Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 7, 2024

Mark 7, 14-23

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”  When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

We humans gather information about the world in which we live through our five senses.  In this way we learn discursively, that is, step by step.  We cannot comprehend a person or a thing at a single glance: that is how the angels, spiritual intellects, know.  However, most of us mistakenly believe that we can size up a person or a thing almost immediately.  We base this notion on our abilities to perceive accurately through our senses and to  interpret correctly the information we receive through them, and we have all had the experience of being proven wrong in doing this.  If we are honest with ourselves, we accept this.  If our pride gets the best of us, we persist in scrutinizing the person or thing with the goal of proving ourselves right, no matter how many lies we have to tell ourselves.  This is a universal experience, reflected in such proverbs as, “Appearances are deceiving.”  The Lord Jesus warns us of wolves in sheep’s clothing: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7, 15).

The truth of this underlies the Lord’s words, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”  In St. Mark’s account, the Lord has just rebuked the Pharisees for their insistence on ritual washings that do not actually confer purity, as they are not commanded by God but originate in the customs of their own sect.  The Lord goes further here, addressing the condition of a person who eats or drinks from a vessel not subjected to the ritual washing: he teaches that no exterior thing can make a person unclean.  On the other hand, the things that come out from a person, meaning, that originate in the person so as to affect that person and others, defile or make unclean.  The Lord enumerates these things: “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”  More literally, from the Greek: plotting, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, the evil eye, scurrilous talk, pride, and foolishness.  The word I have translated as “formication” has the sense of any of the sexual sins listed in the Mosaic Law.  The word I have translated as “wickedness” has the sense of a malign disposition, a eagerness to cause others pain.  “Foolishness” implies a self-absorption that blinds a person to the dignity and needs of others.  The temptations of the devil may come from the outside of a person, but the consent to them that results in sin takes place on the inside.  And these sins do defile.  They truly degrade and deform even when they do not result in a change in the exterior appearance.  They cause a person to become unworthy of grace and incapable of attaining heaven.  

The world values appearances.  It rewards the pretty, the handsome, the sleek, the well-dressed, the sonorous voice.  These can be exploited for wealth, fame, and power.  Virtue cannot because it is of itself self-effacing and unglamorous.  It is found in very ordinary and even lowly places.  It works quietly.  Its results often take time to appear.  It is the life-blood of the saints.  

 Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 6, 2024

Mark 7:1-13

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.) So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and Whoever curses father or mother shall die. Yet you say, ‘If someone says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.”

In order to understand what is happening in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, it helps to know a little more than what St. Mark explains about the purity laws.  While the ancient Jewish Law prescribed certain regulations regarding purity, they mostly concerned the priests and anything that had to do with the sacrifices that were commanded.  The Pharisees, however, interpreted these laws to apply to everyday life and not merely Temple worship.  Thus, up until the time of the Pharisees, there was no law regarding the washing of the hands before meals: this was ordered for the priests in the Temple concerning sacrifices.  As the views of the Pharisees spread, the practice of washing hands increased until it was taken for granted that this was commanded by the Law, when in fact it was merely the interpretation of the Law by the Pharisees.  This is why Mark is able to say that “For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews” practice this.  And yet, not all the Jews did.  It is very unlikely that John the Baptist and his followers did, or the zealots.  And so we see here that “some of [the Lord’s] disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.”  

Now, the Pharisees visiting the Lord Jesus show that they themselves know that the washing of hands before meals is not required by the Law, since they say to him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”  They do not say, Why do they not follow the Law.  They say, Why do they not follow the tradition of the elders.  It is as though the Pharisees expect that should follow the the traditions of the Pharisees.  Jesus does address the question of whether he or his disciples nor he are bound by their customs, but he makes clear that their going beyond the requirements of the Law and insisting that others do so as well means breaking it.  If God wanted to make a law requiring people to wash their hands before meals, he would have done so at the time he gave the Law to Moses.  Humans are not free to impose their own restrictions and then call them God’s.  And so the Lord Jesus contrasts the commandments of God with the “traditions of men”.  He declares to them: “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!”  The Pharisees have made their ideology, their aims, primary to God’s Law, however they think to disguise this.  The Lord then gives a very clear example involving the Fourth Commandment and the law regarding qorban, offerings made in the Temple to God, which eventually included other kinds of gifts offered in the Temple.  The Pharisees taught and persuaded many people to believe that a person could avoid responsibility for carrying out other parts of the Law by giving money or property to the Temple.  Jesus condemns them for this because what is essential in religion is the carrying out of its laws: going beyond the intention of the Divine Lawmaker, as evidenced by what he has commanded, is to replace sacred law and with human precepts.  

