Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, February 1, 2022

Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” He went off with him and a large crowd followed him. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, Who touched me?” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”  While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.

Directly after the Lord has exorcised Legion from the possessed Gentile man across the Sea of Galilee, the Lord returns to Jewish lands.  Following St. Mark’s Gospel, the Lord has subdued the devil in the desert preparatory to opening his campaign for the salvation of the human race.  Following this he has healed many of their illnesses and exorcised their demons; overthrown the authority of the Pharisees; declared himself the Lord of the Sabbath; and lately overthrown the devils in the land of the Gentiles.  In the cure of the woman with the hemorrhage and the raising of the dead girl, the Lord plunges into the uncleanness of the human condition, purifies it, and brings it to life.

As Mathew recounts the story, he comes back to Capernaum, “his own city”.  Once he arrived, he was met by an official of the town’s synagogue, Jairus.  The man pleads with the Lord to heal his daughter whom he describes as “at the point of death”, although he must have known that she was dead.  The Lord goes with him to his house where his daughter lies.  On the way, in the narrow street, a woman with a long-standing condition came to him.  Just as Jairus did not want to disclose to the Lord that his daughter was dead for fear he would not go to her, the woman does not dare to present the reality of her illness to him.  It is too terrible, and surely he would have nothing to do with a woman who would render him unclean.  Both the man and the woman fear that Jesus would not help them if he knew the truth, but desperation drives them to him, and faith wins out over fear.  The woman touches the Lord’s clothing and she is healed.  The Lord touches the body of the little girl and he restores her to life.  

As Mark tells it, the Lord came back to Capernaum specifically to perform these miracles, just as he went to the Decapolis in order to drive Lego out of the Gentile.  And it is as if the Lord summons these people to him.  In the case of the possessed man, the man “seeing Jesus afar off, ran and adored him” (Mark 5 6).  Jairus was waiting for the Lord when he returned.  The woman with the hemorrhage pushed up to hm in the crowd.  We think that we call upon the Lord in our prayers to come to help us — that we go to him.  In fact, he summons us to him in our need.  He is aware of it before we are and he alone knows how to heal us.  And the Holy Spirit helps us to ask when we do not know what to say: “The Spirit also helps our infirmity. For, we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself asks for us with unspeakable groanings” (Romans 8, 26).  Knowing this helps us to grow in humility as well as in faith.

 Monday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, January 31, 2022

I was exhausted by the work on Sunday, but that I was able to perform it at all is a good sign, I think.  Thanks for your prayers!

Mark 5:1-20

Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea, to the territory of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat, at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him. The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain. In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones. Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him, crying out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!” (He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”) He asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.” And he pleaded earnestly with him not to drive them away from that territory. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside. And they pleaded with him, “Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.” And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned. The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. And people came out to see what had happened. As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear. Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine. Then they began to beg him to leave their district. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him. But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead, “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.” Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.

In previous readings from the Gospel of St. Mark we have seen how events fall hard upon one another.  In Saturday’s reading we saw how te Lord preached to the crowd throughout the day, and then he sent them away: the Apostles took him “even as he was” in their ship.  Mark emphasizes the Lord’s breakneck pace to overthrow evil and to save souls.  The Lord goes to the desert and overthrows the devil’s temptations; he goes to Capernaum and expels a devil from a man in the synagogue there, then spends hours healing and exorcising in the town; next, he takes on the Pharisees and overthrows them by declaring himself Lord of the Sabbath; he preaches to the crowd and tells them parables in order to overthrow the ignorance in which the Pharisees hope to keep them; he then sets his boat directly into the path of a ferocious storm, which he easily conquers with a couple of words.  And now he goes straight to a possessed man on the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee.  Mark presents the Lord’s Public Life practically in terms of a series of military campaigns.  It is also a bit reminiscent of the Book of Joshua, which shows the Israelites quickly ad decisively overcoming the Canaanites in several battles.

The Lord’s hurried assault on pagan territory, as it were, is aimed at a particular case of demonic possession.  He clearly knows where he is going, and no reason exists otherwise for his going there.  He arrives at the graveyard in the night, he exorcises the demons, and then he heads back to .Jewish lands.  He does not preach there or perform other miracles.  We might wonder why the Lord goes to all the trouble of going to this Gentile man when so much work still lay before him in the time he had left on earth.  The answer to this is seen in the extreme nature of the case.  The man is possessed by a “legion” of demons, implying thousands.  It was as if all the evil in the pagan world was concentrated within this single human.  And we see the absolutely corrupt behavior of the world without Christ or even the Jewish Law.  We see violent attacks on others as well as self-destruction.  We see utter despair and helplessness.  We see, in his dwelling in the cemetery, a culture of death.

When Jesus sends Legion into the swine, the swine prefer death to a life of such evil, causing us to wonder at a human being who would choose to wallow in wickedness of this degree.  We might even wonder if this sort of degradation is even possible on a large scale, but the Lord tells us that it is.

We can understand the Lord’s foray into the pagan world as preparing it for its conversion by the Apostles, and by us.

 The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 30, 2022

Luke 4:21–30

Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’” And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.  But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.

