February 2007

  Pope Benedict XVI's general prayer intention for the month of February 2007: "that the goods of the earth, given by God for all men, may be used wisely and according to criteria of justice and solidarity."

  Pope Benedict XVI's missionary prayer intention for February 2007"That the fight against diseases and great epidemics in the Third World may find, in the spirit of solidarity, ever more generous collaboration on the part of the governments of all nations."
                        
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time C

(February 4) Today let us think of St John de Britto 
(Saints)


Scripture:   Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8;     Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8;     1 Corinthians 15:1-11;     Luke 5:1-11

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:1-11)

   In a recent issue of the Sydney Morning Herald (February 1, 2007, p.9) there was a report of excavations at Stonehenge in southern England, in which dozens of ancient homes have been uncovered. The settlement has been dated at about 4600 years ago, at about the time the giant Egyptian pyramid of Giza was being built. Much of the Stonehenge appears to be of a religious character, reminding us that
religious practice was almost universal in ancient and prehistoric times. All the evidence that is available suggests the same for traditional Aboriginal culture in Australia during the thousands of years of its history. Higher supernatural beings were acknowledged and ritual and myth shaped society. There is one thing, though, that seems to me to be worthy of further study in respect to the non-Christian religions of the world. It is whether the higher supernatural powers of this or that religion were understood as truly transcending the world, or whether basically they were part of it, though occupying a much higher place in it. My own reading suggests to me that the supernatural beings of, for instance, traditional Aboriginal religion did not really transcend the world, but fundamentally were part of it. Whether or not this is so, at least the question reminds us that because we come to know things in the first instance through our senses, there is the tendency to accept as real only that which is part of our world. For many years prior to his conversion St Augustine could not shake off his image of God as material. There are serious philosophies that do not allow for anything that cannot be confirmed empirically. While we reject this notion and insist on a God who transcends the world, nevertheless it could be that we barely realize the transcendence of God. That is to say, we need to work at realizing that God our Father is not on earth but in heaven.

  Our Lord time and again referred to God as his Father, whom more often than not he called his heavenly Father. I wonder if we ever give much thought to the importance of the word “heavenly” when used by our Lord of his Father. On one occasion when our Lord’s disciples saw him praying to his heavenly Father, they approached him to ask him to teach them how to pray. The prayer he taught them begins with a few very revealing words: Our Father, who art in heaven. In addressing God our Father I am sure we tend not to appreciate the significance of his being in heaven. That God is in heaven does not mean that he is far away from us in a distant place. One of the features of many indigenous religions is that the principal deity is remote and withdrawn. Ritualistic contacts are more easily made with lesser spirits who are seen as more active and accessible, and often the myths are more commonly about them. That is to say, the abode of the supreme being or what we might call heaven, is often imagined in terms of a very distant land. But the real heaven is not like this. Heaven is God and his transcendent way of being. Being in heaven means being face to face with him in an intimate and  permanent union with him. The truth that God is in heaven insists that he is in no way part of this world which we can unconsciously take him to be. He is utterly other than his creation. If it were otherwise, if he were in some sense part of the world though superior to everything else in it - as is, I think, the implicit notion in many religions - then he would not be the one only God. Yet at the same time he is intimately near for he holds in existence everything that is. His finger, as it were, touches the tiniest particle that exists and in touching it sustains its being in its allotted span.

  All of this we are reminded of in today’s Gospel
(Luke 5:1-11) when Simon, having made his miraculous catch of fish at the command of our Lord, fell at the feet of Jesus and said to him, “Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.” His words bore witness to the transcendent holiness and power of Jesus. In Christ dwells the fullness of the godhead bodily. In him dwells the thrice holy God. Christ’s divine person utterly transcends the world, and in him heaven was present. Yet by becoming man he who transcends the world became part of it as well. The Christian religion worships a God who is utterly other, but who as man is God with us and one of us. As we think of Simon’s words let us pray for a profound realization of the utter transcendence of God our Father. Our Father is in heaven, a heaven that is utterly beyond and in Christ is at the same time utterly near.
                                                                                                                      (E.J.Tyler)                                                            

Further reading
: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.2794-2796

If you wish to view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here

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"Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." (Catechism of the Catholic Church § 311-312)

Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil.176 He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it: "For almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself." (Saint Augustine)

In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me here, but God. . . You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive." (Genesis 45:8 ; 50:20)

From the greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by his grace that "abounded all the more",179 brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.
                                                               (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Get into the habit of praying to the Guardian Angel of each person you are following up. Their Angel will help them to be good and faithful and cheerful, so that when the time comes they will be able to receive the eternal embrace of Love from God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and from the Blessed Virgin.
                                                      (The Forge, no.1012)

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                 Why can venial sins also be the object of sacramental confession?
The confession of venial sins is strongly recommended by the Church, even if this is not strictly necessary, because it helps us to form a correct conscience and to fight against evil tendencies. It allows us to be healed by Christ and to progress in the life of the Spirit. (CCC 1458)
                          (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.306)

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Monday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time II

(February 5) Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr (died about 251) She was martyred in Catania (Sicily) probably during the time of Decius. Her name appears in the Roman Canon. 
(Saints)


Scripture today:   Genesis 1:1-19;     Psalm 104:1-2a, 5-6, 10 and 12, 24 and 35c;      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. (Mark 6:53-56)

Our Gospel scene today places us with Jesus and his disciples landing at Gennesaret and tying up there. As they left the boat those who were near the shore immediately recognized him and word spread like wildfire. People hurried throughout the surrounding region and brought to him all the sick they could
(Mark 6:53-56). This was typical of so many villages and towns he entered. St Mark writes that all they needed to do was touch him and healing would come. So many were sick and helpless, especially in the ancient world when medical science was so rudimentary, and where in any case so many were far from professional medical attention. They hungered for life and health, and lacked the light to see any true meaning in their physical plight. Christ offered them hope. His power to do good for them seemed (and was) without limit. Whatever their need, he was able to help them and if he refused (as occasionally he did) it was for a good purpose and because the request was not in accord with the will of God. Now, on the one hand this picture reminds us of the profoundly broken situation of fallen man stemming from sin. On the other, Christ gave himself to this ministry of healing but it is clear that he did so to give a sign of something much greater that he had come to bring. His miracles were a sign of the coming of God’s Kingdom which would be a Kingdom of holiness. It is this which he especially had come to offer. St John the Baptist at the beginning of his public ministry pointed him out and said of him, “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Years before this the angel had said of him before he was born that he would save his people from their sins. It was the evil of sin which he had come to take away, and his wide ranging healings and his raising of some from the dead were meant to signal to the people the coming of God’s kingdom, its establishment in the hearts of men, and their release from the power of sin.