We do this when we fall into the trap of perfectionism and scrupulosity wherein we consciously or not set standards that we cannot hope to reach, and which we move if we advance towards them.  God calls us to be perfect, — not according to our ideas of what this means but according to his: what God calls us to is perfection in love of him and of our neighbor.  When we consider this, we see how trivial are our attempts tat reducing the law of God to mere legalism.

 Monday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 5, 2024

Mark 6:53-56

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

The city of Gennesaret existed during the time of Abraham and Issac.  It was a large, fortified city on the western coast of the Sea of Galilee.  Long before the sea there was called the “Sea of Galilee”, or, later, “the Sea of Tiberias”, it was called the “Sea of Gennesaret” due to the city’s prominence.  To get to this city from Capernaum, Jesus and his Apostles would have sailed south, but not very far.  The city was situated halfway between Capernaum and Magdala.  Now, in Mark 6, 45, the Evangelist tells us that Jesus and his Apostles went from Capernaum, where the Lord had fed the five thousand, to Bethsaida, which was a little distance to the north.  Now, leaving that location, they sail down past Capernaum to Gennesaret.  The ceaseless traveling and the bearing of the hardships associated with that, such as the irregular meals, the sleepless nights, and the physical exhaustion tell us how driven Jesus was to save the human race.  It says a great deal too about the willingness of the Apostles to endure this for his sake.  We get one tiny insight into their attitude in John 6, 69, when Peter answers Christ’s question about whether they will walk away from him: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”  

“People immediately recognized him.”  These words suggest that the Lord was distinguished by his garb, as John the Baptist had been by his.  His appearance certainly did not fit in with that of a Pharisee or a high priest.  His physical features do not seem to have made him instantly recognizable.  The early Father Tertullian even tells us that he looked very ordinary, and this is backed by Isaiah 53, 3: “Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.”  

“They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.”  For the people, Jesus meant certain help from above.  He had never turned anyone away, and he had cured everyone who approached him.  He did not demand payment, nor did he act haughtily.  All disease fled before him.  Even the demons who had long sunk their talons into some unfortunate’s soul, screamed and fled in absolute terror.  And as eagerly as the people sought him, he more eagerly sought them.  In fact, he “scurried” about the surrounding country for them.  He let them meet him halfway, however, allowing them to come the final mile or two.  He did this to show that while he offers the grace we could otherwise not receive, we must cooperate with it.

“They laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak.”  These words speak to the Lord’s power, but also to the people’s belief in it.  “The tassel on his cloak”: these tassels or fringes hung off of the mantle the Lord wore over his knee-length tunic, the customary length for Jewish men of that place and time — only the rich wore longer tunics.  The tassels were tiny and thin, like threads or bits of string.  We might think of the Saints as tassels on the mantle of his glorified Body.  As great as they might appear to us through their words and deeds, they are tiny with respect to the Lord.  All the same, Jesus so deigns that if we “touch” one of these “tassels” with our prayers, he will hear them, for as Mark tells us: “as many as touched it were healed.”

 The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 4, 2024

Mark 1, 29–39

On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them. When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him. Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

On the first day in which the Lord performed a public miracle, an exorcism in the town synagogue, he performed a great many miracles.  As St. Mark tells us, “They brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons”, and, “He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons.”  That is to say, he cured all who were brought to him.  This corresponds with his last day in this world when St. Matthew reports: “The graves were opened: and many bodies of the saints that had slept arose” (Matthew 27, 52).  In this way we can see that the cures the Lord effected on that first day of miracles — and all the succeeding days of miracles — were signs that would be fulfilled in his Death and Resurrection.

