was the sad lot of lepers in the Old Testament times and well into New Testament days as well. Thanks to the progress of medicine and of Christian charity there are hardly any cases of complete isolation today. There are cures for all infectious and contagious diseases including most forms of leprosy, today. There are medical means of protection against infection and contagion which means that no patients need to be in strict isolation. They can be visited and consoled by their relatives, friends and charitable neighbors, and their cross of suffering in loneliness is lightened for them.
There are, however, other cases of isolation not caused by any disease but rather resulting from lack of thought or lack of true fraternal charity on the part of fellowman. There are elderly people in hospitals and in homes for the aged whose relatives are all dead and who have no one to visit them or to cheer them and help them to carry their cross. Here is an occasion for the true Christian to put his religion into practice. "I was sick and you visited me," Christ says to the just on the last day. Yes, if we visit and console a fellowman, a brother of Christ, we are visiting and consoling Christ. There are, thank God, a few who practice this very necessary form of charity, but many more are needed.
There are also individuals and sometimes families in almost every community, who seem to be isolated or left coldly to themselves. It may be partly their own fault---they show no inclination to mix with their neighbors, they may even resent any intrusion on their privacy---but this does not excuse the truly Christian neighbor from trying to make such individuals or families feel at home and welcome in their neighborhood. The charitable person will find ways and means of integrating such people into their local community, and of making life less solitary and therefore, more bearable for them.
Think again on the sad fate of the lepers of old, cut off from all human fellowship, compelled to warn all to keep at a safe distance, lest they become infected. If you had been there, would you not have tried to help those poor unfortunate people, if only with a word of encouragement and consolation from afar? You were not there, but you have today plenty of opportunities to exercise charity toward lonely or isolated neighbors, who are within the reach of your kindness, if you are truly kind. You need not fear any contamination of body or mind, in fact, the kindly, friendly encounter with such people who are so much in need of friendship and kindness will have an elevating effect on your own life and cannot but bring you closer to God. "I was a stranger and you made me welcome; I was sick and I you visited me; I tell you solemnly insofar as you did this to the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me" (Mt. 25: 35-40).
________________________________________
SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 10: 31-11: 1. Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
EXPLANATION: There were pagan temples in Corinth in which animals were sacrificed to the gods. The meat which was not burned in the sacrifice was often sold in the market-place. Some of St. Paul's converts, both Jews and Gentiles, had scruples regarding the eating of such meat---it could mean participating in the honor given to a pagan god. St. Paul's general answer was that as "the earth and all that is in it is the property of the Lord" a Christian can lawfully eat any meat placed before him and need not be concerned as to its origin. But if the use of this lawful freedom should scandalize a weaker brother who would think this Christian was intending to honor the pagan gods, then the Christian should deny himself this freedom. This discussion on meat offered to pagan gods or idols, in 10: 23-30, leads up to today's exhortation which is to do everything for God's glory, giving offense to nobody. In doing this they will be imitating St. Paul their Apostle, who himself was a close imitator of Christ.
eat or drink: The ordinary everyday actions of men, human action like eating or drinking, if done in moderation and for God's glory, will merit a reward for the one so acting.
offense...Greek: As Christians they had an obligation to give good example by doing what was right, and to abstain from any act which would prevent any Jew or Gentile from becoming members of Christ's Church.
Church of God: If, through some offense of theirs, a Jew or Gentle is prevented from becoming a Christian, they are offending against the Church of God, the universal community of believers, for they are impeding its expansion.
please all men: Paul tried always to be all things to all men (see last Sunday's second reading).
my own advantage: He wanted nothing for himself in this life, not even the things he might lawfully have had.
but...be saved: His one and only ambition was to bring God's good news, the gospel of Christ, to as many as possible, so that they would inherit the eternal kingdom that Christ had earned for them.
be imitators of me: Paul asks his converts to be all things to all men, as he was.
I am of Christ: In giving his all for his fellowmen, Paul was surely imitating Christ, who became a slave so that men would be free; who became man so that men could become sons of God; who died a shameful death so that men could have eternal life. This was self-giving to a degree that neither Paul nor any other mere human could ever equal, but they could follow him from afar.
APPLICATION: If I were to ask each one of you: "what did you do for God's honor and glory since last Sunday?" would you have to stop and think and maybe answer: "I did nothing except a few hurried prayers said at night." Those who would answer thus have not a proper understanding of what living the Christian life means. From the moment of his baptism a Christian's life is a life dedicated to God's glory and leading to his own eternal reward on his last day. Every act of a Christian's day, his recreation as well as his work, his joys as well as his sorrows, his sleeping as well as his waking hour, gives honor and glory to God, and earns heaven for the Christian. This is the real meaning of living a Christian life. This is what St. Paul tells us today when he says : "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." This is how St. Paul himself lived and acted and became a great saint. Undoubtedly, he gave most of his time to teaching the gospel to others, but he also worked with his hands, ate some meals, slept some hours at least each night, had moments of recreation or relaxation with friends, but he offered it all to God and it all added to God's gory and to his own sanctification. God lived more and more in him and with him each day that dawned. There are millions of saints in heaven who did nothing extraordinary in their whole lives but they lived their ordinary lives honestly and well. It should not be too hard for the weakest of us to do this. It will help us to do our daily tasks more faithfully if each morning we offer our day to the honor and glory of God. This morning offering can be made while dressing, or while on our way to work and if sometimes we forget it, God will understand.
So the true answer to what did you do for God's honor and glory since last Sunday is: I have given him seven days' service; I have honored him in all my doings' This will be true for every Christian who has been honest in all his doings and who has lived within the laws of God, of his Church, and of his country. We cannot honor God with a dishonest act, we can give no glory to God while willfully disobeying in serious matters the commandments of God or of his Church, or the lawful enactment's of the State. But our merciful God knows how weak our human nature can be at times, and has given us an easy means of rising again should we fall into disobedience. The sincere Christian who realizes that our daily tasks, if they are carried out while we are not in God's friendship, are not capable of honoring God or earning our own eternal salvation, will rise quickly from sin and return to God's friendship. To sin is partly human frailty and partly human folly; to remain deliberately in sin is criminal injustice to God and to ourselves, because all those days, weeks, and months perhaps, are squandered and wasted as far as God and our eternal destiny are concerned.
Let us try, from now on, to imitate St. Paul by devoting twenty-four hours each day to the honor and glory of God. We do not have to say any extra prayers; we do not have to do any unusual mortification's but if we do each task of each day faithfully and truly, we shall be honoring God daily and storing up a priceless reward for ourselves in heaven.
________________________________________
GOSPEL: Mark 1: 40-45. A leper came to Jesus beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people." But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
EXPLANATION: During the first day of his public ministry in Galilee Jesus cured all sorts of diseases and cast out demons (Mk. 1 :21-34). On the next day he performed what was looked on as the greatest miracle of all, he healed a leper. Although at least some of the cases called leprosy in Leviticus (see first reading) were not real leprosy but some other form of skin-disease, at the time of Christ in Palestine leprosy was looked on as incurable. According to the rabbis "the healing of leprosy was as difficult as the raising of the dead." But Christ was able to raise the dead too. There were many lepers in Palestine (as well as in all countries) at that time. This man was most probably living near Capernaum and through some friend or relative had heard of the miracles of healing which Christ had worked there on the previous day. Filled with hope and faith, he approached Christ as he was leaving Capernaum, and asked for a miracle. His request was granted.
kneeling said to him: Putting himself in the most humble posture---on his knees---he made his request.
if You...can: He shows absolute faith in Christ's power to heal him even from this incurable disease. All that is needed is that Christ deigns to befriend him.