The sequence of events Luke relates here is: The Lord goes into the synagogue in Nazareth.  Then he goes to the front and reads from the scroll of Isaiah.  Next, he begins to speak on what he has read.  The people in attendance at first speak highly of him during the course of his teaching.  As he continues, however, some begin to speak against him out of jealousy.  The Lord defends himself and continues to teach.  A number of townsmen then seek to throw him over the side of the hill.  Finally, Jesus walks away.  It is necessary to keep in mind the passage of time that takes place during the course of these events, otherwise it is difficult to reconcile “All were amazed, etc.” with “They also asked, etc.”  Neither Luke nor the other Evangelists tell us the contents of his teaching here.  They only indicate the passage the Lord wanted to speak on.  In trying to understand what is happening in the synagogue, we can look at other examples for when the crowd turned against him.  The most famous of these incidents is that of the time the Lord spoke of himself as the Bread of Life and how we must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood in order to live forever, in John 6.  He had fed these people miraculously but the crowd turned on him as soon as he taught them this doctrine.  The people rejected his claim that he was the Bread of Life.  This leads us to reread today’s Gospel reading, in which the Lord claims to be the one of whom the Prophet Isaiah spoke, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Wherefore he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of reward.”  That is, he is claiming to be the Messiah, and as this dawns on them as he continues to teach, they revolt.  Like the five thousand people whom Jesus fed, the people of Nazareth are aware of his miracles.  As Jesus speaks for them, “Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.”  

We ought not to wonder that there is so little faith in the world when even those who saw his miracles rejected him.  And yet, we also can wonder at what a miracle faith is, so that anyone believes.  We contemplate how it is that we believe and others do not.  We also pray that others may receive the gift of faith so that they may come to know the Lord too.

 Saturday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time, January 29, 2022

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: “Let us cross to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” They were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

If we go back to the beginning of St. Mark’s Gospel and read straight through it to the end of chapter four, from which part the Gospel reading for today’s Mass comes, we see how the Lord employs his authority.  He is certain, deliberate, and direct.  His teaching is unlike that of the Pharisees, which confined itself seemingly to matters of ritual.  He quotes from the Law and the Prophets but in order to show the truth of his teaching rather than merely to comment on them.  And his miracles are of the same character.  When he heals a person, the person is healed immediately.  Demons object to their exorcism but they do not fail to depart when he orders them to do so. 

We see this impression of him exemplified in the present account. The impression is actually that of St. Peter as relayed by his secretary Mark.  Reading carefully, we can catch something of Peter’s deep emotions on this occasion as he watched and heard our Lord.  It is evident that this event profoundly affected him, and reading further in the Gospel we can see how this led to his confession of faith in Jesus.

“Let us cross to the other side.”  Peter, looking back on this event, must have wondered if the Lord had meant all along to confront the approaching storm.  Certainly, Jesus knew of it but rather than order his disciples to take shelter somewhere, he told them to set out for where they would meet it.  By this means he could teach the Apostles, shortly after they have been chosen by him, to trust him implicitly.  The storm that does blow up, seemingly out of nowhere, signifies both personal suffering and persecution for the sake of the Lord.  Peter, in giving the Lord’s order here reveals the misgivings he felt at the time, for a trip across the sea is risky after dark.  There was also no advantage in making it at that time, for whatever town they landed at would have been locked up for the night.  “They took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.”  This is a pregnant little phrase, and it’s meaning is not clear.  It does imply that in some way the Lord was ill-equipped for the trip.  This in turn implies urgency on his part.  “A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.”  The next line tells us that Jesus was already asleep so a little time has passed from when they set out, so they must have been out a ways from the shore when the storm struck.  “Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.”  This terse sentence, passed from Peter to Mark to us, is all Peter thinks we need to know.  Its very plainness reveals the shock Peter felt, seeing Jesus calmly asleep as the Apostles bale for their lives even as the boat capsizes.  “They woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ ”  They were appealing to him to help bale.  

“He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ ”  There is no panic, no desperation.  He wakes up and speaks to the wind and the sea.  “The wind ceased and there was great calm.”  As in his cures, the result is immediate.  All at once, the storm is gone.  It does not subside.  It disappears.  Perhaps later the Apostles remembered God’s words from Job, speaking of his creation of the oceans: “And I said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: And here shall your proud waves be stayed” (Job 38, 11).  Or from Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth!”  

“They were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”  We can hear the wonder that still sounds in Peter’s voice as he recalls this.  He asks the question here.  He gives the only possible answer later when he confesses: “You are the Son of the living God.”

 Friday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time, January 28, 2022

I’m about the same, very run down.  At least the pneumonia does not seem to be getting worse.  

Before offering the reflection on today’s Gospel reading, I want to look back  at the Gospel reading of a few days ago in which Jesus healed the man with the withered hand in the synagogue.  In his commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew on that Evangelist’s account of the same event, St. Jerome references a certain “Gospel of the Nazarenes”.  He quotes from it a passage in which the man with the withered hand told Jesus that he was a stone mason and he begged him to heal him, for he was ashamed to beg for food.  The only scraps of this so-called gospel that exist today are found in the form of a few quotes in the works of the Church Fathers.  Whatever this “gospel” was, it had to have been written by the year 200 AD at the latest because that is about when the earliest quote from it were made.  St. Jerome does not accept this document as a true Gospel, but he does quote from it here as providing certain historical information.  The effect is to show the opposition of the Pharisees to the Lord curing the afflicted man even more reprehensible.  I find things like this fascinating.