But the true and deeper evil of sin which Christ had come to take away, the holiness of life which would be his gift to all who come to him, was not of interest to the body of the people. Christ was sent, he told his disciples on one occasion, to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, and it was to the people of Israel that he sent his disciples during the period of his public ministry.  But the deeper message was not accepted. St John in the prologue to his Gospel writes that he came unto his own and his own did not accept him. For those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God. St John in his Gospel speaks of the miracles of Christ as being signs, signs of the much greater benefits of redemption and sanctification he offers all who come to him. But let us look on the uncomprehending crowds as a sign for us too. Let us look on the rapid spread of word about his arrival which we read of in today’s Gospel
(Mark 6:53-56) as a symbolic picture or sign of the response we and all mankind are called to show to Christ and the deeper blessings of redemption he has gained for us by his death and resurrection. The crowds running everywhere spreading the word of his arrival, their bringing their sick to him, their reaching out to him for healing and solace, all these scenes can be looked upon as inspiring pointers to what we ought be doing at a deeper and more important level. We all suffer from the profoundly debilitating and lethal disease of sin. It is passed on to each of us as our inheritance, and we cooperate with it to a greater or lesser extent. It is a great serpent that has found its way into the heart and soul of each of us, and only Christ can rid us of its presence. So we should come to him as our hope. Christ invites us to come to him unhesitatingly. He has the love and the power to deal with sin and to make us holy. We ought hurry towards him bringing before him our sinful selves together with the varied effects of sin in the world. We ought be like the people who hurried everywhere passing word of his arrival and bringing to him all we can for his healing touch.

We know where Christ is to be found. He is to be found in his Church, the Church he founded and in which he constantly abides. Within the life of the his Church of which he is the head he acts in the Sacraments he instituted. Most especially he offers himself and his sanctifying action in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance, and he teaches and preaches in the teaching and the preaching of the Church’s pastors and all who have a responsibility to hand on his word. Let us then come to him and find light and life in him.  
                                                                                                     (E.J.Tyler)

If you wish to view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here

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«All those who touched him were healed» (Mark 6:53-56)
            Saint Leo the Great (?-about 461), pope and doctor of the Church (Letter 28 to Flavian, 3-4)

Lowliness is assured by majesty, weakness by power, and mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that is incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ (1Tim 2,5), was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other...

He was born in a new condition, for, invisible in his own nature, he became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant (Phil 2,7). Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death. He who is true God is also true man.
                                                               (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Like the grain of wheat, we too have to die in order to become fruitful.

You and I, with the help of God's grace, want to open up a deep furrow, to blaze a trail. That is why we have to leave behind our poor animal man and launch out into the sphere of the spirit, giving a supernatural meaning to every human undertaking and, at the same time, to all those engaged in them.
                                                (The Forge, no.1013)

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               Who is the minister of this sacrament?
Christ has entrusted the ministry of Reconciliation to his apostles, to the bishops who are their successors and to the priests who are the collaborators of the bishops, all of whom become thereby instruments of the mercy and justice of God. They exercise their power of forgiving sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 1461-1466, 1495)
                 (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.307)

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Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 7) Today let us think of St Mel 
(Saints)


  Scripture today:    Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17;      Psalm 104:1-2a, 27-28, 29bc-30;       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.” (Mark 7:14-23)

Recently there were reports in the news media, especially on television, of the vast numbers of Hindus in India present at the ceremonial washing in the Ganges River. It is a most important Hindu ritual which brings together immense numbers of Hindus, and it manifests
strikingly man’s natural and religious sense of sin - whatever be the word for “sin” that is used. Hinduism is a great world religion and is a notable indication of man’s religious sense, and the fact that ritual purification plays such a significant part in it is itself worthy of reflection. Over the years of his literary and theological career Cardinal Newman (1801-1890) gradually worked out the elements of a philosophy of religion. His philosophy could be said to be based on the natural sense of sin which is - or normally should be - instinctive to man. He often made the point that the religion typical of philosophy and civilization is not particularly authentic because it tends to snuff out the sense of sin. Whatever of that theory and of a philosophy which starts with the instinctive sense of sin, there is surely no doubt of the importance of a sense of sin. If we are unaware that we are guilty of sin and in need of purification, if we are unaware of the capital importance of avoiding sin and being freed of it, then nature itself intimates that we shall gradually sink into one form or another of spiritual corruption. Now, beginning from the Old Testament the religion revealed by God is distinguished by concern for sin. Yahweh God is the Holy One, and he says to us, “Be holy, for I am holy”. Holiness and moral goodness is stipulated as a requirement of any relationship with God. If his people keep his commandments then he will be with them as their God. It is not enough merely to observe ritual practices (though this is very necessary) for moral action is also necessary, such as justice and mercy.

In our Gospel today our Lord points out the religious aberration which had gradually taken hold in the religion taught by many of the spiritual leaders of Israel. The great concern for religious purity before God was an authentic note of revealed religion, but many had come to understand and teach this as primarily involving external purity. The Gospel of St Mark shows that physical cleanliness in its various forms and the avoidance of things (such as certain foods) which were unclean had become very largely a substitute for the inner purity of heart which was the true end of revealed religion. It is sin which defiles, and it is at this level that purification has to be put into effect. It is sin which has to be avoided and taken away by some form of purification of the heart and soul. The religion of the Old Testament was truly revealed but it awaited fulfilment in its core concern: the redemption and cleansing from sin. This was to be the supreme work of the Messiah, to take away the sin of the world and to establish God’s Kingdom in which to him would be the glory. As John the Baptist said of Jesus, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has done this by his death and resurrection. In our Gospel today our Lord points out that it is “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.” (Mark 7:14-23). So we must aim at holiness of the heart and goodness of soul. That is to say, we must have as the object of our personal religion putting on the mind of Christ. As St Paul said in one of his Letters, “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” It is the heart of Christ which we must study and come to love. Our whole object in life must be to attain, with the power of the Holy Spirit, the likeness of Christ within, at the level of the mind and heart.