I will; be clean: Moved with pity for the Poor sufferer, who was cut off from all human intercourse because of his disease, Christ answered: "I will." and then touching him with his hand he gave the command "be clean" or "be made clean." As leprosy was a decaying of the skin and eventually of the flesh and bones, the term used for healing it was a cleansing---a removal of the filth of rotting flesh and a restoration of clean flesh and skin.
was made clean: The cure was instantaneous.
say...anyone: Christ warned the cured leper to say nothing to the people about this miracle but to go to Jerusalem (or wherever the nearest priest could be found) and get a declaration of complete health from him. Only the priests could give this declaration.
offer...cleansing: Moses (Leviticus 14 :1-32) ordered that certain ceremonies should be performed by the priest who declared a leper free of his disease, and certain offerings for sacrifice should be made by the cured leper.
a proof...people: The people who had known a man as a leper would now have the priest's guarantee that he was free of the disease and was no longer a danger to their health.
talk...it: It would seem ungrateful if this cured leper were immediately and openly to disobey his benefactor, but most likely he felt an obligation to spread the fame of this generous miracle-worker. This often happened during Christ's public life.
Jesus...town: The result of the publishing of this extraordinary miracle as well as of the others performed in Capernaum, was that everybody gathered into any town Jesus was approaching, and so it would be impossible to preach to them or to cure their diseases.
out in the country: He therefore stayed in the open country where large crowds could and did gather from every quarter. Even then it was sometimes difficult to address the throngs that came to hear him (see Lk. 5:3).
APPLICATION: We see both the divine power and the divine compassion of Jesus in this act of healing. The divine power was necessary in all instantaneous cures. Even if the diseases were curable, the ordinary process of nature took time to fight off the causes and to return to normality. Therefore, where there was an instantaneous recovery some power above nature, some supernatural cause brought it about. But where the disease was incurable, as real leprosy then was, to remove it by a simple word of command was more emphatically still the result of divine power. This divine power Jesus had, for he was himself divine, the Son of God.
His compassion for suffering humanity was, however, co-terminous with his power, it was also divine. It was out of compassion for the sad lot of the human race on earth that he descended to man's level, becoming man, equal to us in all things except sin, in order to suffer with us and for us. By his human sufferings he made an atonement, a satisfaction for all the sins of the world---a satisfaction which all mankind could never make---to his heavenly Father, and so obtained for us God's pardon. At the same time, by joining our human nature to his divine nature, he brought us into the divine orbit and made us adopted sons of God and heirs of the eternal life of the Blessed Trinity. Because this seems almost too good to be true, there are men who deny it or refuse to accept it. Such men make the mistake of measuring the infinite compassion of God with the limited yard-stick of their own finite and puny compassion.
Thanks be to God, for his infinite compassion! Thanks be to God, for Christ his Son, who came and dwelt amongst us! He put heaven and a share in the life of God within our reach; he has, shown us how to attain them, giving in his Church and the sacraments, all the necessary aids. But we still need all of Christ's compassion if we are to get there. Because of our inclination to sin and because of the many times we unfortunately give in to that inclination, nothing but the mercy of God can save us from our own folly. However, that mercy is available, if only we ask for it. What we sinners need is the faith and confidence of the leper in today's gospel reading. He believed firmly in the power and the mercy of Jesus. "If you will, you can make me clean," was his approach to Jesus.
This should be our approach too, if we have the misfortune to fall into serious sin. Jesus does will and does want our salvation. His incarnation, and death on the cross, proves that. The fact that he left the power to forgive sins to his Church is another proof of both his will and desire to help us. "All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth," he stated. Part of that power which he left to his Church is in the sacrament of penance where the leprosy of sin can be washed away and the sinner restored to new and perfect spiritual health. What folly for any Christian then, to commit sin and isolate himself, like the unclean leper, from God. But it is greater folly still, to remain in this unclean state when the cure for his disease is so easily available to any sincere penitent.-b109
Click to return to our Home page
http://facilitator-stmaxbiblestudy.blogspot.com
ADULT FAITH ENRICHMENT
A Quick Journey Through The Bible – 8 week session
A Biblical Walk Through The Mass—5 week session
Please Contact Parish Office 941/743-6877 or Sue Puleo susanp@stmaxcatholic.org for details
FEBRUARY 12, 2012
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 77
READING 1 LV 13:1-2, 44-46
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
"If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch
which appears to be the sore of leprosy,
he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest,
or to one of the priests among his descendants.
If the man is leprous and unclean,
the priest shall declare him unclean
by reason of the sore on his head.
"The one who bears the sore of leprosy
shall keep his garments rent and his head bare,
and shall muffle his beard;
he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!'
As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean,
since he is in fact unclean.
He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp."
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 32:1-2, 5, 11
R. (7) I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
READING 2 1 COR 10:31-11:1
Brothers and sisters,
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,
do everything for the glory of God.
Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or
the church of God,
just as I try to please everyone in every way,
not seeking my own benefit but that of the many,
that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
GOSPEL MK 1:40-45
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched him, and said to him,
"I do will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning the him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
SUNDAY READINGS - 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
FIRST READING: Leviticus 13:1-2; 45-46. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests.
"The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, 'Unclean, unclean.' He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean, he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp."
EXPLANATION: This book which is concerned with the regulating of Israelite worship, gets the name Leviticus because this worship was to be carried out by the tribe of Levi. It was the Septuagint, the Greek translation, which first gave the book this name. As well as laws regulating worship, the ordination of priests, their duties and rights, it has rules concerning food, legal purity and impurity. It also lays down regulations as regards certain bodily diseases which made a person unclean and a menace to the health of his neighbors. Leprosy was one such disease. It was the duty of the priests to declare a man infected or not by leprosy. The priest examined a patient and declared him a leper; the patient had then to live in isolation outside the camp or the dwelling-place of the people, to prevent the spread of the dreaded disease. In this chapter 13, other skin diseases are included for the possibility of a cure occurring is mentioned, but real leprosy at that time and for centuries after was deemed incurable. But any infectious skin disease made the patient unfit to take part in the religious rites, and, to protect the others, he was isolated until cured.
swelling...spot: Any of these symptoms could be the beginning of leprosy.
Aaron...priests: Aaron was the first Chief Priest and all his sons were associated with him in the priesthood. All the male members of the other families of the tribe of Levi were "Levites" whose office and duty was to help the priests in the offering of sacrifices and other acts of divine worship.
wear torn clothes: The poor unfortunate had not only to live in isolation but he had to warn anyone approaching him both by his dress and by word of mouth, that he was unclean and should be avoided.
cover...lip: The patient had to let the hair of his head grow long and also cover his face with a beard so that nobody could mistake him for a healthy person.
as long...disease: As said above, the fact that one could gradually get rid of this skin-affection indicates that it was not leprosy in the strict sense.
dwell alone: The man pronounced a leper had to live away from his fellow-men. He could take no part in their life or their liturgy, for according to the Hebrew mentality, one having such a disease was struck by God and therefore unfit to worship him.
APPLICATION: Man was made to live in the society of his fellowman. His nature needs the comfort and the sustaining support of his family and neighbors. To be isolated from them, to be compelled to live a life apart must be the hardest lot that could befall a human being. This was the sad lot of lepers in the Old Testament times and well into New Testament days as well. Thanks to the progress of medicine and of Christian charity there are hardly any cases of complete isolation today. There are cures for all infectious and contagious diseases including most forms of leprosy, today. There are medical means of protection against infection and contagion which means that no patients need to be in strict isolation. They can be visited and consoled by their relatives, friends and charitable neighbors, and their cross of suffering in loneliness is lightened for them.