“On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.”  This miracle shows us how salvation works: The mother-in-law lays on the ground unable to rise by herself.  Doctors have come and gone and she still suffers.  This is the human being who suffers the self-inflicted wounds of sin and who cannot help himself, nor can anyone else help him.  He is doomed to die in his sins.  “They immediately told him about her.”  But the angels and saints and God’s holy ones on earth intercede for the sinner.  “He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.”  The Greek has, “Approaching her he grasped her hand and raised her.”  He does not “help” her up as though she only needs a little aid to stand.  This signifies that Jesus, through his own effort, raises up the sinner and immediately restores him to full health.  There is no need for any period of recuperation.  When the mother-in-law was raised up and healed, she did not run out of doors to tell the world she was better, or visit with neighbors, or engage in some recreational activity: “She waited on them.”  The Greek verb here specifically means that she “waited at table” on them.  The one who realizes that he or she has been forgiven through the Blood of the Lord should immediately resume — or begin — to serve him.  We do this through prayers, through his worship at Holy Mass, and through whatever we can do to help those whom he has placed in our lives.

 Saturday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, February 3, 2024

Mark 6, 30-34

The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

“The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught.”  We find in the New Testament references to the care with which the Apostles taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  St. Paul, even fourteen years after he had begun preaching, remarked that, “I laid before them (but privately before those who were of repute) the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles.”  That is, St. Paul went back to Jerusalem to check with St. Peter and St. James to make sure the content of his preaching aligned with theirs.  It was necessary for the Church to preach what Christ taught and only what he taught, rejecting all else.  The stakes were high: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”  We see how careful Paul was to distinguish his personal theological opinion from the teachings of Christ in such passages as this: “For to the rest I speak, not the Lord. If any brother has a wife who does not believes and she consent to dwell with him, let him not put her away” (1 Corinthians 7, 12).  So here, in the verse from St. Mark’s Gospel, the Apostles report to their Master what they had preached, both to inform him and to offer for his correction anything they had proclaimed.  So many in the time of the Apostles up until now have made false assertions about the Lord’s teachings, to the detriment of the spread of the Gospel and the salvation of souls.

“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  The laborer must rest of he is to continue his work.  The Lord himself, though, granted himself so little rest, knowing how little was the time left to him.

“People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.”  The impression Mark gives is that Jesus remained where he was at the time he had sent the Apostles off, continuing to teach and to heal all those who came to him.  When the Apostles returned to him after several days, the scene was as it had been before, with people “coming and going in great numbers”.  We note that, once more, Mark points out that “they had no opportunity even to eat.”  This is in keeping with his aim to show that Jesus had a large following among the Jews: it was their leaders, a small group, who rejected him.

“So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them.”  They departed through the Sea of Galilee to a lonely spot that would not be easy of access any other way.  But the people ran along the coast, following the boat which did not lose sight of the shore, and managed to outpace it so that when it came ashore, many of them were already there, and more were coming.

“When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”  From heaven the Son of God had watched the members of the human race stumble about, groping in their self-inflicted darkness for a way out into the light, and his heart had so ached for them that he came down from heaven to save them, to be their Shepherd: “I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me” (John 10, 14-15).

As he has become the Good Shepherd for us let us become good sheep for him so that we might readily enter into the pastures of eternal life.

 The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Friday, February 2, 2024

Luke 2, 22–40

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.  Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”  The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted —and you yourself a sword will pierce— so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

