READING and REFLECTIONS For Thursday, January 22, 2015 2nd week - TopicsExpress



          

READING and REFLECTIONS For Thursday, January 22, 2015 2nd week in Ordinary Time - Psalter Week 2 (Green/Red) Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr Readings: Heb 7:25-8:6; Ps 40:7-17; Mk 3:7-12 Rosary: Luminous Mystery Verse: You are the Son of God! SAINT OF THE DAY: Saint Vincent Pallotti, Deacon and Martyr Birth: 1795 - Death: 1850 St. Vincent Pallotti, Priest (Feast - January 22) Born in Rome in 1795, St. Vincent became a priest and dedicated himself completely to God and cared for souls. He dreamed of gaining for Christ all non-Catholics, especially the Mohammedans. To this end he inaugurated a revolutionary program which envisaged the collaboration of the laity in the apostolate of the clergy. But St. Vincent was also well aware of the many deprivations in the natural sphere that hindered the spread of the Faith. He thus obtained and spent huge sums for the poor and underprivileged. He founded guilds for workers, agriculture schools, loan associations, orphanages and homes for girls - all of which made him the pioneer and precursor of Catholic Action. His great legacy was the congregation which he founded for urban mission work, known as the Society for Catholic Action. This indefatigable laborer for Christ in 1850 from a severe cold which he most likely caught on a cold rainy night after giving his cloak to a beggar who had none. READINGS FROM THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE: READING 1, Hebrews 7:25-8:6 25 It follows, then, that his power to save those who come to God through him is absolute, since he lives for ever to intercede for them. 1 The principal point of all that we have said is that we have a high priest of exactly this kind. He has taken his seat at the right of the throne of divine Majesty in the heavens, 2 and he is the minister of the sanctuary and of the true Tent which the Lord, and not any man, set up. 3 Every high priest is constituted to offer gifts and sacrifices, and so this one too must have something to offer. 4 In fact, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are others who make the offerings laid down by the Law, 5 though these maintain the service only of a model or a reflection of the heavenly realities; just as Moses, when he had the Tent to build, was warned by God who said: See that you work to the design that was shown you on the mountain. 6 As it is, he has been given a ministry as far superior as is the covenant of which he is the mediator, which is founded on better promises. RESPONSORIAL PSALM, Psalms 40:7-8, 8-9, 10, 17 7 then I said, Here I am, I am coming. In the scroll of the book it is written of me, 8 my delight is to do your will; your law, my God, is deep in my heart. 9 I proclaimed the saving justice of Yahweh in the great assembly. See, I will not hold my tongue, as you well know. 10 I have not kept your saving justice locked in the depths of my heart, but have spoken of your constancy and saving help. I have made no secret of your faithful and steadfast love, in the great assembly. 17 Poor and needy as I am, the Lord has me in mind. You, my helper, my Saviour, my God, do not delay. GOSPEL, Mark 3:7-12 7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From Judaea, 8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea and Transjordan and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him. 9 And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed. 10 For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him. 11 And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, You are the Son of God! 12 But he warned them strongly not to make him known. REFLECTIONS: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God) OPENING PRAYER: Father of heaven and earth, hear our prayers, and show us the way to your peace in the world. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ON READING 1: Hebrews 7:25-8:6 (Jesus Christ Is a Priest After the Order of Melchizedek - Continued; Christ Is High Priest of a New Covenant, Which Replaces the Old) Hebrews 7, 23-25. Christs priesthood is everlasting. Just as Melchizedek had no end of life, so too the Son of God holds his priesthood permanently. The Levites are mere mortal men; Christ, however, has not been instituted as priest by bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life (v. 16); that is why he can truly be said to be a priest for ever. This makes sense, for death is a consequence of sin, and Christ has conquered sin and death. Moreover, death makes it necessary for there to be a succession of human priests in order to provide continuity; whereas the everlasting character of Christs priesthood renders any further priesthood unnecessary. St. Thomas comments that this shows Christ to be the true and perfect Priest in the strict sense of the word, for it was impossible for the Jewish priests to be permanent mediators because death naturally deprived them of their priesthood. The case of Christian priests is quite different, because they are not mediators strictly speaking. There is only one Mediator, Jesus Christ; they are simply