First Week

1st Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday, Year I

by

In today’s First Reading the Letter to the Hebrews encourages us to not let our heart become hardened to God and others when our faith and trust are subjected to trials. Whether our relationship with God is good or bad, he always tries to speak to us, in our hearts, whether we listen or not. A hardened heart leads to unhappiness. The psalm quoted today refers to the sad episode at Meribah and Massah when the Israelites complained in the desert out of thirst and questioned Moses (Exodus 17:1-7), as well as when the Israelites balked at entering the Promised Land because they didn’t trust the Lord to help them settle it (Numbers 13:30–14:38). As a result they wandered the desert for forty years, and those who were adults, with a few exceptions, didn’t live to enter the Promised Land.

We can suffer thirst and anxiety and become frustrated and close our hearts to God and to others when we should really foster an acceptance that the Lord gives us moments of feast and of famine and invites us to believe in him and to trust in him. The Israelites would have enjoyed forty more years of the Promised Land if they’d trusted the Lord. Experiences only harden us if we let them. If Our Lord is ready to forgive, so should we, trusting in him that everything will work out.

It’s never too late in this life for a hardened heart to turn back to the Lord. A hardened heart is as spiritually repugnant as a leper is physically due to his malady, but Our Lord will reach out to touch both without hesitation, if they let him. Hear his voice today and harden not your heart.

Readings: Hebrews 3:7–14; Psalm 95:6–7c, 8–11; Mark 1:40–45. See also Friday after Epiphany and 12th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday.

 

1st Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year I

by

In today’s First Reading the Letter to the Hebrews explains that in order to redeem humanity Our Lord had to have some solidarity with it. Through his Incarnation he took humanity upon himself: he became man without leaving aside his divinity. A high priest is the mediator between God and man, and Our Lord, through his Incarnation, became this mediator and mediation: in his Person he enabled humanity to be restored after the Fall. He is able to empathize with us in our struggles and sufferings because he too chose trials and sufferings for our salvation.

Death was not something desired by God. The Book of Wisdom teaches that death came into the world due to the envy of the Devil (see Wisdom 1:13 and 2:24). The first horrific experience of death occurred soon after sin, through the Devil’s temptation and the sin of our first parents, when Cain slew his brother Abel. Sin and death have always gone hand in hand, and the Devil influences us and the world through them. Through sin the Devil has a power to inflict spiritual death: the loss of God not only here, but in eternity.

Our Lord came to free us from sin and death, and he did so through the Cross. Instead of a tempter we have a mediator. Let’s turn to Our Lord and away from temptation so that he can liberate us from sin and death.

Readings: Hebrews 2:14–18; Psalm 105:1–9; Mark 1:29–39. See also 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.

1st Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year I

by

In today’s First Reading the letter to the Hebrews teaches us the heights and the depths to which Our Lord is willing to go through referring to two psalms. Psalm 8 is a psalm exulting in the wonders of creations and especially that the Lord has made man the noblest of his visible creations, only second to angels. The brief reference to Psalm 22 is the moment where the psalmist promises to glorify the Lord among his brethren after he has been delivered from his suffering, the psalm Our Lord said on the Cross.

We see Psalm 8 fulfilled in Christ: “You made him for a little while lower than the angels” refers to Our Lord’s Incarnation, and soon after speaks of his glorification, a glorification that we know comes through his suffering on the Cross and is not complete until the end of time. The reference to Psalm 22, when Our Lord glorifies his Father along will all of his brethren, refers to his heavenly glory, a glory in which we’ll share if we believe in him and entrust our lives to him.

Today’s Gospel shows that Our Lord is greater than the fallen angels as well. He casts out the unclean spirit and lends more credence to the power and authority his Father has given him. He also wants to rejoice with you from here to eternity. Help him to help you.

Readings: Hebrews 2:5–12; Psalm 8:2ab, 5–9; Mark 1:21–28. See also 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday.

1st Week in Ordinary Time, Monday, Year I

by

In today’s First Reading the author of the letter to the Hebrews reminds us that the God has spoken to us throughout salvation history through prophets and angels, but he himself has now come to speak to us through his Son. We’d be amazed, probably frightened, if an angel appeared to us today with a message from God, but the Gospel we try to live as Christians is the Lord himself speaking. We should be more frightened if we are not listening to the Lord speak through his Word, not only the written Word in Sacred Scripture, but the Word who became flesh who speaks in our hearts, thanks to the Holy Spirit, and the traditions he has communicated to us through the Apostles (also thanks to the Holy Spirit).

Sometimes we fall into a “copy-paste” outlook on the Word of God. We pick what we agree with and ignore what we don’t. We see Scripture as a source from which we can clip a few good things to help us in life instead of a history of salvation that wants to draw us in and transform us. There’s nothing wrong in having favorite passages from Scripture, but they should always lead us back to the “whole” Testament.

We believe that God had said everything needed through his Son. Let’s listen to his Word today with renewed hearts.

Readings: Hebrews 1:1–6; Psalm 97:1, 2b, 6, 7c, 9; Mark 1:14–20.

Baptism of the Lord, Cycle A

by

The Gospels of Mark, Luke, and Matthew recount the Baptism of Our Lord in the Jordan, but only in Matthew’s account, which we hear in today’s liturgy, does John the Baptist seem taken aback by the fact that Jesus is requesting baptism from the one who should be baptized by him. John is baptizing sinners, and he knows Our Lord is not a sinner, so why does he need baptism? Through this gesture Our Lord is expressing his solidarity with sinners; we know he will take their sins upon himself and destroy them upon the Cross, and the reality of humanity after Original Sin is that they need the grace of Christ, ordinarily through baptism, to be delivered from its effects.

Our Lord begins his public ministry by receiving his baptism at the hands of John, and this momentous occasion leads to a theophany where Son, Spirit (descending like a dove) and Father (a voice in the heavens) show they’re ready to begin the work of salvation in earnest: through the waters of baptism mankind begins its journey back to God. Thanks to Our Lord, mankind will be pleasing to the Father after a long, dark history since the Fall. The quiet work of justice prophesied by Isaiah in today’s First Reading has begun, a work that will reach beyond the Jews to all the nations, as represented by the story of Cornelius’ conversion in today’s Second Reading.

Today Our Lord’s work shifts from the Incarnation and the quiet years at Nazareth to the spotlight of his public ministry. Let’s make a resolution this year to bring his Gospel into the spotlight in our lives as well.

Readings: Isaiah 42:1–4, 6–7; Psalm 29:1–4, 9–10; Acts 10:34–38; Matthew 3:13–17. See also The Baptism of the Lord, Cycle C (1st Sunday in Ordinary Time).