There are, however, other cases of isolation not caused by any disease but rather resulting from lack of thought or lack of true fraternal charity on the part of fellowman. There are elderly people in hospitals and in homes for the aged whose relatives are all dead and who have no one to visit them or to cheer them and help them to carry their cross. Here is an occasion for the true Christian to put his religion into practice. "I was sick and you visited me," Christ says to the just on the last day. Yes, if we visit and console a fellowman, a brother of Christ, we are visiting and consoling Christ. There are, thank God, a few who practice this very necessary form of charity, but many more are needed.
There are also individuals and sometimes families in almost every community, who seem to be isolated or left coldly to themselves. It may be partly their own fault---they show no inclination to mix with their neighbors, they may even resent any intrusion on their privacy---but this does not excuse the truly Christian neighbor from trying to make such individuals or families feel at home and welcome in their neighborhood. The charitable person will find ways and means of integrating such people into their local community, and of making life less solitary and therefore, more bearable for them.
Think again on the sad fate of the lepers of old, cut off from all human fellowship, compelled to warn all to keep at a safe distance, lest they become infected. If you had been there, would you not have tried to help those poor unfortunate people, if only with a word of encouragement and consolation from afar? You were not there, but you have today plenty of opportunities to exercise charity toward lonely or isolated neighbors, who are within the reach of your kindness, if you are truly kind. You need not fear any contamination of body or mind, in fact, the kindly, friendly encounter with such people who are so much in need of friendship and kindness will have an elevating effect on your own life and cannot but bring you closer to God. "I was a stranger and you made me welcome; I was sick and I you visited me; I tell you solemnly insofar as you did this to the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me" (Mt. 25: 35-40).
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SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 10: 31-11: 1. Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
EXPLANATION: There were pagan temples in Corinth in which animals were sacrificed to the gods. The meat which was not burned in the sacrifice was often sold in the market-place. Some of St. Paul's converts, both Jews and Gentiles, had scruples regarding the eating of such meat---it could mean participating in the honor given to a pagan god. St. Paul's general answer was that as "the earth and all that is in it is the property of the Lord" a Christian can lawfully eat any meat placed before him and need not be concerned as to its origin. But if the use of this lawful freedom should scandalize a weaker brother who would think this Christian was intending to honor the pagan gods, then the Christian should deny himself this freedom. This discussion on meat offered to pagan gods or idols, in 10: 23-30, leads up to today's exhortation which is to do everything for God's glory, giving offense to nobody. In doing this they will be imitating St. Paul their Apostle, who himself was a close imitator of Christ.
eat or drink: The ordinary everyday actions of men, human action like eating or drinking, if done in moderation and for God's glory, will merit a reward for the one so acting.
offense...Greek: As Christians they had an obligation to give good example by doing what was right, and to abstain from any act which would prevent any Jew or Gentile from becoming members of Christ's Church.
Church of God: If, through some offense of theirs, a Jew or Gentle is prevented from becoming a Christian, they are offending against the Church of God, the universal community of believers, for they are impeding its expansion.
please all men: Paul tried always to be all things to all men (see last Sunday's second reading).
my own advantage: He wanted nothing for himself in this life, not even the things he might lawfully have had.
but...be saved: His one and only ambition was to bring God's good news, the gospel of Christ, to as many as possible, so that they would inherit the eternal kingdom that Christ had earned for them.
be imitators of me: Paul asks his converts to be all things to all men, as he was.
I am of Christ: In giving his all for his fellowmen, Paul was surely imitating Christ, who became a slave so that men would be free; who became man so that men could become sons of God; who died a shameful death so that men could have eternal life. This was self-giving to a degree that neither Paul nor any other mere human could ever equal, but they could follow him from afar.
APPLICATION: If I were to ask each one of you: "what did you do for God's honor and glory since last Sunday?" would you have to stop and think and maybe answer: "I did nothing except a few hurried prayers said at night." Those who would answer thus have not a proper understanding of what living the Christian life means. From the moment of his baptism a Christian's life is a life dedicated to God's glory and leading to his own eternal reward on his last day. Every act of a Christian's day, his recreation as well as his work, his joys as well as his sorrows, his sleeping as well as his waking hour, gives honor and glory to God, and earns heaven for the Christian. This is the real meaning of living a Christian life. This is what St. Paul tells us today when he says : "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." This is how St. Paul himself lived and acted and became a great saint. Undoubtedly, he gave most of his time to teaching the gospel to others, but he also worked with his hands, ate some meals, slept some hours at least each night, had moments of recreation or relaxation with friends, but he offered it all to God and it all added to God's gory and to his own sanctification. God lived more and more in him and with him each day that dawned. There are millions of saints in heaven who did nothing extraordinary in their whole lives but they lived their ordinary lives honestly and well. It should not be too hard for the weakest of us to do this. It will help us to do our daily tasks more faithfully if each morning we offer our day to the honor and glory of God. This morning offering can be made while dressing, or while on our way to work and if sometimes we forget it, God will understand.
So the true answer to what did you do for God's honor and glory since last Sunday is: I have given him seven days' service; I have honored him in all my doings' This will be true for every Christian who has been honest in all his doings and who has lived within the laws of God, of his Church, and of his country. We cannot honor God with a dishonest act, we can give no glory to God while willfully disobeying in serious matters the commandments of God or of his Church, or the lawful enactment's of the State. But our merciful God knows how weak our human nature can be at times, and has given us an easy means of rising again should we fall into disobedience. The sincere Christian who realizes that our daily tasks, if they are carried out while we are not in God's friendship, are not capable of honoring God or earning our own eternal salvation, will rise quickly from sin and return to God's friendship. To sin is partly human frailty and partly human folly; to remain deliberately in sin is criminal injustice to God and to ourselves, because all those days, weeks, and months perhaps, are squandered and wasted as far as God and our eternal destiny are concerned.
Let us try, from now on, to imitate St. Paul by devoting twenty-four hours each day to the honor and glory of God. We do not have to say any extra prayers; we do not have to do any unusual mortification's but if we do each task of each day faithfully and truly, we shall be honoring God daily and storing up a priceless reward for ourselves in heaven.
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GOSPEL: Mark 1: 40-45. A leper came to Jesus beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people." But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
EXPLANATION: During the first day of his public ministry in Galilee Jesus cured all sorts of diseases and cast out demons (Mk. 1 :21-34). On the next day he performed what was looked on as the greatest miracle of all, he healed a leper. Although at least some of the cases called leprosy in Leviticus (see first reading) were not real leprosy but some other form of skin-disease, at the time of Christ in Palestine leprosy was looked on as incurable. According to the rabbis "the healing of leprosy was as difficult as the raising of the dead." But Christ was able to raise the dead too. There were many lepers in Palestine (as well as in all countries) at that time. This man was most probably living near Capernaum and through some friend or relative had heard of the miracles of healing which Christ had worked there on the previous day. Filled with hope and faith, he approached Christ as he was leaving Capernaum, and asked for a miracle. His request was granted.
kneeling said to him: Putting himself in the most humble posture---on his knees---he made his request.
if You...can: He shows absolute faith in Christ's power to heal him even from this incurable disease. All that is needed is that Christ deigns to befriend him.