representatives of his, who act in his name. Christ is to the Levites as the perfect (which is necessarily one) is to the imperfect (which is always multiple): Incorruptible things have no need to reproduce themselves. Christ is immortal. As the eternal Word of the Father, he abides forever: his divine eternity is =passed on to his body, for being raised from the dead (he) will never die again (Rom 6:9). And so because he continues for ever, he holds his priesthood permanently. Christ alone is the true Priest; the others (priests) are his ministers (Commentary on Heb., ad loc.). The eternal character of Christs priesthood, St. John Chrysostom points out, gives us reason for great confidence: It is as if the Apostle were saying, Do not be afraid or think that (although) he loves us and has the Fathers full confidence he cannot live forever on the contrary, he does live forever! (Hom. on Heb., 13). We can put our trust in Christ the Priest because his priesthood is an enduring expression of his heartfelt love for all mankind: The living Christ continues to love us still; he loves us today, now, and he offers us his heart as the fountain of our redemption: he always lives to make intercession for (us) (Heb 7:25). We are always--ourselves and the entire world--embraced by the love of this heart which has loved men so much and receives such poor response from them (John Paul II, Hom. in Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Paris, 1 June 1980). Christs priesthood is an expression of his Love, from which it cannot be separated; since his Love is everlasting, so too is his priesthood. In the first place, his priesthood is everlasting because it is linked to the Incarnation, which is something permanent; secondly, because Christs mission is that of saving all men in all periods of history and not simply one of helping them by his teaching and his example; thirdly, because Christ continues to be present--St Ephraem says--not in the victims of the sacrifices of Mosaic worship, but in the prayer of the Church (cf. Com. in Epist. ad Haebreos, ad loc.), particularly in the permanent efficacy of the sacrifice of the Cross constantly renewed in the Mass, and in the praying of the Divine Office. Finally, it is everlasting because Christs sacrifice is perpetuated until the end of time in the Christian ministerial priesthood, for bishops and priests in virtue of the sacrament of Order, are consecrated as true priests of the New Testament to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful and celebrate divine worship (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 28 ). Christ not only interceded for us when he was on earth: he continues to make intercession for us from heaven: This always points to a great mystery, St. John Chrysostom observes; he lives not only here but also there, in heaven; not only here and for a while, but also there, in life eternal (Hom. on Heb., 13). In saying that Christ makes intercession for us, the inspired text is saying that Christ takes the initiative, addresses the Father, presents him with a request or a demand, as if Christ were an advocate before the Father, a help, a defender (a Paraclete: cf. 1 Jn 2:1). But in what sense does he continue to make intercession for us, given that he annot merit any more than he did when he was on this earth? He intercedes, St Thomas replies, first by again presenting his human nature to the Father, marked with the glorious signs of his passion, and then by expressing the great love and desire of his soul to bring about our salvation (cf. Commentary on Heb., 7, 4). Christ, so to speak, continues to offer the Father the sacrifice of his longsuffering, humility, obedience and love. That is why we can always approach him to find salvation. Through Christ and in the Holy Spirit, a Christian has access to the intimacy of God the Father, and he spends his life looking for the Kingdom which is not of this world, but which is initiated and prepared in this world. We must seek Christ in the Word and in the Bread, in the Eucharist and in prayer. And we must treat him as a friend, as the real, living person he is--for he is risen. Christ, we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews [Heb 7:24-25 follows] (St. J. Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 116). Hebrews 7, 26-28. These last verses form a paean in praise of Christ, summing up and rounding off what has gone before. Christ is proclaimed to be holy, blameless, unstained, that is, sinless, totally devoted to God the Father, just and faithful. Sacred Scripture uses similar language to describe people of outstanding holiness, such as Zechariah and Elizabeth (cf. Lk 1:6), Simeon, who was righteous and devout, Joseph of Arimathea (cf. Lk 23:50), the centurion Cornelius (cf. Acts 10:22), etc. The praise given Christ here, however, hints at a perfection which is more than human. Christ is, at the same time, separated from sinners, not in the sense that he refuses to have any dealings with them or despises them, for, on the contrary, we know that the Pharisees abused him, saying, Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Mt 11:19) and This man receives