It is a common phrase to speak of the tip of the iceberg. In a sense what we say and do is just the tip of the iceberg. The bulk of the iceberg is out of sight underneath. That bulk is what is going on in our mind and heart. Our thoughts, our desires, our loves and our hates constitute the world of the heart. It is this inner man which must be made new and shaped in a radical likeness to the heart of Christ. This is the religion we must live, and it is the religion our Lord calls us to in today’s Gospel.
                                                                                                                          (E.J.Tyler)

If you wish to view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here

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“A clean heart create for me, O God” (Psalm 51:12)  (Mark 7:14-23)
             Saint Isaac the Syrian (7th century), Monk at Nineveh, near Mosul in present-day Iraq
                                                                                          (Spiritual Discourses, 1st series, no. 21)

It is said that only God’s help saves. When a person knows that there is no other help, he prays a lot. And the more he prays, the more his heart becomes humble, for it is not possible to pray and to request without being humble. “A heart contrite and humble, o God, you will not spurn.” (Ps 51:19) So long as the heart has not become humble, it is impossible for it to escape being scattered; humility gathers the heart together.

When a person has become humble, compassion immediately surrounds him and his heart then feels God’s help. He discovers a strength rising up within him, the strength of trust. When a person thus feels God’s help, when he feels that God is there and that he comes to his aid, immediately his heart is filled with faith and he then understands that prayer is the refuge of help, the source of salvation, trust’s treasure, the port that has been freed of the storm, the light of those who are in darkness, the support of the weak, the shelter in times of trial, help at the height of illness, the shield that saves in combat, the arrow sent out against the enemy. In one word, a multitude of good enters into him by means of prayer. So from then on, he finds his delight in the prayer of faith. His heart is radiant with trust.
                                                                          (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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You became a bit frightened when you saw such dazzling light, so bright that you thought it would be difficult to look, or even to see.

Disregard your obvious weaknesses, and open the eyes of your soul to faith, to hope and to love. Carry on, allowing yourself to be guided by God through whoever directs your soul.
                                                              (The Forge, no.1015)

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           Is a confessor bound to secrecy?
Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to people every confessor, without any exception and under very severe penalties, is bound to maintain “the sacramental seal” which means absolute secrecy about the sins revealed to him in confession. (CCC 1467)
                        (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.309)

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Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 8) St. Jerome Emiliani (1486-1537). Born in Venice. Converted to Christianity after a rather dissolute youth, he dedicated himself to the service of the poor, the sick, and abandoned children. He founded a religious congregation (Somaschi) which looked after the education of children, especially orphans. He died of the plague while serving the afflicted. 
(Saints)


        Scripture today:    Genesis 2:18-25;     Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5;     Mark 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. (Mark 7:24-30)

In our Gospel passage today our Lord goes into the district of Tyre, which was considerably pagan.  His entering a house secretly to avoid being noticed suggests that he has come to this district to get away from the crowds in Galilee and Judea and from the persecuting Jewish authorities. He wanted a respite to
continue his intensive formation of his apostles for time was limited. But the house was not to be the hide-out he had hoped, for word got around and “soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was (what Mark calls)  a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.” Let us imagine the scene and contemplate the pagan woman who comes insisting that he drive the demon out of her daughter. Her love for her daughter and her helplessness before her plight drove her in her prayer. She appears out of nowhere and once the favour is obtained she disappears into nowhere. Her untold story is a picture in miniature of the broken human condition and Satan’s presence in it. She, a “Greek” as Mark calls the Gentiles, bespeaks the natural man’s crying need of a redeemer who will deliver him from the power of the underworld. In man’s history of superstitions, fortune telling, astrology, spiritism, New Age, and countless other fetishes the Syrophoenician woman is surely an example to all of who it is that  man ought to turn to for relief from the thraldom of evil. Christ was visiting her pagan land and she heard about it. She had the sense and good fortune to come to him in her desperate situation. Most importantly, she placed her faith in him, such as that faith with all its limitations was. She shows that natural man can respond to the news of Christ and rise to a certain level of faith in him.

But more revealing is the response of Christ to her words. She came to him and he rebuffed her with words that did not seem to be kind. Her request did not attain its goal immediately. Of course we are not told whether Christ said these words smilingly or somewhat severely, but our immediate impression suggests that he did not say them with a warm smile - though we know that charity and compassion filled his sacred heart. His response was a test, and this test reminds us that God can choose to test those who come to him including those who come to him for a favour without what we might call a developed faith. Christ chose to test the pagan woman with a none-too-flattering image: “He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs’.”
(Mark 7:24-30) His own mission was almost exclusively to the children of Israel, especially to their lost ones. They were the children, and let us say in passing that our Lord’s words to this effect reminds us of the faithfulness of God in looking after his own. He sent his own divine Son to dwell among his chosen people. Our Lord’s words to the pagan woman remind us that those who are members of the Church he founded are the object of his special love, a love manifested in the person and abiding presence of his Son among us. His response to her assuring her with warmth that her faith had saved her daughter reminds us that all who come to Christ in faith can expect from him what is best.  Therefore, we who are disciples of Christ ought bring to all word of his person and presence, inviting them to go to him in their need. But they must go to him in faith. The challenge is then to believe enduringly, with perseverence. All too often people came to him in their need and then once the need had been met, their interest in him diminished, especially if his teaching was too hard. One presumes the Syro-Phoenecian woman had no more contact with him.