I will; be clean: Moved with pity for the Poor sufferer, who was cut off from all human intercourse because of his disease, Christ answered: "I will." and then touching him with his hand he gave the command "be clean" or "be made clean." As leprosy was a decaying of the skin and eventually of the flesh and bones, the term used for healing it was a cleansing---a removal of the filth of rotting flesh and a restoration of clean flesh and skin.
was made clean: The cure was instantaneous.
say...anyone: Christ warned the cured leper to say nothing to the people about this miracle but to go to Jerusalem (or wherever the nearest priest could be found) and get a declaration of complete health from him. Only the priests could give this declaration.
offer...cleansing: Moses (Leviticus 14 :1-32) ordered that certain ceremonies should be performed by the priest who declared a leper free of his disease, and certain offerings for sacrifice should be made by the cured leper.
a proof...people: The people who had known a man as a leper would now have the priest's guarantee that he was free of the disease and was no longer a danger to their health.
talk...it: It would seem ungrateful if this cured leper were immediately and openly to disobey his benefactor, but most likely he felt an obligation to spread the fame of this generous miracle-worker. This often happened during Christ's public life.
Jesus...town: The result of the publishing of this extraordinary miracle as well as of the others performed in Capernaum, was that everybody gathered into any town Jesus was approaching, and so it would be impossible to preach to them or to cure their diseases.
out in the country: He therefore stayed in the open country where large crowds could and did gather from every quarter. Even then it was sometimes difficult to address the throngs that came to hear him (see Lk. 5:3).
APPLICATION: We see both the divine power and the divine compassion of Jesus in this act of healing. The divine power was necessary in all instantaneous cures. Even if the diseases were curable, the ordinary process of nature took time to fight off the causes and to return to normality. Therefore, where there was an instantaneous recovery some power above nature, some supernatural cause brought it about. But where the disease was incurable, as real leprosy then was, to remove it by a simple word of command was more emphatically still the result of divine power. This divine power Jesus had, for he was himself divine, the Son of God.
His compassion for suffering humanity was, however, co-terminous with his power, it was also divine. It was out of compassion for the sad lot of the human race on earth that he descended to man's level, becoming man, equal to us in all things except sin, in order to suffer with us and for us. By his human sufferings he made an atonement, a satisfaction for all the sins of the world---a satisfaction which all mankind could never make---to his heavenly Father, and so obtained for us God's pardon. At the same time, by joining our human nature to his divine nature, he brought us into the divine orbit and made us adopted sons of God and heirs of the eternal life of the Blessed Trinity. Because this seems almost too good to be true, there are men who deny it or refuse to accept it. Such men make the mistake of measuring the infinite compassion of God with the limited yard-stick of their own finite and puny compassion.
Thanks be to God, for his infinite compassion! Thanks be to God, for Christ his Son, who came and dwelt amongst us! He put heaven and a share in the life of God within our reach; he has, shown us how to attain them, giving in his Church and the sacraments, all the necessary aids. But we still need all of Christ's compassion if we are to get there. Because of our inclination to sin and because of the many times we unfortunately give in to that inclination, nothing but the mercy of God can save us from our own folly. However, that mercy is available, if only we ask for it. What we sinners need is the faith and confidence of the leper in today's gospel reading. He believed firmly in the power and the mercy of Jesus. "If you will, you can make me clean," was his approach to Jesus.
This should be our approach too, if we have the misfortune to fall into serious sin. Jesus does will and does want our salvation. His incarnation, and death on the cross, proves that. The fact that he left the power to forgive sins to his Church is another proof of both his will and desire to help us. "All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth," he stated. Part of that power which he left to his Church is in the sacrament of penance where the leprosy of sin can be washed away and the sinner restored to new and perfect spiritual health. What folly for any Christian then, to commit sin and isolate himself, like the unclean leper, from God. But it is greater folly still, to remain in this unclean state when the cure for his disease is so easily available to any sincere penitent.-b109
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Thursday, February 2, 2012
RE: 02.02.12~Readings for Sunday, Feb 5th-2012
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FEBRUARY 5, 2012
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 74
READING 1 JB 7:1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (cf. 3a) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
READING 2 1 COR 9:16-19, 22-23
Brothers and sisters:
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach,
I offer the gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.
GOSPEL MK 1:29-39
On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."
He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come."
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
SUNDAY READINGS - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
FIRST READING: Job 7:1-4; 6-7. Job said: Has not man a hard service upon earth, and are not his days like the days of a hireling? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hireling who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. When I lie down I say, "When shall I arise?" But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope. Remember that my life is a breath; my eyes will never again see good.
EXPLANATION: The book of Job is a didactic book---a story with a moral. It is a book with a lesson to teach. It tells the story of a good-living, upright man, who was blessed by God with the possessions of this world as well as a large family. But ill-fortune struck him and he not only lost his possessions and family but was himself struck with bodily sores. The author of the story, a post-exilic Israelite, gives us a picturesque explanation of these misfortunes. Satan, the enemy of man and God, tells God that Job's fidelity and uprightness will last only as long as the temporal blessings he has remain. And he asks God to put Job to the test. God does so but Job remains faithful and after a long period of mental and bodily suffering is finally given back his family, and twice the possessions he had lost. The lesson the author intended to teach was that the belief prevalent among the Jews for centuries that God rewarded the good in this life and punished the wicked was not well-founded. The author shows that Job was not a sinner and yet he suffered much in this life: this was proof that this commonly held belief was wrong. The author did not solve the problem, because in common with his contemporaries, he had only very vague ideas about the future life. With the example of Christ's sufferings and cruel death before us, we can now see the value of suffering in this life, and the full meaning of the didactic story of Job.
a hard...earth: Three friends of Job came to visit him when ill-fortune hit him. Being convinced of the traditional teaching that it was sinners only who suffered, each one of the three tried to get Job to admit that he was a great sinner but Job answered each of his accusers by asserting his innocence. In today's lesson he is answering the first speaker and having declared his innocence he admits the severity of the trials by which he is afflicted. He compares his life to the three most wretched states of life then known---those of the conscript, the hireling and the slave. He says a man's life on earth (his own especially) is like the life of a conscript ("pressed service" in the Jerusalem Bible).
days...hireling: He has no freedom but must be at the beck and call of his master.
slave...shadow: Working under the scorching sun the poor slave would love to get some shady place wherein to rest.
hireling...wages: He has no interest in his work and no comfort in it, and all he gets out of life is his wages and they were not very much.
emptiness...misery: Apart from the grief over the loss of his family, Job has been for months suffering from bodily sores and ill-health---his days are empty of value to himself or to anybody and his tortured mind finds no rest even at night---nothing but misery.
When I...down: Knowing his night will be sleepless he keeps hoping that dawn will come soon, but the night drags on while he tosses and turns in pain.
my days...shuttle: But when day comes it brings no relief, it passes too quickly. It has the speed of a weaver's shuttle.
my life...breath: His life is but a brief, transitory moment. It is like the breath one breathes out, it is gone in an instant.
eyes...good: His eyes would soon close in death and that was the final end for him. Remember Job, or the author, had no knowledge of a future life so for him everything ended in death.
APPLICATION: While the book of Job points out that earthly sufferings are not always a punishment for previous sins committed by the sufferer---Job was an innocent man---it does not solve the problem of human pain. The author could not solve this age-old problem because his world-view was restricted to life on this earth. It was only when the full revelation of man's purpose in life and God's loving plans for him, were made known through Christ that the full answer to this question was given. When life on this earth was thought to be the sum total of a man's existence it seemed hard and cruel that his few short years should be marred and saddened by bodily and/or mental ailments. But with our new knowledge and certainty that this life is only a preparation, an apprenticeship, for the eternal life that awaits us after death, we are able to see our earthly sufferings in their proper perspective. They may be punishment for past sins---God's loving way of giving us an opportunity of making atonement for our offenses---or these sufferings may be laid on our shoulders to atone for fellowmen who are incapable of carrying their own saving cross.