sinners and eats with them (Lk 15:2; cf. Mt 9-11:13 and par.; Lk 7:34); he is separated from sinners because he can have no sin in him, since the presence of sin in his human nature is absolutely incompatible with the holiness of the unique person that Christ is--the divine Word. He is the perfect embodiment of all the ancient prerequisites for a priest of the true God (cf. Lev 21:4, 6, 8, 15). Christ, finally, from the point of view of his human nature also, has been exalted above the heavens not only ethically speaking, by virtue of his sublime holiness, but also in his very body, through his glorious ascension (cf. Acts 2:33-26; 10:42); he is therefore the Son who has been made perfect forever. Who was Jesus Christ? St. Alphonsus asks himself. He was, St. Paul replies, holy, blameless, unstained or, even better, he was holiness itself, innocence itself, purity itself (Christmas Novena, 4). And St Fulgentius of Ruspe extols Christ in these beautiful terms: He is the one who possessed in himself all that was needed to bring about our redemption, that is, he himself was the priest and the victim; he himself was God and the temple--the priest by whose actions we are reconciled; the sacrifice which brings about our reconciliation; the temple wherein we are reconciled; the God with whom we have been reconciled. Therefore, be absolutely certain of this and do not doubt it for a moment: the only-begotten God himself, the Word made flesh, offered himself to God on our behalf in a n odor of sweetness as sacrifice and victim--the very one in whose honor as well as that of the Father and the Holy Spirit the patriarchs, prophets and priests used to offer sacrifices of animals in Old Testament times; and to whom now, that is, in the time of the New Testament, in the unity of the Father and the Holy Spirit, with whom he shares the same unique divinity, the holy Catholic Church never ceases to offer on behalf of the entire universe the sacrifice of the bread and wine, with faith and charity (De Fide Ad Petrum, 22). The sublimity of Christs priesthood is a source of encouragement, hope and holy pride for the priests of the New Testament, given that every priest in his own way puts on the person of Christ and is endowed with a special grace. By this grace, the priest, through his service of the people committed to his care and all the people of God, is able the better to pursue the perfection of Christ, whose place he takes. The human weakness of his flesh is remedied by the holiness of him who became for us a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners (Heb 7:26) (Vatican II, Presbyterorum Ordinis, 12). For all these reasons St. Pius X, addressing priests, wrote: We ought, therefore, to represent the person of Christ and fulfill the mission he has entrusted to us; and thereby attain the end which he has set out to reach. We are under an obligation, as his friends, to have the same sentiments as Jesus Christ, who is holy, blameless, unstained (Heb 7:26). As his ambassadors we have a duty to win over mens minds to accept his law and his teaching, beginning by observing them ourselves; insofar as we have a share in his power, we are obliged to set souls free from the bonds of sin, and we must ourselves be very careful to avoid falling into sin (St. Pius X, Haerent Animo, 5). Hebrews 7, 1-2. The key point of the epistle is now proclaimed with great formality -- the superiority of Christs priesthood. This links up what was already said in 1:3 (about Christ being enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty) with what will be developed in chapters 9 and 10 (about the new temple and new form of worship). In Christ the Old Covenant, which offered worship by means of sacrifice and offerings, finds its total perfection; from Christ onwards the New Covenant begins, with a new sacrifice and a new temple. Little by little, consideration of the priesthood of the Mosaic form of worship gives way to examination of Christs new form of divine service. It is not just a matter of one temple or stone being replaced by another or by many such temples. The old temple has given way to a heavenly sanctuary, heaven itself. This is why Christs ascension and enthronement at the right hand of the Father is so important: it marks the definitive entry of Jesus Christs sacred humanity into his true temple, one not made by human hands. This makes it easier to understand the sense in which the temple of Jerusalem and the worship connected with it were a foreshadowing of future events. Christ, then, possesses the true, definitive priesthood, for he exercises his ministry in the sanctuary of heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of the Father. This heavenly ministry of Christ is a further confirmation of the superiority of his priesthood. Firstly, because he is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (cf. Ps 10:1)--Majesty meaning the Godhead itself, for it is a way of referring to God (cf. the throne of grace in 4:16). Moreover, the throne of the Majesty is the equivalent of supreme authority to rule and judge. This can be seen from descriptions of the Last Judgment: When the Son of man co