Christ abides in the Church, and our mission is to speak of him to all, and to tell them where he is to be found in his fulness. Christ was there in the region of Tyre, and in a house unbeknowns to most. But word got around. Let us do all we can to bring Christ to all, most especially to the poor and to those who are suffering any form of affliction.
                                                                                                    (E.J.Tyler)

If you wish to view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here

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“The woman was a Greek”  (Mark 7:24-30)
Vatican II (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate, 1-2)

In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.

One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth (cf. Acts 17:26). One also is their final goal, God. His Providence, his manifestations of goodness, his saving design extend to all men (cf. Wis 8:1; Acts 14:17; Rom 2:6-7; 1 Tim 2:4), until that time when the elect will be united in the Holy City, the city ablaze with the glory of God, where the nations will walk in his light (cf. Rev 21:23ff.).

Men expect from the various religions answers to the unsolved riddles of the human condition, which today even as in former times deeply stir the hearts of men… Religions…try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing “ways,” comprising teachings, rules of life and sacred rites.

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:18-19).
                                                          (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Be generous. Don't ask Jesus for even one consolation!

You ask me why. And I reply, because you know very well that even though this God of ours seems to be far away, he really is seated in the very centre of your soul, imparting a divine character to your whole life.
                                     (The Forge, no.1016)

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                         What are the effects of this sacrament?
The effects of the sacrament of Penance are: reconciliation with God and therefore the forgiveness of sins; reconciliation with the Church; recovery, if it has been lost, of the state of grace; remission of the eternal punishment merited by mortal sins, and remission, at least in part, of the temporal punishment which is the consequence of sin; peace, serenity of conscience and spiritual consolation; and an increase of spiritual strength for the struggle of Christian living. (CCC 1468-1470, 1496)
                       (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.310)

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Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 9)  Today let us think of St Teilo  (Saints)


       Scripture today:     Genesis 3:1-8;       Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7;      Mark 7:31-37

Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man(s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” (Mark 7:31-37)

In the passage immediately before this one in the Gospel of St Mark our Lord has been in the region of Tyre in retreat from the throngs of people seeking him for healing from their afflictions. The purpose of retreats such as this was above all to provide greater instructions to the Twelve for their coming mission as the foundation stones of the Church he would found. Now, in our Gospel today (Mark 7:31-37) he returns from Tyre and our scene finds him again in a Gentile district, that of the Decapolis. Once again, some people “brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay his hand on him.” Let us notice this detail that “they asked him to lay his hand on him.” Our Lord, then, had what we might call a well-known ritual of placing his hand on the one he was about to heal. Busy as he was with such requests he rarely just uttered a word of healing and sent a person off. The exceptions to this in the Gospels seem to have been for Gentiles whose evangelization had not yet begun. The Syrophoenician woman was one case - our Lord cured her daughter with a word. But otherwise the indications we have show that our Lord gave a very personal touch to his healings. In our case today there is even more of this personal touch. “He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man(s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ (that is, ‘Be opened!’).” Christ is surely showing the afflicted man that he is the object of very personal attention. He takes the trouble to show his deliberate involvement in the life of a suffering individual. Now, if we appeal to Christ, he will attend to us personally.

At various points in the Gospel we see Christ commanding the one he has healed not to spread abroad the healing he had been granted, though in this too there are exceptions. For instance, after having healed the one possessed by the devils called “Legion” on another occasion here in this Decapolis region, he told him to go and make known what God in his mercy had done for him. Nevertheless we do see that time and again Christ commanded the cured person not to tell others about it. Why was this? This healing ministry was not Christ’s principal work and he did not want it to be taken as the primary benefit he was sent by his heavenly Father to bring to man. His work was something incomparably greater and his miracles were signs that he had the power and the love to establish the Kingdom he was announcing. Jesus desired to concentrate - and he wished others to concentrate - on his principal mission which was to announce, explain and establish God’s Kingdom. That Kingdom in which God would be ruler of the hearts of men and in which he would enable them to live the life preached by Christ, would come above all through his death and resurrection. Personal holiness, the overcoming of sin, the transformation of the heart of man, all this was the mission he had come to fulfil. He had come to bring to each individual the immense heavenly blessing of God’s kingdom which would be within. The heart of man would be transformed by the power of God’s grace, and God would be all in all. As we read of Christ treating the man with the speech impediment in such a personal and individual way, and as we then read of his ordering him and his friends not to tell others about this physical healing, let us focus our lives on the true meaning of Christ’s person, teaching and ministry.

Let us pray for a knowledge of the person of Christ and for a true understanding of the plan of God for us. Let us not be sidetracked into looking on Christ in ways that miss the essential purpose of his coming. He has come above all to make saints of us, hidden saints immersed in the ordinary life and transforming that ordinary and humble life into something which before God has a true grandeur, the grandeur of life in Christ.
                                                                                                (E.J.Tyler)

If you wish to view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here

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“He put his fingers into the man’s ears and… touched his tongue”  (Mark 7:31-37)
                 St Ephrem (306 – 373), Deacon and Doctor of the Church (Sermon “On our Lord”, 10-11)

Divine strength, which the human being cannot touch, came down; it covered itself with a palpable body, so that the poor might touch it, and in touching Christ’s humanity, they might perceive his divinity. Through the fingers of flesh, the deaf-mute felt that his ears and his tongue were being touched. Through the palpable fingers, he perceived the divinity that cannot be touched when his tongue’s bond was broken and when the closed doors of his ears were opened. For the body’s architect and artisan came to him, and with a gentle word, without pain, he created openings in deaf ears. Then the mouth as well, that had been closed and until then incapable of giving light to the word, put into the world praise of him who thus caused its sterility to bear fruit.

In the same way, the Lord made mud with his saliva and spread it over the eyes of the man born blind (Jn 9:6) so as to make us understand that, like the deaf-mute, he was lacking something. An inborn imperfection in our human batter was removed thanks to the leaven that comes from his perfect body… To fill in what was missing in these human bodies, he gave something of himself, just as he gives himself to be aten [in the Eucharist]. By this means he causes the faults to disappear and raises the dead, so that we might recognize that the faults of our humanity are filled, thanks to his body in which “the fullness of deity resides” (Col 2:9), and that true life is given to mortals by means of this body, in which true life resides.
                                                                         (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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I was telling you that even people who had not received baptism had been moved to say, ``I can well understand that saintly souls must be happy, for they look at events with a vision that is above the things of this world. They see things with the eyes of eternity.''