For whichever reason these trials are sent us, we Christians should, with the example of Christ before us, be able to accept them with good will and bear them patiently because they come to us from God. But the objection can be raised: it is not God but sinful men, wicked neighbors or even wicked members of our own family who are the cause of my ill-health, my mental and bodily sufferings. Granted that this is often true and that many, if not most of the pains and hardships people have to suffer, are caused by wicked fellowman, yet all of this is happening with God's knowledge. He could prevent it but he will not because out of evil he can produce good. The sufferings of the innocent bring down God's grace not only on themselves but on the very wicked who caused their sufferings.
God wants all his adopted children in heaven. His all-wise way of bringing this to pass may often seem to our limited intellects to be almost unjust to the innocent while the guilty ones seem to be favored. But it is not so. God's innocent children will be rewarded where the reward will be everlasting, and when they reach that reward they will have an added source of joy in the knowledge that it was their patient endurance of suffering brought on them by wicked men, which earned for their one-time oppressors a place in the eternal kingdom. In heaven there will be no narrow-mindedness, no sense of resentment or desire for revenge. Remember the words of Job: "man has a hard service upon earth . . . he is like a hireling and a slave." Most of us can see this fulfilled in our own lives. However, our conscription, our military service or slavery, is of relatively short duration. If we put up patiently with our tribulations (having done all that is humanly and lawfully possible to ameliorate our condition), we will soon see that what looked like the heavy hand of an enemy was instead the caressing hand of the eternal Father, who loved us and so sent us crosses which he would turn into eternal crowns.
Knowing, then, that this life is only an apprenticeship through which we can earn our eternal life of happiness, we should all be able to face "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" which come our way. We should, in fact, be able to welcome them for they are reminders kindly sent us by God, lest we forget our real purpose in life. What is more: they are means given us to make us apostles in our own homes. Through patiently-borne sufferings, we can bring God's grace down on fellowman who have no time or no thought of asking for it.
Christ suffered for us and died the excruciating death of the cross, so that we might have eternal life. He asks us to take up our cross daily and follow him. That daily cross of ours can never be as heavy as his, for he was the innocent God-man. If, however, we carry our cross patiently, it will be turned into our crown of glory when we meet Christ at the moment of our death.
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SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19; 22-23. If I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the gospel free of charge, not making full use of my right in the gospel.
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
EXPLANATION: In this section of his letter St. Paul is encouraging his Corinthian converts to be always ready to forgo their own rights when the edification or spiritual welfare of a neighbor is at stake. To emphasize this teaching, he tells them how he has given up rights and privileges, which he certainly could claim, in order to give himself fully and entirely to the spreading of the gospel among them, and to be seen to be free from any personal interest or gain.
preach...boasting: The fact that Paul is an Apostle, a preacher of the gospel, is in no way due to himself. He did not choose the office, Christ imposed it on him (see Acts 9: 15), so he cannot boast of it.
woe...gospel: This apostleship is his vocation in life, the task Christ gave him to do. Should he fail in it, his future life would be in jeopardy.
not of my own will...commission: He compares himself to the slave who is given a position of authority in the household "a commission." If he fulfills the position well and faithfully, he will get no reward because he is only a slave, but if he fails, he is punished: "woe to him."
gospel...charge: This is something Paul is doing of his own will and he can expect a reward for it. He did not burden the converts with his upkeep, but worked with his hands to earn his bread (see Acts 18: 3; 1 Cor. 9: 1-15), even though he had a right to material support from them.
a slave to all: Though a free-man and a Roman citizen he made himself a slave amongst them, getting no wages, no material reward for his work of evangelizing them. This was so that nobody, friend or foe, could charge him with working for his own benefit. He acted thus in order to win all the more to Christ.
all...men: St. Paul tried (and succeeded admirably) to put himself on an equal footing with all those with whom he came into contact. With the simple he was simple, with the learned he showed his learning, with the weak he spoke of his own weaknesses, with those who boasted of heavenly gifts he spoke of the great gifts he had himself received, hence, the success, under God, of his missionary activity.
save some: Notwithstanding all his efforts, he sadly admits that not all of those who heard him and knew him would follow the gospel, but the fault lay in them, not in him.
may share...blessings: However, he is still going to give his all in order to spread the "goodness" of Christ, so that as many as possible may share with him in its eternal blessings.
APPLICATION: St. Paul is the single Apostle about whom we know most. From the accounts of him given in the Acts, and from his own letters to the various churches, we have not only the principal events of his life but clear glimpses into his character. He was never a man of half- measures but put his whole heart and mind into whatever cause he espoused. As a young Pharisee---a student of the Mosaic law in Jerusalem---he exceeded in zeal even his teachers and elders. To the Pharisees Christ was a false Messiah. He was not what they expected and what was worse, he was a blasphemer for he claimed to be God, so they had him condemned to death. But his followers began to proclaim that he had risen from the dead and was not only Messiah but the Son of God. For this they were persecuted and imprisoned---this heretical sect had to be wiped out.
In this persecution of the infant Church Saul of Tarsus took a leading part. But Christ intervened on behalf of his Church. On his way to Damascus, with authority to arrest any believers in Christ that he found there, and bring them prisoner to Jerusalem, he was converted. The vision of the risen Christ gave him a new outlook on life, the persecutor was turned into an Apostle of the new faith. Baptized in Damascus, he spent some time in solitary meditation in the desert and later in his native Tarsus. Then he began his mission to the Gentiles, the mission given him by Jesus (Acts 9: 15). From Antioch in Syria he traveled through Cyprus (where he changed the name Saul into Paul), Asia Minor, Greece and as far as Rome. He spent the last twenty-four years of his life bringing the message of Christ to the Gentiles. In doing so he suffered hard ship after hardship. Apart from fatiguing journeys during which he frequently suffered from hunger and thirst, he was often beaten up by mobs. Five times he was scourged by the opposing Jews. He was stoned, ship-wrecked and imprisoned at least three times (see 2 Cor. 11 :23-29).
The vision of Christ which Paul had on the road to Damascus remained his guiding-light all through these years. He gladly and completely became the slave of Christ and put every ounce of energy he possessed into serving his master. Because his fellowman were brothers of Christ, Paul made himself their slave also. For him there was neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek nor Barbarian, slave nor freeman---all were brothers of Christ, adopted sons of God, and his all-burning desire was to help them all reach the eternal inheritance that God, through Christ, had in store for them.
We can hardly hope to emulate the true brotherly-love, the total dedication, the complete self-giving of Paul, but we must all try to follow him if only from afar. We cannot and need not take on distant missionary journeys, we cannot and need not give up all our earthly cares and responsibilities, but we all can and must take an active interest in the temporal and spiritual welfare of our fellowman. Some of this obligation, which is on every true Christian, we can fulfill by helping missionary societies, but nearer home, in our own very neighborhood, there are works of charity which each one of us can carry out. There are neighbors, fellow-sons and daughters of God who are in dire need of the ordinary necessities of life---we can spare a little from our own resources to help them out. There are many heirs to heaven who, alas, are leading lives which will not bring them to their everlasting home. A word of advice, an encouraging example, a few devout prayers, can still work miracles. Let us try to imitate St. Paul, if only from afar. Every least effort, every smallest sacrifice for Christ and our fellowman, will have its reward when our day of reckoning comes.
We can all be apostles in our own limited surroundings; we must all be apostles if we hope to reign one day soon with Christ in heaven.
________________________________________
GOSPEL: Mark 1: 29-39. Jesus left the synagogue, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her; and she served them.
