READING and REFLECTIONS For Friday, January 09, 2015 Friday after Epiphany - Psalter Week 2 (White) Readings: 1 Jn 5:5-13; Ps 147:12-20; Lk 5:12-16 Response: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. Rosary: Sorrowful Mysteries Verse: Sir, if you are willing you can cleanse me. SAINT OF THE DAY: Saint Adrian, Abbot Born in Africa, Adrian became abbot of the monastery at Nerida, near Naples. He declined an appointment as archbishop of Canterbury, but accompanied St. Theodore to England when the latter was appointed Archbishop. Theodore appointed him Abbot of SS. Peter and Paul Monastery (later changed to St. Augustines) in Canterbury, and during his thirty-nine years abbacy, the monastery became renowned as a center of learning. He died on January 9 in Canterbury, and his tomb soon became famous for the miracles wrought there. READINGS FROM THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE: READING 1, 1 Jn 5:5-13 5 Who can overcome the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 He it is who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with water alone but with water and blood, and it is the Spirit that bears witness, for the Spirit is Truth. 7 So there are three witnesses, 8 the Spirit, water and blood; and the three of them coincide. 9 If we accept the testimony of human witnesses, Gods testimony is greater, for this is Gods testimony which he gave about his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him, and whoever does not believe is making God a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever has not the Son of God has not life. 13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. RESPONSORIAL PSALM, Ps 147:12-20 12 Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem, Zion, praise your God. 13 For he gives strength to the bars of your gates, he blesses your children within you, 14 he maintains the peace of your frontiers, gives you your fill of finest wheat. 15 He sends his word to the earth, his command runs quickly, 19 He reveals his word to Jacob, his statutes and judgements to Israel. 20 For no other nation has he done this, no other has known his judgements. GOSPEL, Luke 5:12-16 12 Now it happened that Jesus was in one of the towns when suddenly a man appeared, covered with a skin-disease. Seeing Jesus he fell on his face and implored him saying, Sir, if you are willing you can cleanse me. 13 He stretched out his hand, and touched him saying, I am willing. Be cleansed. At once the skin-disease left him. 14 He ordered him to tell no one, But go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your cleansing just as Moses prescribed, as evidence to them. 15 But the news of him kept spreading, and large crowds would gather to hear him and to have their illnesses cured, 16 but he would go off to some deserted place and pray. REFLECTIONS: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God) OPENING PRAYER: All-powerful Father, you have made known the birth of the Saviour by the light of a star. May he continue to guide us with the light, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ON READING 1: 1 John 5:5-13 (Everyone Who Believes in Jesus Overcomes the World - Continued, Testimony Borne to Christ and Epilogue) 1 John 5, 6. The water and the blood have been interpreted in different ways, depending on whether they apply (following the more literal meaning) to events in the life of Christ, or are regarded as symbols of particular sacraments. The water, if referred to the life of Christ, would be an allusion to our Lords baptism (cf. Mt 3:13-17 and par.), where the Father and the Holy Spirit bore witness to Christs divinity; the blood would refer to the Cross, where Christ, God and true man, shed his blood to bring Redemption. According to this interpretation, St John is answering the Gnostics, who said that Jesus of Nazareth became the Son of God through baptism and ceased to be the Son of God prior to his passion: therefore, only the man Jesus, devoid of divinity, died on the Cross; which would be a denial of the redemptive value of Christs death. Understood as symbols of the sacraments, the water would refer to Baptism (cf. In 3:5), where we receive the Holy Spirit and the life of grace (cf. Jn 7:37-39); the blood would apply to the Eucharist, where we partake of the blood of Christ in order to have life in us (cf. Jn 6:53, 55, 56). Jesus came on earth to give his life for men (cf. Jn 10:10); we obtain that life in the first instance by means of the living water of Baptism (cf. Jn 4:14; 7:37ff); and also by the application of the blood of Christ, which cleanses us from all sin (cf. 1 Jn 1:7; 2:2; 4:10). The two interpretations are compatible with one another, given that sacraments are sensible signs of the supernatural effects of Christs redemptive death. Referring to Baptism, Tertullian wrote: We have also a second laving, and it too is unique -- the baptism with blood. The Lord spoke of this when he said, I have a baptism to be baptized with (Lk 12:50), having had already been baptized once. So, he did come by water and blood (1 In 5:6), as John writes, in order to be bathed by the water and glorified by the blood, in order to make us (who are called by water) chosen ones through blood. These two baptisms spring from the wound in his pierced side; so it is that those who believed in his blood would be washed by the water; those who were washed in the water would also drink of the blood (De Baptismo, XVI). 