mes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne (Mt 25:31; cf. Rev 3:21; 20:11; Mt 19:28 ; etc.). Secondly, Christ carries out his ministry in a new sanctuary and a new tabernacle (tent), which are true in the sense that the sanctuary and tabernacle of Moses were only an image of them. The earthly liturgy is a reflection of the true, heavenly liturgy, which is the eternal continuation of Christs priesthood in the presence of the Father, for in the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, Minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle (Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 8). Some Fathers see the true sanctuary and tabernacle as representing the Church, in its total sense of Church militant plus Church triumphant. And St Cyril of Alexandria, for example, points out in one of his works that the old tabernacle was set up in the desert by Moses and it was highly suitable for performing all the sacred ceremonies of the Law. But the mansion which is appropriate to Christ is the city on high, that is, heaven, the divine tent which is not the product of human handiwork but rather something holy and begotten by God. Christ, established therein, offers to God the Father those who believe in him, those sanctified by the Spirit (St Cyril, Explanation of Heb.). Hebrews 7, 3-6. To compare the earthly and heavenly tabernacles, the author resorts to analogy and metaphor, which is all that he can do. Bearing this in mind, one should not interpret the words of this passage as meaning that Jesus Christ consummated his sacrifice only in heaven, for the sacrifice of Calvary happened only once and was complete in itself. What this passage is saying is that, in heaven, Christ, the eternal Priest, continuously presents to the Father the fruits of the Cross. In the New Covenant there is only one sacrifice--that of Jesus Christ on Calvary; this single sacrifice is renewed in an unbloody manner every day in the sacrifice of the Mass; there Jesus Christ the only Priest of the New Law -- immolates and offers, by means of priests who are his ministers, the same victim (body and blood) which was immolated in a bloody manner once and for all on the Cross. Hebrews 7, 7-12. The comparison between the two covenants, the Old made with Moses and written on stone, and the New, engraved on the minds and hearts of the faithful (cf. 2 Cor 3:3; Heb 10:16, 17) is developed with the help of a quotation from Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34), where the prophet announces the spiritual alliance of Yahweh with his people. Jeremiahs words, quoted from the Greek translation (very close to the riginal Hebrew), refer directly to the restoration of the Jews after the Exile. Now that the chosen people have been purified by suffering they are fit to be truly the people of God: I will be their God, and they shall be my people; this promise of intimate friendship is the core of the prophecy. That is what it means when it says the Law will be written on the minds and hearts of all, and all even the least -- shall know God. It may be that Jeremiah sensed the messianic restoration that lay beyond the restoration of the chosen people on its return from exile; certainly we can see that this oracle finds its complete fulfillment only with the New Covenant: the return from Babylon was merely an additional signal/symbol of the perfect Covenant which Christ would establish. For it is in that New Covenant that God truly forgives sins and remembers them no more. The Old Covenant is said not to have been faultless, or sinless. This does not mean it was bad; rather; as St Thomas explains, it was powerless to atone for sins, it did not provide people with the grace to avoid committing sins, it simply showed people how to recognize sins, those who lived under the Old Law continued to be subject to sin (cf. Commentary on Heb., 7, 2). ON THE GOSPEL: Mark 3:7-12 (Cures Beside the Sea of Galilee) The conclusion reached at the end of this fifth conflict (Ml 2, to 3, 6), is that the Good News as it was announced by Jesus, said exactly the contrary of the teaching of the religious authority of the time. This is why, that at the end of the last conflict, it is foreseen that Jesus will not have an easy life and will be put to death. Death is already appearing in the horizon. They decide to make him die (Mk 3, 6). Without a sincere conversion it is not possible for persons to attain a correct understanding of the Good News. A summary of the evangelizing action of Jesus. The verses of today’s Gospel (Mk 3, 7-12) are a summary of the activity of Jesus and they stress an enormous contrast. Earlier, in Mk 2, 1 to 3,6, it was spoken only of conflicts, including the conflict of the life and death between Jesus and the civil and religious authority of Galilee (Mk 3, 1-6). And here, in the summary, we have the contrary: an immense popular movement, greater than the movement of John the Baptist, because people come not only from Galilee, but also from Judaea, from Jerusalem, from Idumaea, from Transjordan, and even from the pagan region of Tyre and Sidon to encounter Jesus! (Mk 3, 7-12). All want to see him and to