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered together about the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely, place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him followed him, and they found him and said to him, "Every one is searching for you." And he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out." And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
EXPLANATION: St. Mark began (last Sunday's reading) to describe Christ's first day of missionary activity in Galilee. He preached "as one who had authority" in the synagogue of Capernaum and by a simple command he drove an unclean spirit out of a man. Later that same day, after sundown, he worked many more miracles of healing, beginning with Peter's mother-in-law, and he drove out many other demons. But very early next morning, he left Peter's house and went to a lonely place to pray. Here Peter and his companions found him and told him that all the people were waiting to see him in Capernaum. But he pointed out to them that his plan was to travel through the towns and villages of Galilee, to bring them all the good news of the messianic kingdom, as this was the purpose of his coming on earth.
Simon and Andrew: Although Peter was married, there is no mention of his wife in the whole gospel story. It is very probable that she had already died by this time, this would explain why her mother was living in Peter's house, to care for him and Andrew.
lifted her up: With the simple action of lifting her up by the hand, he cured her of her fever.
and she...them: St. Mark adds this little detail to show the immediateness and the complete effectiveness of the cure. She was straight away able to provide a meal and serve it to Christ and his four followers.
that evening at sundown: As it was a Sabbath day no loads could be carried and so the neighbors waited until the Sabbath was over at sundown. Then they brought their sick and their possessed ones on stretchers or pallets to the door of Peter's house where Christ was staying.
the whole city: It hardly could be called a city and the inhabitants both of Capernaum and its neighborhood would not be very numerous, but they all came to see miracles and the miracle-worker.
he healed...diseases: The people were not disappointed; he healed all kinds of diseases---there was no limit to his power---and he cast out many demons.
permit...speak: The people had as yet no idea as to what or who he was, but the demons knew him to be the Messiah and they would have spread this news about but he forbade them, and they had to obey. Christ wanted to manifest himself gradually, first preparing the minds and hearts of his hearers to understand the true nature of his mission. The people had the wrong idea of what the Messiah would be---a political leader who would free Israel from the hated Roman and pagan government---this wrong idea Christ gradually corrected. His "kingdom was not of this world."
a great...day: Next morning very early, he went to a deserted place outside the town to pray to his Father in solitude. Christ prayed daily but the gospels mention special occasions like the present one---the beginning of his preaching and healing mission---when he put himself in his Father's hands.
go...towns: He informs the four disciples now of his plans for the future. The good news has to be brought to all towns and all people.
that...Came out: This was the purpose of his incarnation, of his coming from heaven on earth in human form, namely, to tell all men of God's plan for them.
throughout all Galilee: He began that very day to fulfill the role his Father had destined for him.
APPLICATION: Surely the people of Capernaum saw enough that first day of Christ's public ministry among them to make them realize that this man from Nazareth who had come amongst them was no ordinary preacher, no ordinary rabbi, no ordinary man. They saw that he preached as one having authority; they saw that by a simple command he cast out demons and removed all bodily ailments. Yet though they were astonished and amazed at his power, their worldly outlook did not let them rise above their own small interests. Our Lord did not blame them or criticize them, he knew and fully understood their slowness of mind in regard to things spiritual, and he knew also that they would eventually give themselves wholeheartedly to his kingdom.
While he was prepared to wait for the desired effects which his miracles and preaching would eventually have on them, he hastened the arrival of that day by praying to his heavenly Father to send the graces necessary for their conversion into their hearts. When the four Apostles found him praying in a lonely place, they told him that all Capernaum was searching for him, but he knew why they were searching for him. They wanted to see more miracles and very likely they were hoping that he would stay on in Capernaum and the sick and the maimed from the whole of Galilee would be brought there for healing. This would increase their earthly business and prosperity. His answer to the Apostles, while not directly condemning this worldly outlook, shows that his mission had an entirely different objective. He had come on earth not to bring earthly prosperity to any town or country but to bring spiritual salvation and blessing on all people. That very morning he began to carry out his mission and for the remaining two years or more he went from town to town preaching the kingdom of God.
We Christians of today have many advantages over the people of Capernaum of that day. They saw Christ with their bodily eyes as a man of power amongst them; we see him with the eyes of faith as he really was and is---the Son of God who came on earth as man in order to make us sons of God. We know who he really was and we know the full meaning of his mission. We have seen that mission completed amongst us by his death on the cross and his resurrection. By his death he conquered death for us; by his resurrection he opened the gates of heaven for us and led the way there for all who will follow him.
This is the good news Christ brought to our world. This is the meaning of Christianity; this is why we are Christians. We are members of Christ's kingdom on earth, so that when our life here ends we shall be members of his everlasting heavenly kingdom. Yet, with all of this knowledge and with the example of the thousands and millions of saints who have lived according to this knowledge over the past nineteen hundred years and more, and who are now enjoying the reward Christianity promised them, how active and how effective is our Christian faith in our daily thoughts and deeds? In my daily dealings with my fellowman would I be picked out as a Christian? Do I, by my words and deeds, prove to those with whom I live and work that I am convinced there is a future life after death, that reaching that life is the most important thing in this world for me, and that it is through living my short earthly life as a true Christian that I can earn that eternal life?
If I can say yes to these questions I am, thank God, on the right road. But if my answer is "no" then it is time I had another good look to see where I went off the road, and to find out that I can return to that right road once more. God is merciful; Christ is patient with followers who straggle and wander, but it could be fatal to postpone for too long our call to the God of mercy. It will be too late if we delay turning to our patient Christ until we are about to die. Stop straggling and wandering off the highway today and the patient Christ will welcome you and help you back. There may be no tomorrow for you, you have no guarantee of it.-b101
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FEBRUARY 5, 2012
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 74
READING 1 JB 7:1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (cf. 3a) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
READING 2 1 COR 9:16-19, 22-23
Brothers and sisters:
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach,
I offer the gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.
GOSPEL MK 1:29-39
On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."
He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come."
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
SUNDAY READINGS - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
FIRST READING: Job 7:1-4; 6-7. Job said: Has not man a hard service upon earth, and are not his days like the days of a hireling? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hireling who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. When I lie down I say, "When shall I arise?" But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope. Remember that my life is a breath; my eyes will never again see good.
EXPLANATION: The book of Job is a didactic book---a story with a moral. It is a book with a lesson to teach. It tells the story of a good-living, upright man, who was blessed by God with the possessions of this world as well as a large family. But ill-fortune struck him and he not only lost his possessions and family but was himself struck with bodily sores. The author of the story, a post-exilic Israelite, gives us a picturesque explanation of these misfortunes. Satan, the enemy of man and God, tells God that Job's fidelity and uprightness will last only as long as the temporal blessings he has remain. And he asks God to put Job to the test. God does so but Job remains faithful and after a long period of mental and bodily suffering is finally given back his family, and twice the possessions he had lost. The lesson the author intended to teach was that the belief prevalent among the Jews for centuries that God rewarded the good in this life and punished the wicked was not well-founded. The author shows that Job was not a sinner and yet he suffered much in this life: this was proof that this commonly held belief was wrong. The author did not solve the problem, because in common with his contemporaries, he had only very vague ideas about the future life. With the example of Christ's sufferings and cruel death before us, we can now see the value of suffering in this life, and the full meaning of the didactic story of Job.
a hard...earth: Three friends of Job came to visit him when ill-fortune hit him. Being convinced of the traditional teaching that it was sinners only who suffered, each one of the three tried to get Job to admit that he was a great sinner but Job answered each of his accusers by asserting his innocence. In today's lesson he is answering the first speaker and having declared his innocence he admits the severity of the trials by which he is afflicted. He compares his life to the three most wretched states of life then known---those of the conscript, the hireling and the slave. He says a man's life on earth (his own especially) is like the life of a conscript ("pressed service" in the Jerusalem Bible).
days...hireling: He has no freedom but must be at the beck and call of his master.
slave...shadow: Working under the scorching sun the poor slave would love to get some shady place wherein to rest.
hireling...wages: He has no interest in his work and no comfort in it, and all he gets out of life is his wages and they were not very much.
emptiness...misery: Apart from the grief over the loss of his family, Job has been for months suffering from bodily sores and ill-health---his days are empty of value to himself or to anybody and his tortured mind finds no rest even at night---nothing but misery.