1 John 5, 7-8. The Sistine-Clementine edition of the Vulgate included an addition which left the text reading as follows: There are three who give witness [in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three who give witness on earth]: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree. The words shown in bracketed italics (known as the Johannine comma or addition) were the subject of heated debate (around the end of the nineteenth century) as to their authenticity. The Holy Office (as was) left theologians free to research the matter (cf. Declaration, 2 June 1927) and in fact it has been shown that the comma was introduced in Spain around the fourth century AD in a text attributed to Priscillian, and therefore does not belong to the original inspired text. The comma makes express mention of the Blessed Trinity; however, even without it the text proclaims that mystery of faith fairly clearly: it makes mention of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (vv. 5-6), and of the Holy Spirit (v. 7) and of the Father, both of whom bear witness to the Son (v. 9). According to the legal prescriptions of the Old Testament, the testimony of one witness was insufficient at trials (Deut 17:6; cf. Jn 8:17). St John points to three witnesses (the Holy Spirit, water and blood), thereby refuting the Gnostic teaching; he is saying that the water and the blood, that is, Christs baptism and his death on the Cross, are a manifestation of his divinity. Clearly the word witness is used here in a broad sense: namely, in the sense that at those two important moments in his life, Christ makes known to us that he is true God. The Fathers who interpreted these words as referring to the sacraments usually comment on the fact that in the sacraments the grace of God is communicated internally and is signaled externally. St Bede writes along those lines: The Holy Spirit makes us adoptive sons of God; the water of the sacred fount cleanses us; the blood of the Lord redeems us: the spiritual sacrament gives us a dual witness, one visible, one invisible (In I Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc.). 1 John 5, 9-12. In his characteristic style St John strings together a series of short phrases (and their opposites, as contrasts) which are full of meaning. In a very few words, he enunciates three important truths, which he expects Christians to be very familiar with: 1) God the Father has borne witness to his Son (v. 9); 2) this witness brings an obligation with it; if one does not believe one is making God out to be a liar (v. 10); 3) God has given us life in Christ (vv. 11-12). Earlier the Apostle pointed out that faith in Jesus can be the object of reason because it is based on external proofs, and that its fruit is supernatural life (cf. 1 Jn 1 :1-5). Now he adds that in addition to the aforementioned witnesses -- the Spirit, the water and the blood (vv. 6-8) -- God the Father bears witness. Although John does not expressly say so, it is clear that God bore witness to Jesus throughout his earthly life: Jesus words, miracles, passion and death, and his resurrection are evidence God has supplied of Christs divinity. The believer has the testimony [of God] in him (v. 10), within him, insofar as he accepts and makes the Christian message (Revelation) his own, convinced that it comes from God, who cannot deceive or be deceived. In his turn, he who believes in Jesus Christ manifests his faith to others, passing on to them the conviction that Jesus is true God. Faith produces the fruit of supernatural life, which is the seed and first-fruit of eternal life (cf. 11-12); that life can be given us only by Jesus Christ, our Savior. To those of us who are still making our pilgrim way in this life has been given the hope of eternal life, which we shall only receive in its full form in heaven when we reach Him (In I Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc.). 1 John 5, 13-21. St. Johns words in v. 13 are evocative of the first epilogue to his Gospel, where he explains why he wrote that book: that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name (Jn 20:31). In this verse of the letter, the Apostle stresses the efficacy of faith, which is already an anticipation of eternal life (cf. notes on 1 Jn 3:2; 5:9-12). His final counsels are designed to strengthen our confidence in prayer and to urge the need for prayer on behalf of sinners (vv. 14-17); they also stress the conviction and confidence that faith in the Son of God gives the believer (vv. 18-21). ON THE GOSPEL: Luke 5:12-16 (The Cure of a Leper) A leper came close to Jesus. He had to live far away from others, because whoever touched him remained impure! But that leper had great courage. He transgressed or broke the norms of religion so as to be able to get close to Jesus. He said: Lord, if you want, you can heal me! That is: “It is not necessary for you to touch me. It is sufficient for the Lord to want it, and he cured him!” The sentence shows two evils: a) the evil of leprosy which renders him impure; b) the evil of solitude to which he was condemned by society and by religion. This also reveals the man’s great faith in the power of Jesus. And Jesus profoundly moved, heals him from both evils! In the first place, to cure the solitude, he touches the leper. It is as if he would say: “For me you are not excluded. I accept you as a brother!” And then he cures the leper saying: I want it, be cured! The leper, in order to be able to enter in contact with Jesus, had transgressed the norms of the law. Jesus also, in order to be able to help that excluded man and reveal to him a new face of God , transgresses the norms of his religion and touches the leper. At that time, whoever touched a leper became impure according to the religious authority and by the law of the time. The words of the leper are a model prayer. First, they show his faith. He did not say, If you ask