READING and REFLECTIONS For Thursday, January 15, 2015 ARRIVAL OF THE POPE TO THE PHILIPPNES First week in Ordinary Time - Psalter Week 1 (Green) Readings: Heb 3:7-14; Ps 95:6-7, 8-9, 10-11; Mk 1:40-45 Response: If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Rosary: Luminous Mysteries Verse: People from all around kept coming to him. SAINT OF THE DAY: Saint Paul the Hermit Patron of San Pablo City, Philippines Birth: 229 - Death: 342 Also known as Paul the First Hermit and Paul of Thebes, an Egyptian hermit and friend of St. Jerome. Born in Lower The baid, Egypt, he was left an orphan at about the age of fifteen and hid during the persecution of the Church under Emperor Traj anus Decius. At the age of twenty two he went to the desert to circumvent a planned effort by his brother in law to report him to authorities as a Christian and thereby gain control of his property. Paul soon found that the eremitical life was much to his personal taste, and so remained in a desert cave for the rest of his reportedly very long life. His contemplative existence was disturbed by St. Anthony, who visited the aged Paul. Anthony also buried Paul, supposedly wrapping him in a cloak that had been given to Anthony by St. Athanasius. According to legend, two lions assisted Anthony in digging the grave. While there is little doubt that Paul lived, the only source for details on his life are found in the Vita Pauli written by St. Jerome and preserved in both Latin and Greek versions. READINGS FROM THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE: READING 1, Hebrews 3:7-14 7 That is why, as the Holy Spirit says: If only you would listen to him today! 8 Do not harden your hearts, as at the rebellion, as at the time of testing in the desert, 9 when your ancestors challenged me, and put me to the test, and saw what I could do 10 for forty years. That was why that generation sickened me and I said, Always fickle hearts, that cannot grasp my ways! 11 And then in my anger I swore that they would never enter my place of rest. 12 Take care, brothers, that none of you ever has a wicked heart, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God. 13 Every day, as long as this today lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin, 14 because we have been granted a share with Christ only if we keep the grasp of our first confidence firm to the end. RESPONSORIAL PSALM, Psalms 95:6-7, 8-9, 10-11 6 Come, let us bow low and do reverence; kneel before Yahweh who made us! 7 For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand. If only you would listen to him today! 8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as at the time of Massah in the desert, 9 when your ancestors challenged me, put me to the test, and saw what I could do! 10 For forty years that generation sickened me, and I said, Always fickle hearts; they cannot grasp my ways. 11 Then in my anger I swore they would never enter my place of rest. GOSPEL, Mark 1:40-45 40 A man suffering from a virulent skin-disease came to him and pleaded on his knees saying, If you are willing, you can cleanse me. 41 Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him, I am willing. Be cleansed. 42 And at once the skin-disease left him and he was cleansed. 43 And at once Jesus sternly sent him away and said to him, 44 Mind you tell no one anything, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your cleansing prescribed by Moses as evidence to them. 45 The man 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. Even so, people from all around kept coming to him. REFLECTIONS: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God) OPENING PRAYER: Father of love, hear our prayers. Help us to know your will and to do it with courage and faith. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ON READING 1: Hebrews 3:7-14 (The Need for Faith; the Bad Example Given by the Chosen People) Hebrews 3, 7-11. A long quotation from Psalm 95 introduces the theme of that rest which the people of the promise will attain at the end of their wayfaring. In the Book of Genesis we are told that when God finished his work of creation, he rested. The rest prescribed in the Mosaic Law was a kind of imitation of what God did, sharing Gods happiness, receiving the reward merited by a life of fidelity and hard work. The Jews had gradually come to a more spiritual understanding of rest or, as they termed it, the place of rest. This idea reaches its highest form of expression in the apocryphal book of Esdras (IV Esdras), where the prayer is raised to God to grant the faithful departed eternal rest, Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. The chosen people were helped to arrive at this notion of rest by reflecting on the spiritual meaning of the Exodus and the pilgrimage to the promised land. The Exodus was also seen as a new creation, with God creating his people. Like the first creation, this second creation would be followed by rest--entry into the promised land. The Epistle to the Hebrews shares this interpretation of the Exodus but it gives it a Christian perspective by seeing the Exodus as the Redemption whereby Christ, a new Moses, leads us to eternal rest. Hebrews 3, 7. The author of the letter reaffirms that Sacred Scripture--in this case Psalm 95 --is the work of the Holy Spirit. As such it always carries a contemporary message; it is a form God uses to speak to all men in all periods of history. Readiness to listen to God and do his will today and now is an important part of Christian living (cf. 3:13). A Christian should be docile to God speaking in his heart; he should be quick to respond to all the little invitations God gives him to deny himself and advance in holiness. No excuse is ever valid for delaying to give a