When I...down: Knowing his night will be sleepless he keeps hoping that dawn will come soon, but the night drags on while he tosses and turns in pain.
my days...shuttle: But when day comes it brings no relief, it passes too quickly. It has the speed of a weaver's shuttle.
my life...breath: His life is but a brief, transitory moment. It is like the breath one breathes out, it is gone in an instant.
eyes...good: His eyes would soon close in death and that was the final end for him. Remember Job, or the author, had no knowledge of a future life so for him everything ended in death.
APPLICATION: While the book of Job points out that earthly sufferings are not always a punishment for previous sins committed by the sufferer---Job was an innocent man---it does not solve the problem of human pain. The author could not solve this age-old problem because his world-view was restricted to life on this earth. It was only when the full revelation of man's purpose in life and God's loving plans for him, were made known through Christ that the full answer to this question was given. When life on this earth was thought to be the sum total of a man's existence it seemed hard and cruel that his few short years should be marred and saddened by bodily and/or mental ailments. But with our new knowledge and certainty that this life is only a preparation, an apprenticeship, for the eternal life that awaits us after death, we are able to see our earthly sufferings in their proper perspective. They may be punishment for past sins---God's loving way of giving us an opportunity of making atonement for our offenses---or these sufferings may be laid on our shoulders to atone for fellowmen who are incapable of carrying their own saving cross.
For whichever reason these trials are sent us, we Christians should, with the example of Christ before us, be able to accept them with good will and bear them patiently because they come to us from God. But the objection can be raised: it is not God but sinful men, wicked neighbors or even wicked members of our own family who are the cause of my ill-health, my mental and bodily sufferings. Granted that this is often true and that many, if not most of the pains and hardships people have to suffer, are caused by wicked fellowman, yet all of this is happening with God's knowledge. He could prevent it but he will not because out of evil he can produce good. The sufferings of the innocent bring down God's grace not only on themselves but on the very wicked who caused their sufferings.
God wants all his adopted children in heaven. His all-wise way of bringing this to pass may often seem to our limited intellects to be almost unjust to the innocent while the guilty ones seem to be favored. But it is not so. God's innocent children will be rewarded where the reward will be everlasting, and when they reach that reward they will have an added source of joy in the knowledge that it was their patient endurance of suffering brought on them by wicked men, which earned for their one-time oppressors a place in the eternal kingdom. In heaven there will be no narrow-mindedness, no sense of resentment or desire for revenge. Remember the words of Job: "man has a hard service upon earth . . . he is like a hireling and a slave." Most of us can see this fulfilled in our own lives. However, our conscription, our military service or slavery, is of relatively short duration. If we put up patiently with our tribulations (having done all that is humanly and lawfully possible to ameliorate our condition), we will soon see that what looked like the heavy hand of an enemy was instead the caressing hand of the eternal Father, who loved us and so sent us crosses which he would turn into eternal crowns.
Knowing, then, that this life is only an apprenticeship through which we can earn our eternal life of happiness, we should all be able to face "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" which come our way. We should, in fact, be able to welcome them for they are reminders kindly sent us by God, lest we forget our real purpose in life. What is more: they are means given us to make us apostles in our own homes. Through patiently-borne sufferings, we can bring God's grace down on fellowman who have no time or no thought of asking for it.
Christ suffered for us and died the excruciating death of the cross, so that we might have eternal life. He asks us to take up our cross daily and follow him. That daily cross of ours can never be as heavy as his, for he was the innocent God-man. If, however, we carry our cross patiently, it will be turned into our crown of glory when we meet Christ at the moment of our death.
________________________________________
SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19; 22-23. If I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the gospel free of charge, not making full use of my right in the gospel.
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
EXPLANATION: In this section of his letter St. Paul is encouraging his Corinthian converts to be always ready to forgo their own rights when the edification or spiritual welfare of a neighbor is at stake. To emphasize this teaching, he tells them how he has given up rights and privileges, which he certainly could claim, in order to give himself fully and entirely to the spreading of the gospel among them, and to be seen to be free from any personal interest or gain.
preach...boasting: The fact that Paul is an Apostle, a preacher of the gospel, is in no way due to himself. He did not choose the office, Christ imposed it on him (see Acts 9: 15), so he cannot boast of it.
woe...gospel: This apostleship is his vocation in life, the task Christ gave him to do. Should he fail in it, his future life would be in jeopardy.
not of my own will...commission: He compares himself to the slave who is given a position of authority in the household "a commission." If he fulfills the position well and faithfully, he will get no reward because he is only a slave, but if he fails, he is punished: "woe to him."
gospel...charge: This is something Paul is doing of his own will and he can expect a reward for it. He did not burden the converts with his upkeep, but worked with his hands to earn his bread (see Acts 18: 3; 1 Cor. 9: 1-15), even though he had a right to material support from them.
a slave to all: Though a free-man and a Roman citizen he made himself a slave amongst them, getting no wages, no material reward for his work of evangelizing them. This was so that nobody, friend or foe, could charge him with working for his own benefit. He acted thus in order to win all the more to Christ.
all...men: St. Paul tried (and succeeded admirably) to put himself on an equal footing with all those with whom he came into contact. With the simple he was simple, with the learned he showed his learning, with the weak he spoke of his own weaknesses, with those who boasted of heavenly gifts he spoke of the great gifts he had himself received, hence, the success, under God, of his missionary activity.
save some: Notwithstanding all his efforts, he sadly admits that not all of those who heard him and knew him would follow the gospel, but the fault lay in them, not in him.
may share...blessings: However, he is still going to give his all in order to spread the "goodness" of Christ, so that as many as possible may share with him in its eternal blessings.
APPLICATION: St. Paul is the single Apostle about whom we know most. From the accounts of him given in the Acts, and from his own letters to the various churches, we have not only the principal events of his life but clear glimpses into his character. He was never a man of half- measures but put his whole heart and mind into whatever cause he espoused. As a young Pharisee---a student of the Mosaic law in Jerusalem---he exceeded in zeal even his teachers and elders. To the Pharisees Christ was a false Messiah. He was not what they expected and what was worse, he was a blasphemer for he claimed to be God, so they had him condemned to death. But his followers began to proclaim that he had risen from the dead and was not only Messiah but the Son of God. For this they were persecuted and imprisoned---this heretical sect had to be wiped out.
In this persecution of the infant Church Saul of Tarsus took a leading part. But Christ intervened on behalf of his Church. On his way to Damascus, with authority to arrest any believers in Christ that he found there, and bring them prisoner to Jerusalem, he was converted. The vision of the risen Christ gave him a new outlook on life, the persecutor was turned into an Apostle of the new faith. Baptized in Damascus, he spent some time in solitary meditation in the desert and later in his native Tarsus. Then he began his mission to the Gentiles, the mission given him by Jesus (Acts 9: 15). From Antioch in Syria he traveled through Cyprus (where he changed the name Saul into Paul), Asia Minor, Greece and as far as Rome. He spent the last twenty-four years of his life bringing the message of Christ to the Gentiles. In doing so he suffered hard ship after hardship. Apart from fatiguing journeys during which he frequently suffered from hunger and thirst, he was often beaten up by mobs. Five times he was scourged by the opposing Jews. He was stoned, ship-wrecked and imprisoned at least three times (see 2 Cor. 11 :23-29).
