02.16.12~Readings for Sunday, Feb 19th-2012

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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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