May you not lack that same vision, I added afterwards, so that you can respond to the special love with which the Blessed Trinity has treated you.
                                                   (The Forge, no.1017)

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       Can this sacrament be celebrated in some cases with a general confession and general absolution?
In cases of serious necessity (as in imminent danger of death) recourse may be had to a communal celebration of Reconciliation with general confession and general absolution, as long as the norms of the Church are observed and there is the intention of individually confessing one’s grave sins in due time. (CCC 1480-1484)
                  (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.311)

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Saturday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time II

(February 10)  Saint Scholastica, virgin (480-547). Born at Norcia in Umbria, she was the twin sister of St Benedict. She followed the rule of her brother in founding the Order of Benedictine nuns.
(Saints)


        Scripture today:    Genesis 3:9-24;      Psalm 90:2, 3-4abc, 5-6, 12-13;      Mark 8:1-10

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven.” He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over—seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha. (Mark 8:1-10)
 
When we read the Gospels we read with a view to contemplating the living person of Jesus, and in order to understand his salvific ways. St John in his Gospel narrates that our Lord in his prayer to his heavenly Father during the Last Supper said that “eternal life is this, to know you Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” So our purpose in reading the Gospels is to come to know Jesus in the first
instance, and in him to know the Father and the Holy Spirit. Well then, let us contemplate him. There was “a great crowd without anything to eat” following him (Mark 8:1-10), and while those who made up this particular crowd would have been a mixed lot, surely they can be taken to symbolize the numbers who would come to follow him down the ages “without anything to eat”, as it were. That is to say, let us look on them as a pointer to those of Christ’s faithful who choose to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and who trust in God’s loving providence as they find in the person of Christ their life and their light. The needs of the crowd following Christ evoke from him a great act of power and compassion. They have nothing to eat, and practically nothing is at hand to feed them. So Christ blesses his heavenly Father for the meagre particles of food before him and at a word proceeds to feed the four thousand people seated in front of him. The scene is a revelation of the immense power of Christ over all things - in this case over the limits of nature - and of the merciful character of this power. Christ shows his power in acts of love, pity and mercy. In him is revealed a God who is love. Indeed, if we are to come to know God we ought look on the face of Christ, for as Pope Benedict is fond of saying in his writings, Christ is the face of God.

Over the course of life very many things can come our way. There can be consolations, achievements, vicissitudes, and many disappointments. There can be bad health, physical operations, financial distress and reversals, anxiety stemming from various family members, joys and sorrows. But in all of this there is one thing we are called to do if life is to acquire its true meaning and if it is to be a success in the sight of God. It is that we must follow Christ wherever this might lead us and whatever might be the cost. His person and his teaching and his grace are the constant in our life.  We must exercise all the due prudence that is pleasing to God but in the last analysis the only truly prudent thing is to be ready to forego everything for the sake of Christ whom we are following. We do this knowing that he will look after us. He does not need much and our Gospel passage today shows our Lord feeding the crowds with the few loaves and the fish. There is one pattern that we may well notice when crises bringing great perplexity come. It is that if we trust in Christ and ask for help in being obedient to the will of God, we may well be surprised at the sequel as we look back on it long afterwards. The power and the compassion of God may well be evident to us. In any case we must trust and this is surely the abiding lesson from our Gospel passage today. The same Christ who is described in today’s Gospel, the same one who exercised such power and showed such pity, lives now in the life of the Church his body. He is present among us in the Church’s ministry of the word and the Sacraments. He is in our midst in this way, inviting us to make him and his teaching the object of our life whatever be the inconvenience and cost, knowing that he will look after us.

As is often narrated, St Thomas More on the way to the scaffold said, “though I lose my head I’ll come to no harm.” Christ who lives now and who is God-with-us in the Church of which he is the head asks of us that we give him our faith. He is the constant in our world of flux and uncertainty. He is the one thing that is certain, the truth that abides, the grace that will never fail. He invites each of us to come to him and learn from him, especially from his sacred heart which is revealed in our Gospel text today, just as it is in the whole sweep of the Gospels.
                                                                                                                   (E.J.Tyler)  

If you wish to view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here
                              
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Our shepherd gives himself as food  (Mark 8:1-10)
          St John Chrysostom (345 – 407), Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homilies on St. Matthew, no. 82)

“Who can tell the mighty deeds of the Lord, or proclaim all his praises?” (Ps 106:2) Which shepherd ever nourished his sheep with his own body? But what am I saying – a shepherd? Often, mothers entrust their children to a wet nurse as soon as they are born. But Jesus Christ cannot accept that for his sheep; he himself nourishes us with his own blood, and thus he causes us to become one single body with him.

My brothers, consider that Christ was born of our own human substance. But, you will say, so what? That doesn’t concern all human beings. Excuse me, my brother; it is a great advantage for all of them. If he became man, if he came to take on our nature, that concerns the salvation of all human beings. And if he came for all, he also came for each one in particular. Perhaps you will say: So why have not all accepted the fruit that they were supposed to receive through that coming? Don’t blame Jesus, who chose this means for the salvation of everyone; the fault lies with those who reject this kindness. For in the Eucharist, Jesus Christ unites himself to each of his faithful; he causes them to be reborn, he nourishes them with himself, he does not abandon them to another, and thus he convinces them once again that he really took on our flesh.
                                                                             (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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I assure you that if we want to, as children of God, we can make a powerful contribution towards lighting up the work and the lives of men with the divine and eternal splendour which it has pleased the Lord to place in our souls.

