Month: January 2017

2nd Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, Year I

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In today’s First Reading the Letter to the Hebrew reminds us that Our Lord established a new covenant with believers that supersedes the old covenant established on Mt. Sinai between the Lord and the People of God through the mediation of Moses. The prophets (see Jeremiah 31:31-34) described Israel’s infidelity to this covenant as being the result of stone hearts: hearts hardened by their experiences in Egypt and in the desert, despite all the Lord had done for them. The new covenant would be written on their hearts and its requirements placed in their minds: something lived from the heart.

In today’s Gospel Our Lord calls the Apostles who, at the Last Supper, will witness the establishment of this new covenant and then perpetuate it through their ministry and the celebration of the Eucharist. Our Lord ratifies this new covenant with his own blood. Through this covenant our hearts are transformed: faith, hope, and charity are infused into our hearts and shape our actions and our attitudes.

Even among the Twelve there was a traitor, someone whose heart remained hardened. Let Our Lord’s covenant, a covenant of love, be written on your heart and shape your life.

Readings: Hebrews 8:6–13; Psalm 85:8, 10–14; Mark 3:13–19.

 

2nd Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday, Year I

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In today’s Gospel the Our Lord’s fame at healing and casting out unclean spirit has spread so far and wide that people come from far and wide only hoping to touch him and be healed. Back then it was the world of Palestine and its neighbors; today it is the whole world, and Our Lord, in Heaven, as high priest offers the gift and sacrifice of himself to our Father for our benefit forever. Through every celebration of the sacraments he acts, and we encounter him. If we open our hearts to the sacrament he heals us and fortifies us spiritually until one day we worship with him in eternity.

The Letter to the Hebrews is addressed to a group of converts from Judaism who are tired and thinking of falling back on the Jewish worship and Levitic priesthood (described in today’s First Reading as the “law” and arranged by Moses), which is still active in their time. The author encourages them to realize how much more perfect and eternal the priesthood of Christ in Heaven is. Christ is not only a holy and pure priest, but he is one forever. He focuses full time on his ministry (us) without any baggage or weakness. Jewish worship was a foreshadowing of the Heavenly worship inaugurated and continued in eternity by Our Lord.

In his earthly ministry he needed a boat to prevent being crushed by all those who sought him. Now he provides plenty of “space” through our faith and through the sacraments. Let’s draw closer to him through our faith and the sacraments so that he can heal us too.

Readings: Hebrews 7:25–8:6; Psalm 40:7–10, 17; Mark 3:7–12.

2nd Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year I

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In today’s First Reading the Letter to the Hebrews presents Melchizedek as someone modeled after Our Lord and his priesthood. Melchizedek is an enigmatic figure in the Old Testament who seems to come out of nowhere, the king of Salem and “priest of God Most High” (see Genesis 14:18). Melchizedek is literally translated as “king of righteousness,” and Salem is translated as “peace” (see Hebrews 7:2). So we’re faced with a king of righteousness and peace who is also priest. Is that starting to sound familiar? In the Letter to the Hebrews a connection is observed: “[Melchizedek] is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest for ever” (Hebrews 7:3). Notice that Melchizedek is like Christ, not the other way around. Unlike the priesthood established with Levi, there’s no need for blood lineage, because heirs only need to take up the mantle when their predecessors pass away, and Our Lord never passes away. He is not only full of life; his life is eternal, so he exercises his priesthood forever.

The Gospel reminds us today that Our Lord wants to give life in season and out of season. The Pharisees want observance; Our Lord wants to heal. What’s worse, he reads their hearts and knows they want to condemn him for healing on the Sabbath. Mark notes that Our Lord observes their attitude with anger, but then grieves at their hardness of heart. He not only wants to restore the withered hand of a man; he wants to restore the hearts of the Pharisees as well. The hand is restored, but the hearts are not.

Our Lord is full of life, and he wants to give that life to us. Let’s open our hearts to his blessing so that he can fill us with his life and transform us.

Readings: Hebrews 7:1–3, 15–17; Psalm 110:1–4; Mark 3:1–6. See also 23rd Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

2nd Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year I

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In today’s First Reading the Letter to the Hebrews encourages believers who have served the Lord, seemingly with few results, to continue with an enthusiastic hope, faith, and patience, because when the Lord promises something, he delivers. Abraham received a promise from the Lord of blessings if he had faith, and the Lord kept his promise. The Lord could swear by nothing greater than himself when reminding Abraham of his promise, because there was nothing greater; if Abraham didn’t already believe that the Lord was “the greatest” that oath would have meant nothing.

Abraham’s example reminds us today that we are inheritors of the same promise, and to claim those blessings we not only need faith that the Lord can deliver, but the patience to persevere in faith when the inheritance is not soon to come. Abraham suffered trials and tests, and so will we. The key to moving forward in faith and patience is to trust in the Lord and the good that he has promised will come: our hope needs to light the way, even in the darkest moments.

We are not slaves of a promise, but heirs to it. Let’s live that way.

Readings: Hebrews 6:10–20; Psalm 111:1–2, 4–5, 9, 10c; Mark 2:23–28. See also 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday and 15th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday.

2nd Week in Ordinary Time, Monday, Year I

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Today’s First Reading reminds us that Our Lord became man not because he was on a fact-finding mission, but because he wanted to make it easier for us to relate to him and, through him, to relate to our Heavenly Father. Christ did not come to earth in a comfortable moment of human history; his life was hard, compounded by how hard it must have been for someone who’d been in Heaven for all of eternity to come down and live on Earth. His life was also unfair: he was a just man his whole life, concerned only with others, and he was branded a criminal and executed.

We often identify more readily with someone who has struggled through life, and we empathize often with those who seem to have gotten a raw deal. When we suffer we too can draw closer to Our Lord because we know he suffered too. He wasn’t indifferent to our sufferings, and he still isn’t. To be fair to him we too should not be indifferent to his sufferings for us. Those sufferings became the source of our blessings. His Father turned his sufferings into blessings, and he’ll turn ours into blessings as well.

Is life hard? Bring it to Our Lord. He’s experienced hardship as well and will help turn that hardship into blessings.

Readings: Hebrews 5:1–10; Psalm 110:1–4; Mark 2:18–22. See also Friday after Ash Wednesday, 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, and 13th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.