Fourth Week

4th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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Today’s First Reading begs the question of what the big deal is if King David wants to do a census of his people. A leader would normally be within his rights to do so. However, almost immediately after the census, David realizes he has sinned and asks the Lord for forgiveness. Scholars debate here what the sin here was, but perhaps pride and vanity were involved, which is why David realized almost as soon as it was done that he’d acted wrongly. His commander Joab had tried to dissuade him, but David insisted; maybe Joab and his commanders knew that the people would take such a gesture badly, and ancient peoples also believed at the time that actions like a census made the king have a mysterious power over them and was an expression of ownership. It’s also true that a census is usually taken for taxation, allocation of resources, or to measure military strength with war in mind. It could also have been simply a way for David to flex what he thought was his absolute authority.

As David realizes and the Lord reminds him, his authority comes from the Lord and is at the service of the people. Authority bears responsibility, and when authority sins, it has an effect on the people who answer to that authority. Three possible punishments are offered, and each reflects a punishment related to a goal of the census: they would all impact the population and make the census useless, because people would die. In choosing David still tries to remain directly unaffected by what happens next: he chooses the shortest punishment, one that apparently would affect him the least, and once again realizes how horrible a decision he made when self-preservation was involved. By the time he asks the Lord to bring punishment upon himself  instead, the deed is already done and seventy thousand have died.

All our actions have consequences, and at times our pride can blind us to the long term ones. Let’s ask Our Lord to help us not abuse, out of vanity or pride, whatever gifts or duties he has entrusted to us.

Readings: 2 Samuel 24:2, 9–17; Psalm 32:1–2, 5–7; Mark 6:1–6. See also 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Monday, Thursday after Epiphany, and 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C.

4th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday

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The Gerasenes in today’s Gospel had tried to resolve the issue of the possessed man in the tombs  for a long time. They couldn’t subdue him, they couldn’t chain him up, they couldn’t silence him or even get near him. It’s not clear whether they could hear him crying out from their homes, but he was frequently in their thoughts as something beyond their comprehension and beyond their control. If swine herders lived nearby they were probably not Jewish, and had no idea of God, just the confused religion of many mysterious and fickle powers at play.

Then Our Lord comes into their life. The crazy man in the tombs is dressed and in his right mind, and evil spirits have driven a whole herd of swine into the water. After hearing testimony to the events they responded out of superstition, not faith. If Our Lord could do all this, he was to be feared even more. They didn’t want the unexplainable explained, they just wanted him gone and the unexplainable forgotten. The grace of God came and passed them by, but the Decapolis did hear, from the lips of the formerly possessed man himself, what the Lord had done for him.

We pride ourselves on being educated and knowing how the world works. Yet we can’t ignore that some times things happen that just don’t fit into our heads. Who do we turn to in those moments? Make them moments of faith and not moments of superstition. Our Lord reveals himself in those moments if we don’t shut him out.

Readings: 2 Samuel 15:13–14, 30, 16:5–13; Psalm 3:2–7; Mark 5:1–20. See also 13th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.

4th Week of Easter, Saturday

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Our Lord promises the disciples in today’s Gospel that whatever they ask for in his name, he will do. We ask Our Lord for many things in prayer, and sometimes its seem that he does not answer. Some people have turned away from him because they asked for something they thought was very important in a crucial moment and it was not granted, including something noble, like a loved one’s healing, freedom from persecution, the ability to provide for your family.

In this same promise in today’s Gospel we can find an answer to why, at times, Our Lord doesn’t give us what we want in prayer in the way that we want it: “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” When we ask Our Lord for something in prayer, is the asking itself, or having our prayer answered something that would really give glory to God? Would it help his Kingdom to come, his will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, as he teaches us in his prayer? Sometimes we can ask for selfish things, even short-sighted things, in the light of God’s saving plan, but Jesus himself in Gethsemane knew to only ask Our Heavenly Father to take away the chalice of his sufferings if it were possible, and united himself to his Father’s will. We always have to imitate his example.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for what we want and for what we need, but we should also join our wishes in prayer with the desire to glorify God and to do his will. Then we are working together with him to help his Kingdom come and his will to be done. Sometimes we’ll pray for big things and they won’t turn out as we’d like, but like the mystery of the Cross that Jesus himself endured, sometimes bearing our crosses with faith, hope, and love, give glory to God in a way that doesn’t seem so obvious, or in a way that will be revealed in the passing of time. Let’s continue to pray for what we need, and to also to seek to glorify God in everything that we do.

Readings: Acts 13:44–52; Psalm 98:1–4; John 14:7–14.

4th Week of Easter, Friday

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Readings: Acts 13:26–33; Psalm 2:6–11b; John 14:1–6.

In today’s Gospel Our Lord describes Heaven not just as his home, but as a place for us to call home as well. Thinking of home evokes so many warm sentiments–rest, security, peace–and it also invokes the memory of the people there waiting to be with us. Many people today live a difficult situation at home, if they have a home at all, but they all dream of that peaceful place where they can be together with their loved ones forever. A simple family dinner, where everyone sets aside work, school, etc., to spend time together becomes a glimpse of Heaven as each rests with the other and there are no worries that can dampen the evening.

Our Lord has prepared a place for each of us with Our Father in Heaven. How often do we dream of that? How often do we dream of the day in which life’s journey, with all the fatigue and trial, will be over and we’ll finally and permanently be home with the ones we love? How often do we see the need to remind others of our true home as well so that one day we’ll all be there together?

Let’s ask Our Lord today to help us always keep our true home in mind. If we know he’s shown us the way, no burden or obstacle of this life will rob us of our hope in getting there.

4th Week of Easter, Thursday

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Readings: Acts 13:13–25; Psalm 89:2–3, 21–22, 25, 27; John 13:16–20.

In today’s First Reading Paul is winding up to pitch to the Jews listening to him in the synagogue that Our Lord is the fulfillment of all the promises and events that came before him: tradition means handing on something, and Jesus brings that tradition to fullness and asks us to hand on his message to the generations that follow us.

In the Gospel he describes the role of the disciples: servants and messengers. The original Greek for the word “messenger” in today’s Gospel is the same root word as apostle: an apostle, whether we’re talking about the Twelve or any Christian, is someone who is sent, someone who bears a message. As apostles we bear the message of Our Lord, just as he had brought it from Our Heavenly Father. It is not only the message that matters; how we deliver it also affects how it is received. That’s why our service as bearers of Christ’s message must by characterized by humility and a desire to serve the recipient of the message. In today’s Gospel Jesus has just finished washing the disciples’ feet, a menial service. As his disciples we too should not be afraid to do things we consider menial in order to transmit the message Our Lord has entrusted to us; sometimes that gives greater witness to Christ than anything we could say.

Let’s make an effort today to serve others with humility out of love for Our Lord and a desire to transmit his message in the best way possible: through our charity.