God for it..., but If you will (Chrysostom, Hom. on St. Matthew, 25). He rounds this off by saying, You can -- an open confession of Christs omnipotence. The psalmist expressed this same faith: Whatever the Lord pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in the deep (Ps 135:6). Along with this faith he shows confidence in Gods mercy. God is merciful; there is no need therefore to ask him; all we have to do is show him our need (St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on St Matthew, 8, 1). And St. John Chrysostom concludes: Prayer is perfect when it is joined to faith and confession; the leper showed his faith and confessed his need out loud (Hom. on St Matthew, 25). Domine! -- Lord -- si vis, potes me mundare -- if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. What a beautiful prayer for you to say often, with the faith of the poor leper, when there happens to you what God and you and I know! You will not have to wait long to hear the Masters reply: Volo, mundare! I will: be thou made clean! (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 142). Jesus, not only cures, but also wants the cured person to be able to live with others. He once again inserts the person in society so that he can live together with others. At that time for a leper to be accepted again in the community, he needed a certificate from a priest, that he had been cured. It is the same today. The sick person leaves the hospital having a document signed by the doctor of the section. Jesus obliges the person to go and look for the document, so that he can live normally with the others. He obliges the authority to recognize that this man has been cured. Luke 5, 13. Jesus listens to the lepers petition and cures him of his disease. All of us suffer from spiritual ailments and our Lord is waiting for us to approach him: He is our physician, and he heals our selfishness if we let his grace penetrate to the depths of our soul. Jesus has taught us that the worst sickness is hypocrisy, the pride that leads us to hide our own sins. We have to be totally sincere with him. We have to tell the whole truth, and then we have to say, Lord, if you will -- and you are always willing -- you can make me clean (Mt 8:2). You know my weaknesses; I feel these symptoms; I suffer these failings. We show him the wound, with simplicity, and if the wound is festering, we show the pus too. Lord, you have cured so many souls; help me to recognize you as the divine physician when I have you in my heart or when I contemplate your presence in the tabernacle (St. J. Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 93). Jesus forbids the leper to speak about the healing. The Gospel of Mark informs us that this prohibition was not effective, did not serve. The leper, went away, but then started freely proclaiming and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but stayed outside in deserted places (Mk 1, 45) Why? Because Jesus had touched a leper. For this reason, according to the opinion of the religion of the time, now he himself was impure and should be far away from everybody. He could no longer enter into the cities. And Mark says that the people did not care at all about these official norms, in fact, people came to him from all parts (Mk 1, 45). Total Subversion! The two-fold message which Luke and Mark give the community of their time and to all of us is the following: a) to announce the Good News means to give witness of the concrete experience that one has of Jesus. What does the leper announce? He tells the others the good that Jesus has done to him. That is all! All this! And this is the witness which impels the others to accept the Good News of God, those brought by Jesus. b) In order to take the Good News to people, it is not necessary to be afraid to transgress the religious norms which are contrary to God’s project and which render communication, dialogue and the lived experience of love, difficult. Even if this implies difficulty for the people, as it happened with Jesus. Luke 5, 16. The Third Gospel frequently draws attention to Jesus going off, alone, to pray (cf. 6:12; 9:18 ; 11:1). By doing this Jesus teaches us the need for personal prayer in all the various situations in which we find ourselves. Forgive me if I insist, but it is very important to note carefully what the Messiah did, because he came to show us the path that leads to the Father. With our Lord we will discover how to give a supernatural dimension to all our actions, even those that seem least important. We will learn to live every moment of our lives with a lively awareness of eternity, and we will understand more deeply mans need for periods of intimate conversation with his God, so as to get to know him, to invoke him, to praise him, to break out into acts of thanksgiving, to listen to him or, quite simply, to be with him (St. J. Escriva, Friends of God, 239). FINAL PRAYERS: May his name be blessed for ever, and endure in the sight of the sun. In him shall be blessed every race in the world, and all nations call him blessed. (Ps 72,17) Lord, today with Mary at our side, keep us sowing the unmistakable goodness of God so we may reap the grace of knowing amazement in our 2015 hearts. -- Fr. Richard Baumann, S.J. It is by God’s mercy that we are saved. May we never tire of spreading this joyful message to the world. -- Pope Francis Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. -- St. Jerome The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence; and in silence the soul has to hear it. -- St. John of the Cross
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:17:31 +0000
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