Mark 4:26-34

Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.  To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.”   It is as if the Lord meant to snub the theologians and philosophers of the world: a person need not know how the Kingdom of God spreads in order to do his part in spreading it.  Anyone can do this with a simple action.  A child can plant seeds and if not interfered with they will grow into full plants as surely as seeds planted by Aristotle or Plato.  The Lord strongly desires his Kingdom to sprout and grow and spread and causes this through the hands of anyone willing to lift them.  We think of the gesture required for scattering seed.  In ancient time and for most of human history it was the simplest kind of gesture, tossing seeds as one walked along a parcel of land.  As long as the seeds fall on the right kind soil at least some of them can be expected to sprout and grow.  Of course, the chances for this increase with a little knowledge and modern machinery — the richness of good teaching — but while this is helpful, it is not strictly necessary.  All of this to say that the Kingdom spreads through the example and prayers of Saint Agnes as well as through the writings and holiness of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast we celebrate today.

“Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”  Or rather, seemingly of its own accord, for Almighty God directs the destiny of each seed and of each fruit.  He directs the words and actions of his farm-hands and he places the seed where it will do the most good.  The work is God’s.  Often-times it is the word overheard or the action seen from afar that make up the seed, and it is the work of God that it bears fruit whether we are aware of it or not.  And it may a long time for that seed to ferment within particular soil before it bursts forth.  This leaves no doubt as to whom the glory goes.

“And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”  Just as God increases the faith in a person in his good time and for the good of that person, so he brings the person who has ripened into sanctity, into his storehouse, heaven.  The coming and going of life on this earth, the growth in faith, is all mystery to us even when we participate in it, but after all we are assured by the Lord Jesus that the purpose of our faith is not so that we might remain on earth forever: the saint is made for heaven, with earth only a temporary place where we grow into sanctity to the fullest extent possible so that each believer “becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”  The “birds of the sky” can be understood as those souls who have found no safe abode or solidity in their false religions and philosophies and take comfort in the mercy and kindness afforded them by God’s faithful.  We might think of Herod Agrippa here, who “feared John [the Baptist], knowing him to be a just and holy man: and kept him, and when he heard him, was much perplexed, but he heard him willingly” (Mark 6, 20).  

We pray Almighty God that we may always be at his disposal for his work so that whether sowers or reapers, we may rejoice together in his labor and in his reward (John 4, 36-39).

 Thursday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time, January 27, 2021

Mark 4:21-25

Jesus said to his disciples, “Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lamp-stand? For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light. Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.” He also told them, “Take care what you hear. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you. To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

“Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lamp-stand?”  Lots of Christians shy away from public scrutiny of any kind.  They come to Mass and may even be seen in line for Confession, but will not volunteer for simple tasks at their parish.  While reasons may exist for this, there is a tendency to not want to get “involved”: a yes to helping put away chairs after a parish event might lead to being asked to do some more public or demanding work, and we do not want to be placed in a position where we would have to say no.  But this is thinking of ourselves, and not of what we are for as members of Christ.  After all, what are we for?  Our job is not to shine in secret but wherever the Lord deigns to place us.  And if we are “lamps” with whom the Lord shares his Light, then we should expect to be placed by him in dark places.  And every place is dark until the Christian enters it.  To be a Christian and to hide are two incompatible things.  Whether we are Poor Clares living in a cloistered world or a politician in a big city, we shine to those around us by virtue of our faith.  A lit lamp cannot help but to shine.  And a lit lamp that seeks to avoid shining is an unnatural and useless thing.  We shine because we are leant light by the Light, and because we are his his and the light we are leant is his, we allow him to place us where he wills.  It is our job and privilege to shine as brightly as we can, persevering in our faith, assisting others, and aiding in their conversion and strengthening.  We remember how the Lord said, “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more” (Luke 12, 48). He speaks of the greatest thing which can be given to a human being — the gift of faith.

“For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light.”  The Christian makes the truth visible.  That is, the one who believes in Christ shows the people of this world — those who dwell in the darkness of their selfishness — the Lord Jesus.  The eyes of those who live in darkness and know nothing else will go blind if they are overwhelmed by the Light himself, as we see in the case of St. Paul’s conversion.  But we who are the lights of the Light are given the work of accustoming their eyes and preparing them, by our own faith and sanctity, for the True Light which has come into the world.  The Lord does not intend to remain beyond their understanding but passionately desires us to help make him visible to those who cannot fully bear him now.  “Nothing is secret except to come to light.”  The Lord, born in a cave outside Bethlehem and raised in a tiny village in the hinterland, did not remain in these places.  Neither did he appear far beyond these places so that he might share the glory of the bringing of his Light to all the nations with us, his little lamps, whom he loves most dearly.

The Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus, Wednesday, January 26, 2022

The x-ray confirms the pneumonia, and I talked to the doctor about stronger medications because the alternative is going to the hospital.  She kept saying things like “Well, at your age,” which I did not understand and chalked it up to obscure medical terminology.  Again, thanks for your prayers, everybody!  I will be all right soon.

I originally and mistakingly posted a reflection on the Gospel reading for Thursday.  The following is for the correct reading.