Forty days have now passed since we celebrated Christmas.  Few signs of our celebration remain.  Maybe someone in the neighborhood still has their Christmas lights on at night.  Everything has been packed up and stored for next year or thrown away, or eaten.  Weeks ago we returned to our normal routines and it all seems like a distant memory.  We should try to think of how Mary and Joseph and their Infant remained in Bethlehem during these forty days, the time of a woman’s purification after childbirth according to the Law.  Joseph would have picked up work there, at least day labor, returning to the place they had found to live in until they returned to Nazareth.  They stayed because of the need to register for the census, because of the difficulties and dangers inherent in a new mother and newly-born child traveling, and because they would only have had to return to Jerusalem to fulfill another obligation under the Law, that of presenting Jesus, as the first-born male of the family, to Almighty God in the Temple.  He would be offered to the Father by the priest and then his place taken by the animals they brought to be sacrificed.  This ordinance of presentation in the Temple of the first-born son had as its basis the statement of God, “For every firstborn is mine: on the day I struck the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I have sanctified to myself whatsoever is firstborn in Israel both of man and beast.  They are mine: I am the Lord” (Numbers 3, 13).  In the case of the first-born lambs and calves, their offering was completed through their being sacrificed, that is, being truly given up to God by their owners without any chance of taking them back.

 Thursday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, February 1, 2024

Mark 6, 7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick –no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Earlier in his Gospel, St. Mark has shown how the Lord Jesus exercised authority over sicknesses, infirmities, storms, and demons. He possesses this authority in himself and it does not come from the Jewish rulers.  As a Galilean, the leadership in Jerusalem sees him and treats him as an outsider, yet he is the one with true power and wisdom — with true authority that has been approved by the Father at his baptism in the Jordan.  In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, we see him bestowing authority on his own to his Apostles.  At the same time, he purposely did not confer the usual trappings of authority on them.  While having greater power than any humans had ever possessed — over unclean spirits, no less — they were to take “nothing for the journey but a walking stick”.  Traveling distances without the normal provisions of food and water, they would arrive at their destinations as refugees fleeing an army, or as those who had escaped from robbers.  They would not resemble the envoys of the Messiah.  They would seem weak.  And this was the point, for as St. Paul would write how the Lord answered his prayer to take away his infirmity, saying, “My grace is sufficient for you: for power is made perfect in infirmity.” Paul then reflected, “Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I powerful” (2 Corinthians 9-10).  The Lord shows his power through the weak in order to make it clear that it is his power performing the works, and that his chosen ones are but the instruments, conveyors, of it.  And there is joy in being his instruments.  

“They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.”  The Apostles are granted sandals, which are necessary for crossing stretches of the wilderness and walking in towns, and also to make it clear that they were not runaway slaves, for slaves did not wear sandals.  On the other hand, they were to wear no second tunic.  This would be the equivalent of a modern tee shirt.  They were dressed in such a way as to match the clothing of the lowest, poorest person they were likely to meet.  This must have been a humbling experience for men like Peter, who owned his own house and boat, and for Matthew, the formerly rich tax collector.  Attired in this way, they could in no way set themselves up as anyone important, since this would result in ridicule, and so they could speak only of Jesus.  This may remind us of how the Lord told them, at another time, “But when they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak: for it is not you that speak, but the spirit of your Father that speaks in you” (Matthew 10, 19-20).  Their persecutors would be confounded by an eloquence that could not have come from them.

“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.”  The Lord did not want it to seem that they were preaching for money, as others did.  Nor did he want them to temper their preaching so as not to offend anyone.  They were not in a town for their own purposes but for the Lord’s.  This order would serve to keep the Apostles on task, and also bolster their credibility in the eyes of the townspeople.  “Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.”  That is, do not merely walk away from the place to try your luck somewhere else.  They were heralds of the King, and to reject them was to reject him.  We see how these towns would be treated by the example of the king in the parable of the king who prepared a wedding feast for his son: the king sent out his messengers to invite the guests, but the guests rejected them and even killed some.  As a result,  “when the king had heard of it, he was angry: and sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers and burnt their city” (Matthew 22, 7).  And, “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment” than for them (Matthew 11, 24).

“So they went off and preached repentance.”  The hardest thing to preach, and the most necessary, is repentance.  The people who stop to listen think the preacher is speaking to someone else.  The Apostles, though, could back up their words with powerful deeds: they “drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”  Acting in the Lord’s name, he acted through their words and hands.  

We know ourselves best in silence and in the simplest possible living, and in knowing ourselves, we gain true humility.  In true humility, which enables us to be obedient to God’s commands, he will work through our words and hands as well.