The vision of Christ which Paul had on the road to Damascus remained his guiding-light all through these years. He gladly and completely became the slave of Christ and put every ounce of energy he possessed into serving his master. Because his fellowman were brothers of Christ, Paul made himself their slave also. For him there was neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek nor Barbarian, slave nor freeman---all were brothers of Christ, adopted sons of God, and his all-burning desire was to help them all reach the eternal inheritance that God, through Christ, had in store for them.
We can hardly hope to emulate the true brotherly-love, the total dedication, the complete self-giving of Paul, but we must all try to follow him if only from afar. We cannot and need not take on distant missionary journeys, we cannot and need not give up all our earthly cares and responsibilities, but we all can and must take an active interest in the temporal and spiritual welfare of our fellowman. Some of this obligation, which is on every true Christian, we can fulfill by helping missionary societies, but nearer home, in our own very neighborhood, there are works of charity which each one of us can carry out. There are neighbors, fellow-sons and daughters of God who are in dire need of the ordinary necessities of life---we can spare a little from our own resources to help them out. There are many heirs to heaven who, alas, are leading lives which will not bring them to their everlasting home. A word of advice, an encouraging example, a few devout prayers, can still work miracles. Let us try to imitate St. Paul, if only from afar. Every least effort, every smallest sacrifice for Christ and our fellowman, will have its reward when our day of reckoning comes.
We can all be apostles in our own limited surroundings; we must all be apostles if we hope to reign one day soon with Christ in heaven.
________________________________________
GOSPEL: Mark 1: 29-39. Jesus left the synagogue, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her; and she served them.
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered together about the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely, place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him followed him, and they found him and said to him, "Every one is searching for you." And he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out." And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
EXPLANATION: St. Mark began (last Sunday's reading) to describe Christ's first day of missionary activity in Galilee. He preached "as one who had authority" in the synagogue of Capernaum and by a simple command he drove an unclean spirit out of a man. Later that same day, after sundown, he worked many more miracles of healing, beginning with Peter's mother-in-law, and he drove out many other demons. But very early next morning, he left Peter's house and went to a lonely place to pray. Here Peter and his companions found him and told him that all the people were waiting to see him in Capernaum. But he pointed out to them that his plan was to travel through the towns and villages of Galilee, to bring them all the good news of the messianic kingdom, as this was the purpose of his coming on earth.
Simon and Andrew: Although Peter was married, there is no mention of his wife in the whole gospel story. It is very probable that she had already died by this time, this would explain why her mother was living in Peter's house, to care for him and Andrew.
lifted her up: With the simple action of lifting her up by the hand, he cured her of her fever.
and she...them: St. Mark adds this little detail to show the immediateness and the complete effectiveness of the cure. She was straight away able to provide a meal and serve it to Christ and his four followers.
that evening at sundown: As it was a Sabbath day no loads could be carried and so the neighbors waited until the Sabbath was over at sundown. Then they brought their sick and their possessed ones on stretchers or pallets to the door of Peter's house where Christ was staying.
the whole city: It hardly could be called a city and the inhabitants both of Capernaum and its neighborhood would not be very numerous, but they all came to see miracles and the miracle-worker.
he healed...diseases: The people were not disappointed; he healed all kinds of diseases---there was no limit to his power---and he cast out many demons.
permit...speak: The people had as yet no idea as to what or who he was, but the demons knew him to be the Messiah and they would have spread this news about but he forbade them, and they had to obey. Christ wanted to manifest himself gradually, first preparing the minds and hearts of his hearers to understand the true nature of his mission. The people had the wrong idea of what the Messiah would be---a political leader who would free Israel from the hated Roman and pagan government---this wrong idea Christ gradually corrected. His "kingdom was not of this world."
a great...day: Next morning very early, he went to a deserted place outside the town to pray to his Father in solitude. Christ prayed daily but the gospels mention special occasions like the present one---the beginning of his preaching and healing mission---when he put himself in his Father's hands.
go...towns: He informs the four disciples now of his plans for the future. The good news has to be brought to all towns and all people.
that...Came out: This was the purpose of his incarnation, of his coming from heaven on earth in human form, namely, to tell all men of God's plan for them.
throughout all Galilee: He began that very day to fulfill the role his Father had destined for him.
APPLICATION: Surely the people of Capernaum saw enough that first day of Christ's public ministry among them to make them realize that this man from Nazareth who had come amongst them was no ordinary preacher, no ordinary rabbi, no ordinary man. They saw that he preached as one having authority; they saw that by a simple command he cast out demons and removed all bodily ailments. Yet though they were astonished and amazed at his power, their worldly outlook did not let them rise above their own small interests. Our Lord did not blame them or criticize them, he knew and fully understood their slowness of mind in regard to things spiritual, and he knew also that they would eventually give themselves wholeheartedly to his kingdom.
While he was prepared to wait for the desired effects which his miracles and preaching would eventually have on them, he hastened the arrival of that day by praying to his heavenly Father to send the graces necessary for their conversion into their hearts. When the four Apostles found him praying in a lonely place, they told him that all Capernaum was searching for him, but he knew why they were searching for him. They wanted to see more miracles and very likely they were hoping that he would stay on in Capernaum and the sick and the maimed from the whole of Galilee would be brought there for healing. This would increase their earthly business and prosperity. His answer to the Apostles, while not directly condemning this worldly outlook, shows that his mission had an entirely different objective. He had come on earth not to bring earthly prosperity to any town or country but to bring spiritual salvation and blessing on all people. That very morning he began to carry out his mission and for the remaining two years or more he went from town to town preaching the kingdom of God.
We Christians of today have many advantages over the people of Capernaum of that day. They saw Christ with their bodily eyes as a man of power amongst them; we see him with the eyes of faith as he really was and is---the Son of God who came on earth as man in order to make us sons of God. We know who he really was and we know the full meaning of his mission. We have seen that mission completed amongst us by his death on the cross and his resurrection. By his death he conquered death for us; by his resurrection he opened the gates of heaven for us and led the way there for all who will follow him.
This is the good news Christ brought to our world. This is the meaning of Christianity; this is why we are Christians. We are members of Christ's kingdom on earth, so that when our life here ends we shall be members of his everlasting heavenly kingdom. Yet, with all of this knowledge and with the example of the thousands and millions of saints who have lived according to this knowledge over the past nineteen hundred years and more, and who are now enjoying the reward Christianity promised them, how active and how effective is our Christian faith in our daily thoughts and deeds? In my daily dealings with my fellowman would I be picked out as a Christian? Do I, by my words and deeds, prove to those with whom I live and work that I am convinced there is a future life after death, that reaching that life is the most important thing in this world for me, and that it is through living my short earthly life as a true Christian that I can earn that eternal life?
If I can say yes to these questions I am, thank God, on the right road. But if my answer is "no" then it is time I had another good look to see where I went off the road, and to find out that I can return to that right road once more. God is merciful; Christ is patient with followers who straggle and wander, but it could be fatal to postpone for too long our call to the God of mercy. It will be too late if we delay turning to our patient Christ until we are about to die. Stop straggling and wandering off the highway today and the patient Christ will welcome you and help you back. There may be no tomorrow for you, you have no guarantee of it.-b101
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