Mark 4, 1-20

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land. And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them, “Hear this! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,  and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.  Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it  and it produced no grain. And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”  He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” And when he was alone, those present along with the Twelve questioned him about the parables. He answered them, “The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”  Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no roots; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

Saints Timothy and Titus came from the Greek world: Timothy from Asia Minor (a Gentile father and Jewish mother who later converted to Christianity); and Titus from Crete, a man educated in the Greek culture and converted by St. Paul.  They followed Paul beginning as young men and from the benefit of grace and Paul’s example they became like sons to Paul, powerful in the faith and well-spoken.  Both received Letters from Paul, which they preserved and which have become parts of the New Testament.  As Paul expanded his missionary work, he found it expedient to place Timothy as overseer (“bishop”) of the Christians in Ephesus, and Titus over those in his native island of Crete.  From the richness of Paul’s theological language in his letters to them, we can gauge their intelligence, commitment to spreading the faith, and their sanctity.  Of course, we also see St. Paul’s great love for them and, in their careful preservation and sharing of his Letters, their love and respect for him.  On our own, we can try to imagine the magnitude of their first excitement upon hearing about and believing in the Lord Jesus.  It caused them to uproot their lives, defy the expectations for them of their parents, families, and friends, to plunge into the mysteries of an entirely new way of thinking and living and, indeed, to fall in deepest love with someone they had not met except in prayer.

In the parable used for the Gospel reading for this feast, the Lord explains to his Apostles — those first followers to experience this rousing, uprooting excitement — the reasons why others would hear what they heard and see what they saw and yet not be moved by Jesus as they were.  We might think of the perplexity of the Apostles and those early believers like Timothy and Titus as part of an audience as a concert.  We, and others around us might be brought to our feet, clapping ecstatically following the flawless performance of some great work, and yet there are also others sitting and applauding with less enthusiasm or even already making their way for the exits.  We eventually go home and recall these others as we think about our own enjoyment.  Did they not hear what we heard?  Was there something wrong with the performance that we did not catch?  Were they suffering from some physical trouble?  Were they suffering from some family trouble?  Did they just not like, or want to like, great music?  If we are not careful, getting hung up on the unhappy reactions of those others can dampen our own appreciation of the performance.  We may even come to doubt our own ability to know what is good.

This parable is the only one of all that Jesus told that the three Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all report on (John does not give us any of the Lord’s parables).  They each saw the importance and necessity for those who believed to see that Jesus knew how it would be.  His parable is one of consolation and of encouragement to those who believed and wondered why the world did not boil with the excitement for him with which they boiled.  He gives plain explanations for this: the others have so sunken their lives in sin that the hearing of the Gospel repels them; some are very interested but run from the Gospel because they love their present life and it’s comforts too much than to risk them in tribulation and persecution; and there are some whose gods are their vices and prefer the praise of their fellow humans than of God.  At the end of the parable, the Lord reminds those who do believe in him of the great results their faith will have: they will bear “fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”  That is, they will have great joy in their service of God.  

The service rendered to God nearly two thousand years ago by Saints Timothy and Titus continues to bear fruit today and is a marvelous reminder to us of what our service, done for the love of Jesus, will also produce in the future, long after we have joined these men in heaven.

 The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Acts 22:3-16

Paul addressed the people in these words:“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison. Even the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify on my behalf. For from them I even received letters to the brothers and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment those there as well. On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.’ My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?’ The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.’ Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light, I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus. A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law, and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and stood there and said, ‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’ And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him. Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice; for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard. Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling upon his name.’ ” 

After a long missionary journey that took him through Asia Minor and into Greece (52-54 A.D.), St. Paul resolved to return to Jerusalem in time to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost there.  On the way there he and his companions, among whom was St. Luke, who provides us with eyewitness testimony in his Acts of the Apostles, were welcomed by the Christians of various towns.  Coming to Jerusalem, however carried some risk and those who loved him warned him about going there, for the Jewish leadership hated him and would be looking for him.  Indeed, his return to the city occasioned a riot so that the Roman authorities had to get involved.  At first mistaken by them for an Egyptian rebel, Paul identified himself as a Jew and as an educated man born in a city where Roman citizenship was conferred upon birth.  This established, and with the Romans confused about the cause of the riot, Paul persuaded them to allow him to speak to the people in their own language (whether Aramaic or Hebrew).  They did allow him, and the first reading for the Mass of the Feast of his Conversion is taken from that address, which St. Luke vividly recalls for us.

The story Paul tells of his Conversion is familiar to us, at least in its outline.  As Saul of Tarsus, a trained Pharisee, he breathed out murderous fury against the first Christians, who were converted Jews.  He saw them as blasphemers and as traitors who had made a mere man their God.  He saw himself as an avenging angel, an agent of God, delivering punishment on these men, women, and children.  His description of himself in these terms helps us to understand something of the attitude and actions of the Pharisees who schemed against Jesus during his lifetime.  This dark self-portrait also increases our amazement at Paul’s conversion and at his relentless devotion to Christ ever afterwards.  He went from approving the brutal murder of St. Stephen and subsequently “binding both men and women and delivering them to prison” so that they might also be stoned, to writing rapturously, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1, 21).

To change from a committed persecutor to one who embraces what he formerly hated is astounding to those who look on, and meditating upon the basic facts of Paul’s Conversion allows us to marvel at what he must have experienced.  We have all benefitted from his Conversion through his widespread preaching of the Gospel and from the theology which he set forth in his Letters, itself the result of divine revelation.  We pray for the conversion of the world and that all people will experience something of what Paul did so that they may bear joyful witness of the One for whom Paul lived and died.