touch him. The people are so numerous, that Jesus himself is concerned. There is the danger of being crushed by the multitude. This is why he asks the disciples to have a boat ready for him so that the crowd would not crush him. And from the boat he spoke to the crowds. There were especially the excluded and the marginalized who came to him with their ailments: the sick and those possessed. Those who were not accepted to live in the society of the time were accepted by Jesus. Here is the contrast: on the one side the religious and civil leaders decided to put Jesus to death (Mk 3, 6); on the other side, an immense popular movement seeking salvation in Jesus. Who will win? The unclean spirits and Jesus. Mark insists very much on the expulsion of the unclean spirits. The first miracle of Jesus is the expulsion of the unclean spirits (Mk 1, 25). The first impact caused by Jesus is due to the expulsion of the devil (Mk 1, 27). One of the principal causes of the clash of Jesus with the Scribes is the expulsion of the unclean spirits. (Mk 3, 22). The first power which the Apostles received when they were sent out on mission was the power to expel the demons (Mk 16, 17). What does it mean in Mark’s Gospel to drive out or expel the evil spirits? At the time of Mark the fear of the devil was increasing. Some religions instead of liberating the people, increased fear and anguish. One of the objectives of the Good News of Jesus is precisely to help people to liberate themselves from this fear. The coming of the Kingdom means the coming of a stronger power. Jesus is “the stronger man” who has come to conquer and overcome Satan, the power of evil, and to take way from him, to rob humanity imprisoned by fear (Mk 3, 27). This is why Mark insists very much on the victory of Jesus over the power of evil, over the devil, over Satan, sin and death. From the beginning to the end, with almost similar words, he repeats the same message: “And Jesus drove out, expelled the impure spirits!” (Mk 1, 26.27.34.39; 3, 11-12.15.22.30: 5, 1-20; 6, 7.13; 7, 25-29; 9,25-27.38; 16, 9.17). It seems almost a refrain which is repeated! Today, instead of using always the same words, we prefer to use diverse words. We would say: “The power of evil, Satan, which causes so much fear to people, Jesus overcomes him, dominates him, conquers him, threw him off the throne, drove him out or expelled him, eliminated him, annihilated him, knocked him down, destroyed him and killed him!” What Mark wants to tell us is the following: “Christians are forbidden to be afraid of Satan!” After Jesus rose from the dead, it is a mania and a lack of faith to call in cause Satan, at every moment, as if he still had any power on us. To insist on the danger of the devil in order that people may return to Church, means to ignore the Good News of the Kingdom. It is a lack of faith in the Resurrection of Jesus! Mark 3, 10. During our Lords public life people were constantly crowding round Him to be cured (cf. Luke 6:19; 8 :45; etc). As in the case of many other cures, St. Mark gives us a graphic account of what Jesus did to these people (cf. Mark 1:31, 41; 7:31-37; 8 :22-26; John 9:1-7, 11, 15). By working these cures our Lord shows that He is both God and man: He cures by virtue of His divine power and using His human nature. In other words, only in the Word of God become man is the work of our Redemption effected, and the instrument God used to save us was the human nature of Jesus--His Body and Soul--in the unity of the person of the Word (cf. Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 5). This crowding round Jesus is repeated by Christians of all times: the holy human nature of our Lord is our only route to salvation; it is the essential means we must use to unite ourselves to God. Thus, we can today approach our Lord by means of the sacraments, especially and pre-eminently the Eucharist. And through the sacraments there flows to us, from God, through the human nature of the Word, a strength which cures those who receive the sacraments with faith (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, III, q. 62, a. 5). FINAL PRAYERS: Joy and happiness in you to all who seek you! Let them ceaselessly cry, Great is Yahweh who love your saving power. (Ps 40) Jesus, I’ve said yes. Sometimes a big yes, but most of the time, little ones: You call me and I try to say yes, to follow you where you go, to go where I feel you are calling me. But this time, it’s a little harder. Your invitation, your call, it seems more like a push than a gentle pull, a challenge requiring a little bit of pain for gain- Today, you’re asking me to change. Stay close, Christ, and I can say yes. But be patient with me. Amen -- Garrett Gundlach, S.J. It is by God’s mercy that we are saved. May we never tire of spreading this joyful message to the world. -- Pope Francis Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. -- St. Jerome The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence; and in silence the soul has to hear it. -- St. John of the Cross
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 03:43:41 +0000

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