But
he who says he abides in Jesus ought to walk the same way He walked as Saint John teaches. It is a path which always leads to glory. But it also always passes through sacrifice.
                                                                         (The Forge, no.1018)

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                  What are indulgences?
Indulgences are the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. The faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains the indulgence under prescribed conditions for either himself or the departed. Indulgences are granted through the ministry of the Church which, as the dispenser of the grace of redemption, distributes the treasury of the merits of Christ and the Saints.  (CCC 1471-1479, 1498)
                    (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.312)

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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time C

(February 11) Our Lady of Lourdes. This day marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year old Marie Bernade (St Bernadette) Soubirous. There were eighteen apparitions in all, the last of which was on 16 July 1858. The message of Lourdes is a call to personal conversion, prayer and charity.
(Saints)
                      (World Day of Prayer for the Sick)


Scripture:    Jeremiah 17:5-8;    Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6;    1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20;    Luke 6:17, 20-26

Jesus came down with the twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.” (Luke 6:17, 20-26)

 I remember years ago when I was a student I was discussing with a fellow student the essence and necessity of morality. What is it to be
moral, and why should we be moral? In response to this question he said to me that, rather than this being the issue for him, basically what he wanted was to be happy. It was a very good comment because it implied that the fundamental obligation to be good needs to be connected with our basic desire for happiness. The profound link between holiness and peace ought be appreciated, and each provides a yardstick for the other. It is impossible to be happy if one is not good, and a goodness in which happiness is absent lacks authenticity. The quest for happiness is a fundamental starting point in the heart of man. It is instinctive and natural and is implanted in man by his Creator in order that he may actually find that happiness. God means us to be happy. So profound a part of human nature is this that the thought of a human being who does not want to be happy is almost unimaginable, and wherever there is such a person we know that something is wrong with him. The critical issue is, how is happiness to be understood, and what steps are to be taken to gain it? Above all, what has God revealed in answer to this? From the answers to this will flow certain choices that will set a person’s course in this life and in the next.

    Let us turn to our Gospel today
(Luke 6:17, 20-26) and notice right away that our Lord in his beatitudes addresses man’s desire to be happy. In doing this our Lord is taking up a fundamental theme of the Old Testament. God had called Abraham from his native country to a new land which he would give him. He promised Abraham that through him all the nations would be blessed. He was promising happiness and blessings to the world through Abraham’s posterity. Then when Abraham’s descendants were enslaved in Egypt, God sent Moses to lead them out to the promised land. If they accepted him as their God and kept his commandments, he would be their God and he would bless them. That is to say, God held out to his chosen people the promise of happiness if they remained faithful to their covenant with him as their Lord. So happiness would flow from obeying God’s commands. Now, in the Old Testament promise of future happiness and blessings, the emphasis was given to this life. If they were faithful to God and his covenant with them, they would be blessed and happy in this life, while, of course including the next. Now, this emphasis in the Old Testament was true, and we remember how our Lord himself promised happiness in this life - but together with the Cross. But the Old Testament revelation was very incomplete and one which very many of the children of Israel misunderstood, even though there were outstanding examples of holiness in the Old Testament. That misunderstanding is one in which we can all share. Our constant tendency precisely in our religion is to look for happiness in this world and scarcely beyond it.

      In the Beatitudes according to St Luke today our Lord reveals wherein lies our true happiness, and his words complete what God had already revealed about the happiness intended for man. If all we had were the conclusions of human reason, or the revelation of the Old Testament, our knowledge of man’s happiness would be very limited. Our Lord promises a true and authentic happiness, a happiness which is a share in his own happiness and a share in the beatitude of God himself.  It is centered on his kingdom. Therein lies the happiness of man, and that kingdom is present in this life but is to be fully enjoyed in the next. It is the happiness our Lord himself enjoyed during his years on this earth and it is especially the happiness he enjoys in his glory. Happy are you who are poor: yours is the kingdom of God. The one whose treasure is not in this world but in God and his kingdom will be truly happy. The one who hungers, who is deprived of human respect and natural joys, the one who is persecuted for his belief in Christ, in a word the one who looks to Christ as his life, will enjoy the truest happiness here while bearing his daily cross, and will obtain perfect happiness hereafter.

  Let us ask ourselves what is it that we are seeking in life in order to be happy. If we are looking to God, let us ask ourselves if we are not putting our bets on other things as well. Let us look to Christ, and to all else only in Christ. For me, St Paul said, to live is Christ. Christ is our life and happiness.
                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1716-1724

If you wish to view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here

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"And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours." 
(Luke 6:17, 20-26)          Paul VI, pope from 1963 to 1978 (Apostolic Exhortation On Christian Joy - May 9, 1975)

But it is necessary here below to understand properly the secret of the unfathomable joy which dwells in Jesus and which is special to Him... If Jesus radiates such peace, such assurance, such happiness, such availability, it is by reason of the inexpressible love by which He knows that He is loved by His Father. When He is baptized on the banks of the Jordan, this love, which is present from the first moment of His Incarnation, is manifested: "You are my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on you."(Lk 3:22) This certitude is inseparable from the consciousness of Jesus. It is a presence which never leaves Him all alone.(Jn 16:32) It is an intimate knowledge which fills Him: "...the Father knows me and I know the Father."(Jn 10:15) It is an unceasing and total exchange: "All I have is yours and all you have is mine."(Jn 17:10) "...You loved me before the foundation of the world."(Jn 17:24) Here there is an uncommunicable relationship of love which is identified with His existence as the Son and which is the secret of the life of the Trinity: the Father is seen here as the one, who gives Himself to the Son, without reserve and without ceasing, in a burst of joyful generosity, and the Son is seen as He who gives Himself in the same way to the Father, in a burst of joyful gratitude, in the Holy Spirit.