 Monday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time, January 24, 2022

I had a rough time of it at Mass on Sunday evening but I’m doing better now.  Thanks for your continuing prayers!

Mark 3:22-30

The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

The opening of today’s Gospel reading is a little difficult to understand.  Who is Jesus summoning, for instance?  The crowd or the Pharisees?  It seems, though, that this is a continuation of the story of Jesus in Peter’s house in Capernaum, and a great crowd gathers to hear him teach.  His relatives in Nazareth hear rumors of what he is doing and they come up to take hold of him.  Pharisees have also come down from Jerusalem to listen to him and make a report to the authorities there, as they had reported previously on John the Baptist.  To this point they have formed a very hostile opinion of him and would even like to kill him in conjunction with the Herodians.  Jesus has made very serious claims about himself and, though he has backed them up with miracles, the Pharisees despise him.  He is not one of them and has in fact challenged their self-assumed position as the people’s teachers to the point of showing that they are worse than useless.  

The Pharisees try to discredit him, but the problem of the miracles, which many have seen, remains.  They attempt to explain away the miracles with a wild accusation: “He is possessed by Beelzebul . . . by the prince of demons he drives out demons.”  (“Beelzebul” was the name of an ancient Canaanite deity, later used by the Jews for the devil).  The Pharisees cannot claim that the healing of the sick, the injured, and the deformed, and well as the exorcisms, did not occur; that Jesus performed these is incontestable.  But what they claim is that the supernatural power required for performing them comes from the devil.  The absurdity of the idea and the willingness of the Pharisees to promote it tells us a great deal about them.  It is not the Lord Jesus who is “out of his mind” as his relatives fear, but the Pharisees, whose malice has run so rampant that this seems feasible.  And, an invention of utter desperation, it fails to catch on with the people.  Their desperation brings to mind the image of the priests of Baal (that is, “Beelzebub”) in 1 Kings: 18, 28: “They cried with a loud voice, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till they were all covered with blood.”

As Jesus spent some days in Peter’s house at this time, perhaps the Lord allowed the Pharisees to slither back to Jerusalem to make their report to their masters, as he does not argue with them here.  Little would be gained by such a direct confrontation anyway: those particular Pharisees were past converting.  Instead, the Lord takes the opportunity of their departure in order to teach the people, for they truly wished to learn.  And so Jesus calls them together and teaches: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”  He does not address the accusation made by the Pharisees, which is unworthy of serious discussion, but he uses the subject brought up in the accusation to explain that the devil’s reign over the world is finished.  First, if Satan is driving out Satan, there is civil war in hell which will lead to the devil’s overthrow.  Second, if miraculous works are being performed on the earth, it is because God is showing the signs that he has “bound” the devil and is putting an end — “plundering” — his dominion.  That is the meaning of, “No one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.”

“Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.”  The ascribing of God’s work to the devil is a sin against the Holy Spirit.  It is a most malicious act.  The Pharisees did this two thousand years ago.  It still goes on today.  

We see here how patient Jesus is with sinners.  He could have made a fearful example of the Pharisees when they accused him of being possessed and of wickedness, but he did not.  He let them go.  They would have until the end of their lives to seek forgiveness and convert, just as Judas would be given many chances to walk away from his evil deeds.  He did not come to condemn the world but that it might live (cf. John 12, 47).  

 The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 23, 2022

I’m doing better, as of even moment, Saturday afternoon.  Fewer coughing fits and my appetite is returning.  Thanks for your prayers!  

Luke 1:1–4; 4:14–21

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass is taken from two distinct portions of the Gospel according to St. Luke.  The first portions consists of the first four verses of the Gospel which constitute a preface to the Gospel itself.  The second portion, which I have separated from the first, is taken from that fourth chapter of that Gospel.  Maybe the people who reformed the lectionary in the 1960’s under the aegis of Vatican II thought that as the preface introduces the Gospel, so the verses in chapter four introduce the preaching of Christ.  At any rate, the preface is very interesting because here we have the Evangelist speaking directly to his readers — the original readers being Greek Christian converts like himself, probably living in and around Antioch in Syria.  Writing between the years 50 and 60 A.D., he may have known of St. Matthew’s Gospel produced ten to fifteen years earlier, though at the time existing only in its original Hebrew form.  Meanwhile, St. Mark was writing his Gospel in Rome.  St. John’s Gospel is usually thought to have been written last of all, but judging from internal evidence it could not have been written much later than Luke’s.  All this to say that if a Greek Christian residing in Syria or Asia Minor between the years 35 and 50-60 A.D. had wanted to read about the life of Jesus Christ, he would have been out of luck.  The Apostles who had seen and heard Christ preached mainly to their fellow Jews, as we see from the Acts of the Apostles and from their Letters.  Men such as Barnabas who preached mainly to their fellow Gentiles had not seen or heard Christ themselves.  They might know something of his life — especially about his Passion, Death, and Resurrection — but their preaching emphasized the meaning of what the Lord did and not it’s details.  We see this in Paul’s Letters to Gentile converts living in Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome.  

