Ordinary Time

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.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

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Today’s readings teach us not only that we were born to serve and to shine, but that we were created for that purpose. If we embrace that calling Our Lord will exceed all our expectations, because his plans not only encompass our noble ones, but goes way beyond them. We see that in the case of St. John the Baptist, and we also see it in the calling of every believer.

Isaiah in today’s First Reading speaks of Israel’s calling: to serve God for his glory as well as for their own. Israel is called to be the Lord’s servant and to show God’s glory. We were created to serve the Lord and he promises we’ll be glorious in his sight and strengthened by him. That service, at times demanding and thankless, is meant to make the Lord’s glory shine far beyond ourselves. Isaiah today reminds us we’re called to be “a light to the nations,” and through that light salvation will reach to the ends of the earth. We’re called to serve and to shine out of no one’s vanity, but to help the Lord’s salvation extend to the ends of the earth.

Paul in today’s Second Reading seconds this lofty calling to serve and to shine. We serve and shine by seeking to do what the Lord asks of us and through striving to live a holy life. In his initial greeting to the Corinthians Paul identifies himself as called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ because it is God’s will that he be one. We serve the Lord by doing his will. He reminds the Corinthians that they are “called to be holy.” Through a life of holiness we become that light to the nations and help Our Lord bring that good work to completion in each person. The good work is not meant to just remain and be nourished in each one of us: it’s a gift God wants us to give to others as well. Whatever our walk of life, God calls us to be holy, as the dogmatic constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, teaches us: “The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one—that sanctity which is cultivated by all who are moved by the Spirit of God, and who obey the voice of the Father and worship God the Father in spirit and in truth. These people follow the poor Christ, the humble and cross-bearing Christ in order to be worthy of being sharers in His glory. Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity” (LG 42).

John the Baptist in today’s Gospel served the Lord as his prophet and knew part of his calling was to put the spotlight on Our Lord and his mission, not on himself: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” If John the Baptist shines in the fulfillment of his mission, he shines in order to light the way to Christ, the reason for his mission. John is not just called to serve, but to shine. He does not just recognize in Our Lord the signs that the Spirit had promised him; he testifies to them so that others would also get the message. A source of illumination draws our attention, but it also illuminates something else. Our Lord himself, later in John’s Gospel, would describe John as a burning and shining lamp (see John 5:35-36), but that John was meant to shine on the path to Christ. John himself in today’s Gospel admits that the Lord outranks him before he existed before John was even created. The light of his mission pales in comparison to the true light that was coming to enlighten every man: Christ (cf. John 1:9).

Let’s ask the Lamb today to help us not only to serve, but to shine.

Readings: Isaiah 49:3, 5–6; Psalm 40:2, 4, 7–10; 1 Corinthians 1:1–3; John 1:29–34. See also Christmas, January 3rd.