And the disciples and all those who believe in Christ are called to share this joy. Jesus wishes them to have in themselves His joy in its fullness.(Jn 17:13) "I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them."(Jn 17:26)

This joy of living in God's love begins here below. It is the joy of the kingdom of God. But it is granted on a steep road which requires a total confidence in the Father and in the Son, and a preference given to the kingdom. The message of Jesus promises above all joy—this demanding joy; and does it not begin with the beatitudes? "How happy are you who are poor: yours is the kingdom of God. Happy you who are hungry now: you shall be satisfied. Happy you who weep now: you shall laugh."
                                                                              (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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What a disappointment awaited those who saw the light of the pseudo-apostle, and wishing to come out of their darkness, were drawn to his light. They raced to get there. They may have left shreds of their skin along the way. Some in their eagerness for that light may also have left behind some shreds of their very souls. And now, having reached the pseudo-apostle, they find cold and darkness. Cold and darkness which will eventually congeal the broken hearts of those who for a while had believed in that ideal.

t is an evil deed the pseudo-apostle has done. Those disappointed men who had been ready to give their very flesh in exchange for those glowing fires, for that gleaming ruby of charity, drop once more, instead, back to the earth from which they had come. Down they go, with a saddened heart, with a heart that is a heart no longer — just a chunk of ice shrouded in a darkness which will eventually cloud their minds.

You false paradoxical apostle, see what you have done: because Christ is on your lips but not in your deeds; because you attract with a light which you yourself lack; because there is no warmth of charity in you, and you claim to be concerned about outsiders while all the time you are neglecting your own; because you are a liar, and lying is the daughter of the devil. And so, you are working for the devil, causing bewilderment to those who follow the Master, and even though you may triumph frequently here on earth, woe to you on that day which is approaching when our friend Death will come, and you shall see the anger of the Judge whom you have never deceived. Paradoxes, no, Lord: paradoxes, never.
                                                              (The Forge, no.1019)

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                   How was sickness viewed in the Old Testament?
In the Old Testament sickness was experienced as a sign of weakness and at the same time perceived as mysteriously bound up with sin. The prophets intuited that sickness could also have a redemptive value for one’s own sins and those of others. Thus sickness was lived out in the presence of God from whom people implored healing. (CCC 1499-1502)
                       (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.313)

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Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 12)  Today let us think of Saint Damian 
(Saints)


       Scripture today:    Genesis 4:1-15, 25;     Psalm 50:1 and 8, 16bc-17, 20-21;     Mark 8:11-13

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore. (Mark 8:11-13)

In our Gospel passage today we find ourselves in a scene which is often repeated in other parts of the Gospels. “The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him” (Mark 8:11). Here we have the noblest and
most exalted person who ever walked the earth being subjected to persistent disputes and opposition. He is no ordinary human person, rather he is a divine person. This Jesus who is the subject of the Gospels is God the Son, the same God as is the Father and as is the Holy Spirit, though as a person is distinct from each of them. From all eternity his glory was that of God, a glory shared also by the Father and the Holy Spirit. Yet he did not hesitate to set aside this glory to become as we are and humbler still, even to death on the Cross. And here in our Gospel passage today we see him in his fully human condition subjected to the unreasonable humiliation of being opposed and taken to task by those whom as God he constantly holds in existence. Through him, St John tells us in his prologue, all things came to be. He came unto his own and his own did not receive him, but to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God. So as we think of Christ being affronted by the attacks and hostile questioning by the Pharisees who demanded from him a sign from heaven to test him, let us think of the extent and wonder of the Incarnation. God truly became man, and though utterly holy, utterly powerful, utterly perfect, he allowed himself to be treated as if he were an ordinary and flawed man. He became as men are and humbler still. Gazing on Christ with our mind’s eye and contemplating him in our scene, let us be filled with amazement that God has deigned to become man, a man like us in all things but sin, and in becoming man to subject himself to the indignities so often characteristic of the human condition.

As we think thus of the person of Jesus and renew in our hearts our sense of wonder at his becoming man, let us turn our gaze to the Pharisees who were arguing with him. Little did they know! When our Lord was dying on the cross he prayed to his heavenly Father to forgive those who were jeering at him and who had brought him to this pass because they did not know what they were doing. They did not know that what they were doing to Jesus they were doing to one who is a man, yes, but who in his person is God. They were blind. But the question is, why did they not recognize his goodness and authority? Their blindness was due to sin. Let us not attempt to probe the levels of responsibility for their blindness, their stubbornness and their advancing hatred for Jesus. Their blindness was due to their sinful hearts and the only answer to sin was and is the person of Jesus. He had come to take away the sin of the world, but there had to be a readiness to accept him for who he was and for his redemptive work and teaching. This readiness the Pharisees stubbornly refused to have and to show, and so Christ left them. “He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.’ Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore” (Mark 8:11-13). The actions of the Pharisees and the response it drew from Christ is a warning to us. We must come to Christ in all humility and appreciation, sitting at his feet as before the one who is the Master. We must not dispute with his teaching and we ought do our very best to determine where he continues to teach in our day and in every generation. He continues to teach from within the life of his body the Church, and in and  through the Church’s ministry of the word and the Sacraments. Let us renounce anything in our dispositions or response that likens us to the Pharisees, for if we do not put away all such attitudes, Christ will sigh from his heart and pass us by. If we refuse Christ, we shall be left in our sins.

Let us then place ourselves in our Gospel scene and contemplate the person of Jesus. He is the Lord  of lords and King of kings. He is the Son of the Father, and is the same divine being as the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is God and man. Let us accept him as the Master of our life, our true and constant teacher and redeemer. Let us renounce any secret attitudes in us that calls Christ’s teaching into question and which prompt our hearts to argue with the Son of God as he speaks to us in and through his body the Church. Let us throw in our lot with him and resolve to follow him wherever he might lead us.
                                                                                                                   (E.J.Tyler)

If you wish to view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here

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“Why does this age seek a sign?” - Believing even in darkness (Mark 8:11-13)
                    Saint [Padre] Pio de Pietrelcina (1887-1968), Capuchin (OP; GF 174; Ep 4,418)

The Holy Spirit tells us: Don’t let your mind succumb to temptation and sorrow, for joy of the heart is life for the soul. Sorrow is no good for anything and causes our spiritual death.

It happens sometimes that the darkness of trial overwhelms your soul’s heaven; but this darkness is light! Thanks to it, you believe even in darkness; the mind feels lost, it fears no longer being able to see, no longer understanding anything. But this is the moment when the Lord speaks and makes himself present to the soul; and the soul listens, understands and loves in the fear of God. So don’t wait for Tabor to “see” God when you are already contemplating him on Sinai.