Mark and Luke saw the need for a written account of the Savior’s life for the Gentiles who had not seen him with their own eyes, as John would say he and those reading his Gospel had seen the Lord.  And while Mark’s Gospel comes across a bit as dictation taken down — a student frantically trying to write down every word his teacher is saying — Luke has looked at and considered some written sources that already existed, and benefits from talking to many men and women who knew the Lord, including his Mother.  That Luke uses sources and testimony is easily seen in his Greek, which is often written with a heavy Hebrew accent, so to speak.  He tells us in his preface that “many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us.”  St. Jerome speculated on what these narratives were and concluded that they no longer existed in his day.  But neither did they gain acceptance as Scripture in the Apostolic Church in their own time.  Probably these narratives were notes on the final days of the Lord, lists of his appearances after the Resurrection, notes on his teachings, and lists of his miracles.  Perhaps the words of Jesus that have come down to us from outside the Gospels are from such documents.  The best known of these is quoted by St. Paul in Acts 20, 35: “The Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  Others are found scattered in the works of the early Fathers.

Luke emphasizes the importance of “those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us.”  From the Letters of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles we know that Luke had plenty of opportunity to get to know those who knew Jesus.  He must have known Peter, given the details that he provides about him in the first chapters of the Acts, which he also wrote.  He also gives the names of people with whom the Lord interacted which were not known by the other Evangelists telling of the same event, indicating that he must have known them.

Also important for Luke was giving an orderly account, that is, one with a solid chronology as its framework.  This was much more important for a Greek than for a Jew, who saw chronology as a secondary concern.  And so Luke says, “we too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you.”  We see this, for instance, in his placing the visit of the angel to Zechariah the Priest before the visit of the angel to the Virgin Mary, even though the latter is more important and could have been placed first for that reason.

Through his conscientious attention to the early sources, the eyewitnesses, and to chronology we are assured of the accuracy of what Luke is able to relate “so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.”  As St. Peter writes, “For we have not by following artificial fables made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Christ: but we are eyewitnesses of his greatness” (1 Peter 1, 16).

 Saturday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 22, 2022

Mark 3:20-21

Jesus came with his disciples into the house. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

This little story is found only in the Gospel of St. Mark.  Scholars want to combine it with another story Mark relates for us a few verses further down in 3, 31-35, in which the Lord’s Mother and brethren came to him and could not see him because of the crowd.  On that occasion, the Lord taught that his true brethren were those who did the will of God.  

Since Mark refers to “the” house (Hebrew and Greek, unlike Latin, have the definite article), we can understand Peter’s house in Capernaum is meant.  Like others in that time and place, it would have featured a walled enclosure with a courtyard, and the house situated in the middle of it.  This would not have meant much room, and most if not all of the cooking would have been done outside.  The whole property seems to have been filled on this occasion since “the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat.”  The people had come to listen to the Lord, as evidenced by the fact that Mark does not tell us he cured anyone.  Now, the tense of the verb Mark uses here is that of the present, as in “Again the crowd is gathering.”  His use of the present denotes a continuous action, so from this we can see that the crowd regularly gathered in this way, every day.  From the fact that the main meal of the day was served in the mid afternoon, we can also see that the crowd persisted for some hours when it did gather: the Lord and the Apostles had no chance to eat at the proper time.

Down in Nazareth, some twenty miles away, his people heard of this and considered it a problem which they needed to solve: “When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him.”  Who were these people?  As Mark tells the story, they are “his own”, or, literally, “the ones of him”, a Hebrew idiom which we see, for instance, in John 1, 11: “He [the Word] came unto his own: and his own received him not.”  “His own” could mean family, friends, relatives.  In our western culture, we exalt the individual, but in the culture of the ancient Middle East, the family, town, or region was primary, and a person was only a member of these.  He or she exemplified the virtues and other characteristics.  This might extend even to such things as dress and manner of dancing, as is on occasion still seen in Europe.  When “his own” determined from rumor or witness that one of “their own” reflected badly on them — “He is out of his mind” — they felt strongly that he had to be brought home.  Note that they would not have been thinking of the Lord’s well-being but of their own reputation among the Galilean towns, which was never very high.  We recall, for instance, how Nathanael remarked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1, 45).

“He is out of his mind.”  The Greek text is tricky here.  The verb is ex-í-steh-mi, from which our word “ecstasy” comes.  The Greek word can mean “to astound”, “to amaze”, but it can also mean “to be insane”.  We do not have a parallel text for this verse in the other Gospels with which to compare it.  Other Evangelists use the word in other passages, though.  St. Matthew uses it to describe the general reaction of people to Jesus: “And all the multitudes were amazed, and said: Is not this the son of David?” (Matthew 12, 23)?   St. Luke quotes the two disciples on the way to Emmaus as telling their companion (the Lord, whom they do not recognize, “Certain women also of our company astounded us” with their witness of the empty tomb (Luke 24, 22).  Based on these examples, we could translate the verse as, “He is astounding [others].”  This would actually be fitting for Mark who, more than the other Evangelists, emphasizes the ironies to be found in the life and times of the Lord Jesus.  According to this idea, the Lord’s people come from Nazareth incensed that he is giving the town a bad name (which it had long before the Lord lived there), for he is astounding others (with his words and works).  We could even support this by quoting the Lord when he returns to Nazareth and voices the thoughts of the people there, “As great things as we have heard done in Capharnaum, do also here in your own country” (Luke 4, 23).  That is, “Astound us!”  The Fathers, though, understand the verb to mean “He is insane”, as it can be literally translated, “he is beside himself”.  Perhaps we can understand the verb in both senses: he is astounding others with his words and works, and he is insane for doing so.  The Venerable Bede comments: “For since they [his relatives] could not take in the depth of his wisdom, which they heard, they thought that He was speaking in a senseless way, wherefore the Gospel continues, ‘for they said, He is beside himself.’ ”  as if to say, It is so much easier to say that God is crazy than to say that I am.