positive response to grace. Do your duty now, without looking back on yesterday, which has already passed, or worrying over tomorrow, which may never come for you (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 253). Now! Return to your noble life now. Dont let yourself be fooled: now is not too soon...nor too late (ibid., 254). Hebrews 3, 8. Man is free; he can resist grace, and unfortunately often does. It is not Gods goodness that is to blame for faith not coming to birth in men, but the inadequate dispositions of those who hear the preaching of the word (St Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio Catechetica Magna, 31). Scripture calls this resistance to grace hardness of heart (cf., e.g., Ex 4:21; Rom 9:18 ; Deut 15:7; Jer 7:26; Acts 19:6). When withholding belief or resisting conversion, people sometimes claim to have intellectual difficulties, but, very often, the real problem has to do with their dispositions, with not wanting to respond to grace. The disobedience and hardness of heart or stubbornness of the chosen people is a recurring subject in the Old Testament (cf., e.g., Ex 32:9; Deut 9:13; 2 Kings 17:14; Is 46:12; Jer 5 :3; Ezek 2:4; etc.). Their rebellion against Gods commands was due to pride, which turned them into a people whose forehead was as hard as brass, whose neck was an iron sinew (Is 48:4; cf. Acts 7:51), a people uncircumcised in heart, with uncircumcised ears (cf. Jer 9:26; 6: 10). Conversion cannot operate if someone has that attitude. For this reason our Lord, and later his Apostles, referred to the Jews rejection of him, in order to make Christians steadfast in faith (cf. Is 6:9; Mt 13:13; In 12:40; Acts 28 :26). Hebrews 3, 9. Psalm 95 contains a reference to the Israelites rebellion when God put them to the test in the wilderness. The episode took place in Rephidim, on the border of the wilderness of Zin, in the south-east of the Sinai peninsula. Having made their way out of Egypt, the people grew impatient; they complained about how Yahweh was treating them, and put him to the test by asking him to work a miracle (Ex 17:1-7). God did work a miracle: at Horeb he ordered Moses to strike the rock with his rod, and out of it flowed water to relieve the peoples thirst. The place was therefore given the name of Massah (meaning temptation) and Meribah (meaning fault-finding or exasperation). This episode in Jewish history came to symbolize the disgruntlement which typified the Jews in the desert, an attitude which even affected Moses in Kadesh (cf. Num 20:1-13). The leader of the chosen people, in circumstances similar to those of the earlier incident, struck the rock twice, not expecting anything to happen. On account of this he did not merit to enter the promised land: he was only allowed to see it from Mount Nebo, where he died ( Deut 34:1-8 ). Putting God to the test, tempting him, is a sin of presumption. It involves exposing oneself imprudently and needlessly to physical or spiritual risk from which Gods ordinary providence does not provide protection (cf. Mt 4:5-7). In this passage, putting God to the test means demanding more proof than necessary that God is steadfast in his will and continues to protect his chosen people. God should not be asked to account for his activities, St. John Chrysostom comments; if one asks him to prove his power, his providence, his solicitude, it is the same as not yet being fully convinced of his power and goodness and mercy (Hom. on Heb., 6). Hebrews 3, 11. There are three kinds of rest. The first is the sabbath, when God rested after creating the world; then there is the rest provided by the promised land of Canaan after countless afflictions and difficulties; and finally there is the true rest which belongs to the Kingdom of heaven, where the elect rest from their labors and afflictions: the sabbath is a reflection and symbol of that rest (Hom. on Heb., 6). St. Thomas Aquinas applies the term rest to peace of body and soul and says that there are different kinds of peace--physical ease (cf. Lk 12:19); the peace of conscience a person has who does right in the sight of God; and the peace of eternal happiness in heaven (cf. Commentary on Heb, ad loc.). Hebrews 3, 12. Falling away from the living God seems to be something more serious than reverting to Judaism; it implies the sad possibility of total loss of belief in God. Thus, in the case of those to whom the epistle was written, a reversion from the Gospel to Judaism would not be simply a matter of returning to a previous religious position but rather a deliberate act involving voluntary resistance to grace and a complete break with God. For people who had not received the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Jewish religion certainly did provide access to God; but for those who by embracing Christianity had thereby received the fullness of Revelation, renunciation of Christ would mean a virtually irreparable sin (cf. Heb 6:4-6). There is never a valid excuse for giving up the faith. The Church teaches and prescribes to its children the need to be true to the faith even at the cost of life itself. From the very beginning this was the kind of fidelity practised by the martyrs and confessors of the faith. They cut our hands off, they nail us to crosses, they throw us to wild beasts, imprison us and burn us, and we submit to every kind of torture; yet everyone knows that we do not betray our faith. Rather, the worse our sufferings, the more there are who embrace faith and devotion in the name of Jesus (St. Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 110,4). Some Christians today are called to stay true in the face of violent persecution; they and others also have to overcome fear of ridicule, and the temptation to hide their convictions from unbelievers. The words of the letter remind us that there is a danger that whereas in earlier times force failed to achieve its objective, nowadays fear of ridicule could cause us to be ashamed of Christ or to deny him. And in a paganized or pagan environment when my life clashes with its surroun- dings, wont my naturalness seem artificial? you ask me. And I reply: Undoubtedly your life will clash with theirs; and that contrast--faith confirmed by works!--is exactly the naturalness I ask of you (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 380). Hebrews 3, 13. The more Christians practise charity, the easier it is for them to be steadfast in the faith. Fraternity, mutual brotherly support, helps provide protection from the devils efforts to make us sin: Frater qui adiuvatur a fratre quasi civitas firma. Brother helped by brother is a fortress. Think for a moment and make up your mind to live the fraternal spirit that I have always asked of you (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 460). Aware of his personal weakness and of the need to help others and to let himself be helped, the Christian keeps striving to practise this fraternity. He loves the good he sees in others, and he tries to uproot in himself and others anything that implies a defect. Fraternity, therefore, leads to fraternal correction, a word of advice which is always full of understanding, being the outcome of a desire to live in harmony with others and to remove divisions and barriers. Christian fraternity binds the Church together. Not in vain is there in the depths of mans being a strong longing for peace, for union with his fellow man, for mutual respect for personal rights, so strong that it seeks to transform human relations into fraternity. This longing reflects something which is most deeply imprinted upon our human condition: since we are all children of God, our fraternity is not a cliche or an empty dream; it beckons as a goal which, though difficult, is really ours to achieve (St. J. Escriva, Friends of God, 233). Hebrews 3, 14. This is a repetition of the exhortation in v. 6 to remain true to the end. Firm confidence is the very opposite of the falling away mentioned in v. 12. From the very beginning of his calling, a Christian is already sharing in Christs life and in his glory, but he will not share in it fully until after death, when he will be able actually to see the Lord. This sharing in Christs grace is a treasure which we carry in earthen vessels (2 Cor 4:7) and can lose at any time through sin. We need to nurture this grace and protect our faith by being watchful and active right through our life: We have shared in Christs death through holy Baptism and we have been buried with him; we have shared in his resurrection provided we keep our faith intact (Theodoret of Cyrus, Interpretatio Ep. ad Haebreos, III). The Christian life is a matter of constantly returning to God, beginning anew, and humbly and decisively correcting our course when we go astray through weakness or indifference. What does it matter that we stumble on the way, if we find in the pain of our fall the energy to pick ourselves up and go on with renewed vigor? Dont forget that the saint is not the person who never falls, but rather the one who never fails to get up again, humbly and with a holy stubbornness. If the Book of Proverbs says that the just man falls seven times a day (cf. Prov 24:16), who are we poor creatures, you and I, to be surprised or discouraged by our own weaknesses and falls! We will be able to keep going ahead, if only we seek our fortitude in him who says: Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest (Mt 11:28). Thank you, Lord, quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea (Ps 42:2), because you, and you alone, my God, have always been my strength, my refuge and my support (St. J. Escriva, Friends of God, 131). ON THE GOSPEL: Mark 1:40-45 (The Curing of a Leper) Accepting and curing the leper, Jesus reveals a new face of God. A leper came near Jesus. He was an excluded, an impure person. He should be far away. Anybody who touched him, would also become impure! But that leper had great courage. He transgresses the norms of religion in order to be able to get near Jesus. And he calls out: If you want, you can heal me. You need not touch me! It suffices that you want, and I will be healed!. This phrase reveals two evils: a) the evil of leprosy which made him impure; b) the evil of solitude to which he was condemned by society and by religion . It also reveals the great faith of the man in the power of Jesus. And Jesus profoundly moved, cures both evils. In the first place, in order to cure solitude, he touches the leper. It is as if he said: “For me, you are not an excluded one. I accept you as a brother!” And then he cures the leper saying: I want it! Be cured! The leper, in order to enter into contact with Jesus, had transgressed the norms of the Law. Jesus also, in order to be able to help that excluded person and therefore, reveal 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 that time. He integrated anew the excluded person in the fraternal living together. Jesus, not only cures, but also wants the cured person to be able to live with the others. He once again inserts the person in society to live with others. At that time for a leper to be accepted again in the community, it was necessary to get a certificate from the priest that he had been cured. It is like today. A sick person leaves the hospital with a document signed by the doctor of the department where he had been hospitalized. Jesus obliges the person to look for that document, in such a way that he will be able to live normally with others. He obliges the authority