Progress in the joy of a sincere heart that is wide open. And if it is impossible for you to keep that happiness, at least don’t lose courage and keep all your trust in God.
                                                                                 (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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This is the sure way: through humiliation to the Cross; then, from the Cross, with Christ, to the immortal Glory of the Father.
                                                      (The Forge, no.1020)

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                 What is the attitude of the Church toward the sick?
Having received from the Lord the charge to heal the sick, the Church strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick and accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. Above all, the Church possesses a sacrament specifically intended for the benefit of the sick. This sacrament was instituted by Christ and is attested by Saint James: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call in the presbyters of the Church and let them pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14-15). (1506-1513, 1526-1527)
                                        (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.315)

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Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 13) Today let us think of St. Catherine de Ricci 
(Saints)


Scripture today:    Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10;     Psalm 29:1a and 2, 3ac-4, 3b and 9c-10;       Mark 8:14-21

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread. When he became aware of this he said to them, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:14-21)

Saint Jerome once wrote that ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. Of course, he would have been referring to ignorance of the content of Scripture, rather than simply to the reading of Scripture. Even in his own day the widespread illiteracy and the very limited
number of written copies of the Scriptures, would have excluded great numbers from a formal reading of the Scriptures. A considerable knowledge of the contents of the Scriptures has been handed on to the faithful over the centuries by the Church’s teaching and preaching, by the Church’s art work, her liturgy, her popular devotions and by a variety of other means available in the Church’s life and ministry. For instance, a daily praying of the rosary involves a prayerful contemplation of Christ in the Gospels scenes. But of course, the daily, prayerful and assiduous reading of the Scriptures by those able to do so holds pride of place among the ways of knowing the content of Scripture and therefore of knowing the person of Christ. In respect to the Scriptures the reading of the Gospels is especially important because the person of Christ is set forth especially in the Gospels. He is the way, the truth and the life, and eternal life is knowing, loving, serving and being faithful to him. So then, let us consider Jesus in our Gospel passage today (Mark 8:14-21). One thing we notice about him in his teaching is his frequent use of analogy and metaphor. When we think of certain great thinkers in the history of Western philosophy - such as Plato and Aristotle a few centuries before Christ - we remember how they made great use of philosophical abstraction. Our Lord, though, uses stories and analogies drawn from everyday life to make the most sublime points. He speaks concretely and pictorially and thus addresses the mind with the aid of the imagination. Newman once wrote that an essential medium of religion is the imagination.

In our passage today the disciples noticed that they had forgotten to bring bread (and the bread of that time was bread of real substance), and Christ said to them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” He was using the analogy of bread to warn against the teaching and example of the Pharisees and the Herodians, which constituted a principal obstacle to his own ministry. He was being opposed at every opportunity by them, and their growing hatred of him was implacable. It would lead to his death, which he would embrace obediently for the salvation of the world. Let us understand that in thus warning them against this our Lord warns all his disciples down through the ages against any teaching which opposes his own. Christ states plainly in the Gospels that he is the Light of the world and that anyone who does not walk by his light is walking in the darkness. Being a disciple of Christ must include a careful and persevering attempt to know his teaching and to guard against whatever is not in accord with it. This teaching comes to us through the knowledge of Scripture, but as read not just with our own private judgment alone but with the mind of the Church which produced and authenticated these sacred writings. The Gospels and the New Testament come to the faithful, as it always has, from the hand of the Church who, in certain of her inspired and earliest members, wrote them. They are the Church’s own book, and their acceptance as inspired is due to the Church’s judgment about them. They are part of the canon of Scripture because the Church has discerned this to be the case. So Scripture must be read with the mind of the Church. Revelation comes to us in two intimately connected channels, Scripture and the Church’s living Tradition. Each is understood in light of the other, and we come to know Christ by being immersed in both.

As we think of today’s Gospel scene in which our Lord warns his disciples against false teaching that is not in accord with his own, let us resolve to abide in the true doctrine of Christ so as to abide in him. The person of Christ is the object of our life, but if we are to know and love him we must know and assent to his teaching. Let us learn to recognize the true channels through which this teaching comes to us, Scripture and the Church’s living Tradition. By immersing ourselves in these two intimately connected gifts of God, we shall abide in the true and living person of Jesus.
                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)

If you wish to view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here

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"Do you not yet understand or comprehend?"  (Mark 8:14-21)
                                               Vincent of Lérins (d. c. 450), monk (Commonitory, 23)

But some one will say, perhaps, Shall there, then, be no progress in Christ's Church? Certainly; all possible progress. For what being is there, so envious of men, so full of hatred to God, who would seek to forbid it? Yet on condition that it be real progress, not alteration of the faith… The intelligence, then, the knowledge, the wisdom, as well of individuals as of all, as well of one man as of the whole Church, ought, in the course of ages and centuries, to increase and make much and vigorous progress; but yet only in its own kind; that is to say, in the same doctrine, in the same sense, and in the same meaning.

The growth of religion in the soul must be analogous to the growth of the body, which, though in process of years it is developed and attains its full size, yet remains still the same. There is a wide difference between the flower of youth and the maturity of age; yet they who were once young are still the same now that they have become old, insomuch that though the stature and outward form of the individual are changed, yet his nature is one and the same, his person is one and the same. An infant's limbs are small, a young man's large, yet the infant and the young man are the same…, there were already present in embryo…

In like manner, it behoves Christian doctrine to follow the same laws of progress, so as to be consolidated by years, enlarged by time, refined by age… Our forefathers in the old time sowed wheat in the Church's field. It would be most unmeet and iniquitous if we, their descendants, instead of the genuine truth of corn, should reap the counterfeit error of tares (Mt 13:24 sq). This rather should be the result,—there should be no discrepancy between the first and the last. From doctrine which was sown as wheat, we should reap, in the increase, doctrine of the same kind—wheat also; so that when in process of time any of the original seed is developed, and now flourishes under cultivation, no change may ensue in the character of the plant… Therefore,… the same ought to be cultivated and taken care of by the indus