 Friday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 21, 2022

I think I’m doing better, not coughing as much.  The COVID test came back negative so this is probably “only” pneumonia.  I’m being good taking my prescriptions.  I really appreciate your prayers!

Mark 3:13-19

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons: He appointed the Twelve: Simon, whom he named Peter; James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

“Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him.”  This can be better translated: “Jesus ascended the mountain and summoned those whom he was desiring and they departed to him.”  The sense is that the Lord told his disciples to stay at the foot of the mountain while he mounted it by himself alone.  We learn from Luke 6:12 that “he went out into a mountain to pray: and he passed the whole night in the prayer of God”, and that in the morning of the next day he called his Apostles to him.  The calling of the Apostles from the midst of the disciples is presented to us as a ritual.  The Lord goes upon a height and prays.  In the morning, as the sun is rising, he calls out the names of those “whom he was desiring”.  From the mountain, he calls out each name, perhaps saying, “James, son of Zebedee, come up here, etc.”  each Apostle would have begun the climb of this broad and tall mountain (the upper reaches of which would have soared over seven thousand feet above the ground).  The climb would have made arduous work and taken some time.  It would have been much easier and faster if the Lord had descended the mountain and then summoned the Apostles by name.  But the ritual is impressive.  We can imagine the Lord’s voice, though perhaps not seeing him, echoing out from the summit, calling each name, pausing before calling the next, the summoned disciple then beginning the long climb.  And this is more than a calling up, as though the Lord wanted this disciple for a particular reason.  The Greek, “whom he was desiring” is in the imperfect tense.  Each of the called men was one whom he wanted as his own.  “They departed to him.”  The Greek verb here means more than that they “went” to him, but implies that they departed from someone or something in order to be with someone or something else.  These men are giving up their lives down below in order to be with Jesus in the heights in response to his specific summoning of them.

“He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles.”  The Greek word translated here as “appointed” actually means “to do” or “to make” and is used in the Septuagint to translated the Hebrew ah-sah’, which is used to describe God’s creation of the universe in Genesis 1.  Thus, the Lord “made” them to be twelve, or “caused them to be” twelve.  He creates a unity here of these men struggling up the mountain to him.  They have him alone as their goal and as their Master.  We note their labor in coming to him, leaving all else behind, and in so doing see the exercise of their free will.  They want to be with him.  They are willing to leave all behind.  They are willing to make the climb.  By this time they have been with him at least a year and they have made their decision.  This is no impulse of theirs.  “Whom he also named Apostles”.  The Greek apostolos means “one who is sent”, “envoy”, or “ambassador”.  It is unclear whether the Lord told them that they were his “ambassadors” at that time.  This is an official position at a ruler’s court and would have been held only by the most trusted and competent people at a ruler’s disposal.  Their word is his word.  They are entrusted with missions in which they are to act on the ruler’s behalf.  This is something much more than a “disciple”, a “student”.  Humanly, we can see this action as a deliberate response by the Lord to the very recent accusation by the Pharisees that his “disciples” had broken the Sabbath Law.  The Lord had shown his rejection of their self-assumed place as Israel’s leaders and now invests twelve of his closest disciples with his authority.  The Lord further distinguishes himself from the Pharisees, who each had their own disciples, but did not dare call them their “envoys” or “ambassadors”.  Yet, the Lord does not act out of spite.  It while be a while yet before he sends them out on their first mission.  They have much to learn first.  

 Thursday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 20, 2022

My in-person doctor appointment this morning turned into a video one.  I’ve been prescribed various medications.  I also was sent to get another COVID test, the results of which have not yet been shared with me.  I’m doing a little better.  

Mark 3:7-12

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea. Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him. He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him. And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God.” He warned them sternly not to make him known.

According to St. Mark, after the tumult with the Pharisees, to whom he revealed himself as the Forgiver of sins, the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Reviver of Israel, Jesus led his disciples back to the Sea of Galilee, perhaps near Capernaum.  It is worth noting that, according to the Gospels, most of his preaching and miracles took place in the string of towns that hugged the sea.  Using a map of the area as it was in Roman times, we can trace his movements on the sea’s western edge.  He did work in Judea too, but apparently only on the occasions when the Jews went up to Jerusalem for the holy days.  He also made a couple of excursions across the Jordan in the east and into Syrian territory to the north and west.  But by and large, at least according to the Gospels, he stuck to a small corner of Galilee.  This might seem odd for one who showed himself to be the Son of Man.  We might expect him to spend a great deal of time in Jerusalem.  Even his own Apostles wondered about this.  As St. Jude asked, during the Last Supper: “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (John 14, 22).  The Lord’s answer was one the Apostles would only understand after the Holy Spirit came to them: “If any one love me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode with him” (John 14, 23).  That is, the believer Carrie’s Christ within him wherever he goes and so the Lord “goes” to people he could not have reached during his brief lifetime on earth.  It is also true for us poor children of Eve that we are more easily converted by the disciple than by the Master because while the Master overwhelms us, we perceive the disciple to be more like us.  Also, the greatest miracle the Master performs is that of conversion.  The devoted love of the converted disciple for the Master moves us and makes more sense to most of us than the love of the Master, which is beyond our understanding.  The infinite love of our God for such as we leaves us gaping, but the seeing return of this love by one who experiences it leaves us craving to have this too.

“Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.”  The Lord, by staying in the hinterland, draws all people to himself, and that is a sign for the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem to consider.  In a way, this also answers Jude’s question: the Lord does reveal himself to the world, but he does not need to go out to it since it is very willing to go out to him.  Many came to him, motivated by the desire to regain their health.  These suffered from chronic ailments and crippling conditions, and they endured great difficulties in finding him and traveling to him.  But they went, knowing him to be their only hope.  This gives us food for thought.  To go to him now requires overcoming our inertia, our daily routines, and our pride, but he is to be found easily by us in the Holy Scriptures and in the tabernacles of our churches.  The sick yearned to touch him, even slightly, to be healed.  We are touched by him in the reading of the Scriptures and in prayer before the Sacrament.  It is the same One with the same love and the same power and eagerness to heal.

“And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God.’  He warned them sternly not to make him known.”  The unclean spirits themselves wonder at his power, though they did not yet how true it was that he was the Son of God.  This too, provides food for thought.  Even the demons acclaimed his power while the Pharisees denied it.

 Wednesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 19, 2021

I’m still sick, but I’ll finally get to see a doctor on Wednesday morning.  Please keep praying for me!

Mark 3:1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

It seems in this reading that Mark is continuing a narrative he began with his telling how Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath.  It would help to explain the end of the reading in which the Pharisees are so antagonized that they are willing to league themselves with the Herodians in order to destroy Jesus.  Just prior to today’s reading, the Pharisees, who had accused the Lord’s disciples of breaking the Sabbath, were reduced to silence by the Lord insisting that he was the Master of the Law rather than subject to it.  The Pharisees were aware of the miracles he had performed and could not argue against this, though they boiled within themselves.  Now, in today’s reading, the Lord and his disciples have crossed the grain field and entered a town, the name of which we are not told, though undoubtedly it was situated in Galilee.  Since it was the Sabbath, the Lord followed his custom of going to the synagogue in order to teach, commenting on the Law and the Prophets.  

“There was a man there who had a withered hand.”  Alternatives to “withered” include “parched” and “dried up”.  Evidently, he did not suffer from leprosy or he would not have been permitted inside.  The hand was useless though.  We see this verb used in Mark 11, 20: Jesus cursed the fig tree that had no figs though it was the season for them, and the tree is said to have “withered” as a result.  The direct style Mark employs here: “Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand” makes it seem that the Lord came purposefully to this synagogue on this day specifically to cure this man of this condition.  “He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come up here before us.’ ”  Jesus wastes no time but addresses the man, who has presumably stood in the back among the crowd.  The Greek tells us that Jesus actually said, “Stand up in the middle.”  And then the Lord addressed the Pharisees, probably sitting in places of honor in the front: “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”  This might be better translated, “to save a life or to kill it”.  Now, this is a curious question.  Jesus equates the healing of the hand, which he clearly intends to do, with the saving of a life.  Conversely, he equates taking no action with “killing” this life.  The Pharisees do not know what he is asking, or sees his words as a trap, and they do not respond.  

“Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart.”  The English does not do justice to what Jesus did.  The Greek says that Jesus looked around “with wrath” or “passion”.  This is the same wrath with which he will condemn the wicked at the end of the world.  His furious reaction to the hardened hearts of the Pharisees may seem a little overblown when we consider the bare facts, but something more is going on here.  The man’s withered hand signifies Israel while the rest of the man signifies the Gentiles.  It is “withered”, as the fig tree will be withered because it has become dead in sin and faithlessness.  This is also signified by the hearts of the Pharisees themselves, which are “hardened” — withered and useless.  The Lord would restore life to the hand — to Israel — but the Pharisees would prevent him.  We can see from this what the Lord means when he equates the healing of the hand with “saving a life”, whereas not acting allows it to remain dead — “kills” it through inaction.  And just as the Lord turned with anger from the unrepentant Israel in the days before he suffered, so here he turns with wrath from the teachers so many in Israel preferred to him.  But the Lord continues to feel compassion for the man and he heals his hand.  The Lord does not need the Pharisees in his plan to save the world.  Their hatred for him renders them useless for this purpose.

“The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.”  Ironically, the Pharisees answer the Lord’s question to them by going out to plan his Death even as he heals the man’s hand.  Their anger and envy have reached such a pitch that they become entirely irrational and they join with the detested Herodians in order to destroy him: they join with the forces that killed John the Baptist.  They would kill him themselves but they want political cover.  Of course, the miracle means nothing to them.  It often happens with us that we become so hardened in our opinions that any fact that contradicts them or does not support them becomes a personal attack that must be crushed. 

People of that sort are very difficult to pray for, let alone to convert, and they may prove dangerous to believers.  But as the Lord died for them too, we pray and give good witness, striving to be our Lord’s faithful instruments in the redemption of the world.