to recognize that this man has been cured. The leper announces the good that Jesus has done to him and Jesus becomes an excluded person. Jesus forbids the leper to speak about the cure. The Gospel of Mark informs that this prohibition does not serve. The leper, walking away, began to diffuse the fact, to the point that Jesus could no longer enter publicly into a city, but remained outside, in a deserted place (Mk 1, 45). Why? Because Jesus had touched the leper. Because of this, according to the opinion of the religion of that time, now he himself was impure and should live far away from all others. He could no longer enter the city. And Mark says that people did not care about these official norms, in fact, people came to him from everywhere (Mk 1, 45). Total subversion! Summarizing. In the year 70, when Mark wrote, as well as today, the time in which we live, it was and continues to be important to have before our eyes models of how to live and how to proclaim the Good News of God and of how to evaluate our mission. In verses 16 to 45 of the first chapter of his Gospel, Mark describes the mission of the community and presents eight criteria in order that the communities of his time could evaluate their mission. The following is the outline: Text Activity of Jesus Objective of the mission Mark 1,16-20 Jesus calls his first disciples To form the community Mark 1,21-22 The people were admired at his teaching To create a critical conscience Mark 1,23-28 Jesus expels a devil To overcome the force of evil Mark 1,29-31 He cures Peter’s mother-in-law To give life back so as to serve Mark 1,32-34 He cures the sick and the possessed To accept the marginalized Mark 1,35 Jesus rises early to pray To remain united with the Father Mark 1,36-39 Jesus continues the announcement Not to stop at the results Mark 1,40-45 He cures a leper To integrate anew the excluded Mark 1, 40-44. Leprosy was seen as a punishment from God (cf. Numbers 12:10-15). The isappearance of the disease was regarded as one of the blessings of the messianic times (Isaiah 35:8 ; cf. Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22). Because leprosy was contagious, the Law declared that lepers were impure and that they transmitted impurity to those who touched them and to places they entered. Therefore, they had to live apart (Numbers 5:2; 12:14ff) and to show that they were lepers by certain external signs. On the rite of purification, see the note on Matthew 8 :4. [The note on Matthew 8:4 states: Matthew 8, 4. According to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 14), if a leper is cured of his disease, e should present himself to a priest, who will register the cure and give him a certificate which he needs to be reintegrated into the civil and religious life of Israel. Leviticus also prescribes the purifications and sacrifice he should offer. Jesus instruction to the leper is, then, in keeping with the normal way of fulfilling what the laws laid down. The passage shows us the faithful and confident prayer of a man needing Jesuss =elp and begging Him for it, confident that, if Our Lord wishes, He can free him from the disease (cf. Matthew 8:2). This man prostrated himself on the ground, as a sign of humility and shame, to teach each of us to be ashamed of the stains of his life. But shame should not prevent us from confessing: the leper showed his wound and begged for healing. If You will, he says, You can make me clean; that is, he recognized that the Lord had the power to cure him (St. Bede, In Marci Evangelium Expositio, in loc.). On the discretion and prudence Jesus required regarding His person, see the note on Mark 1:34 and Matthew 9:30. [The note on Mark 1:34 states: Mark 1, 34. Demons possess a supernatural type of knowledge and therefore they recognize Jesus as the Messiah (Mark 1:24). Through the people they possess they are able to publish this fact. But Our Lord, using His divine powers, orders them to be silent. On other occasions He also silences His disciples (Mark 8:30; 9:9), and He instructs people whom He has cured not to talk about their cure (Mark 1: 4; 5:43; 7:36; 8 :26). He may have acted in this way to educate the people away from a too human and political idea of the Messiah (Matthew 9:30). Therefore, He first awakens their interest by performing miracles and gradually, through His preaching, gives them a clearer understanding of the kind of Messiah He is.] Some Fathers of the Church point out that Jesus does not want to accept, in support of the truth, the testimony of him who is the father of lies. [The note on Matthew 9:30 states: Matthew 9, 30. Why did our Lord not want them to publicize the miracle? Because His plan was to gradually manifest Himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. He did not want to anticipate events which would occur in their own good time; nor did He want the crowd to start hailing Him as Messiah King, because their notion of messiah was nationalistic, not a spiritual one. However, the crowd did in fact proclaim Him when he worked the miracles of the loaves and the fish (John 6:14-15): When the people saw the sign which He had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world! Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the hills by Himself.] FINAL PRAYERS: Come, let us bow low and do reverence; kneel before Yahweh who made us! For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand. (Ps 95,6-7) Dear Jesus, may all that I do be done with your inspiration. Guide me in all that I do, in all that I say, in all that I feel; hold me in your presence and never let me be apart from you. Amen. 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, 15 Jan 2015 06:21:56 +0000
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