Preparing for the 5th Sunday OTB

Preparing for the 5th Sunday OTB

5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: Job 7:1-4,6-7  1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23  

Mark 1:29-39

This Sunday’s readings plunge us into the agony and mystery of suffering which in a Christian context can never be rationally resolved, but only sublimated in the paradox of a gospel centered on the cross.  Although never directly mentioned, the healing mystery of the cross looms behind this Sunday’s readings.  The Christian gospel does not eliminate human suffering, so poignantly expressed in Job’s lament and the afflictions of the possessed in Mark’s Gospel.  Rather, it announces the victory over the demonic powers of evil that is won by a crucified Jesus who is more than simply a miracle worker and who calls his followers, like Paul, to become slaves to all.

Job’s tortured lament is a reply to the facile theology of “his friend,” Eliphaz, who has insisted, following traditional wisdom, that Job’s terrible sufferings (see Job 1-2) are somehow deserved because of his sin. “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same”  (4:7-8).  In face of such “ashy maxims,” the innocent Job is forced to struggle for an explanation of his suffering, while maintaining his moral integrity.  In the section of his speech chosen for our reading, he describes the human condition as that of “a slave who longs for the shade” or “a hireling who waits (vainly) for his wages.”  His own sickness does not even allow him the rest of an untroubled night’s sleep.  As his days swiftly pass away without hope, he can only cry out to God: “Remember that my life is like the winds;/ I shall not see happiness again.”  For the author, such a tortured cry to God is more faith-filled than the pious platitudes of Job’s friends (see Job 42:7-9).

In the second reading, Paul offers his own behavior in imitation of the selfless Christ as an example to the Corinthian Christians who were tempted to boast of their knowledge and ignore the spiritual and temporal needs of weaker members of the community (see 1 Corinthians 8-11).  Our reading comes in the center of this section, and in it Paul insists that as an apostle he is under an obligation to preach the gospel and that his recompense is simply to be able to offer it free of charge, rather than making use of the authority the gospel gives him.  As an apostle, Paul has certain rights to things like financial support from the Corinthian community and to marriage, but he has freely given them up in order to be of service to those to whom he preaches the gospel. Just as Paul has made himself a slave to all for the sake of sharing in the blessings of the gospel of the crucified Christ, so he asks the Corinthians to be willing to give up their liberties and privileges for the sake of one another’s spiritual and temporal needs.

In many ways the Gospel reading captures Mark’s unique Christology.  On the one hand, he presents a powerful Jesus who inaugurates God’s kingdom by announcing “the good news” of its arrival and by attacking, in apocalyptic fashion, the dominion of Satan through numerous miracles.  At the beginning of our reading Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever, and, as evening draws on, he cures people of various afflictions and expels demons.  By the end of the selection, Jesus has embarked on a tour of the synagogues of Galilee, preaching the good news and expelling demons.  But on the other hand, the Markan Jesus is not simply a miracle worker.  He will not permit the demons to speak, because they know him.  Jesus’ full identity cannot be proclaimed simply on the basis of his powerful miracles in plundering the dominion of Satan.  This explains Jesus’ withdrawal from the adulation of the crowd to retire for prayer in a lonely place in the desert.  In the second half of the Gospel, he will repeatedly insist that his destiny is to go to Jerusalem to be rejected by the leaders, killed, and then rise after the third day (see 8:31-33; 9:30-31; 10:32-34).  Simon and the other disciples will consistently fail to accept the role of Jesus’ death in his messianic mission (see 8:32-33; 9:33-37; 10:35-45).  Their preference for a gospel of power and glory is already foreshadowed in today’s reading.  When Jesus withdraws to be absorbed in prayer, they track him down and with exasperation exclaim: “Everyone is looking for you!”  Aware that his purpose is not to bask in adulation of those already healed, Jesus commands that they move on to preach in the neighboring villages.  “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.  For this purpose have I come.”

This Sunday’s liturgy is a challenge to face the hard reality of the world’s suffering without resorting to the moral platitudes of Job’s friends

nor the wonders of a miracle working Christ who simply sweeps away the evils of the world.  The Christian gospel is the good news of

God’s victory over the powers of evil, but only through a self-sacrificing Messiah who “did not come to be served but to serve and to give

his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45).                  

4th Sunday B

4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: Deuteronomy 18:15-20  1 Corinthians 7:32-35 

 Mark 1:21-28

“What does this mean?  A completely new teaching in a spirit of authority!  He gives orders to unclean spirits and they obey him!”  This reaction to Jesus’ first miracle in Mark presents us with the mystery, authority and power of the kingdom of God as it is manifest in Jesus.  In our cynical age, distrustful of political and even religious authorities, we strive to be open to the authoritative power of Jesus’ healing word.  Let us be attentive to the words of today’s responsorial psalm: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps 95).

The Deuteronomy reading expresses Israel’s hopes for the continued presence of God’s authoritative word in the person of a prophetic successor to Moses.  According to the account of the Lord’s appearance and giving of the covenant on Mount Horeb in Deuteronomy 5, the Israelites were frightened that they might die because they had heard the direct voice of the Lord and seen his glory in the great fire on the mountain (see Deut 5:1-5,22-27).   In response to their reverential fear, the Lord establishes Moses as the mediator of his covenant demands (Deut 5:28-31).  In our reading, Moses announces that his office will be continued after his death by a prophet who will speak God’s words to succeeding generations.  In later Judaism this prophetic figure came to be understood as the Lord’s final, eschatological messenger who would arise on the great day of the Lord to initiate the process of purifying Israel (see Mal 3:1-5,22-24).  In Mark’s Gospel John the Baptist begins to fulfill this role (Mark 1:2-8), and Jesus’ powerful ministry of teaching and healing brings it to completion.

In the seconding reading from First Corinthians, Paul continues his eschatological exhortations to both unmarried and married men and women.  His advice is very even handed. Paul wants both groups “to be free of anxieties” by trusting completely in God and the risen Christ.  The unmarried should not be “anxious about the things of the Lord” and how they “may please the Lord” or “be holy in body and spirit.” Likewise, the married should not be “anxious about the things of world” and how they “may please” their wives or husbands.  Both groups must learn to serve “the Lord without distraction.”

In the Gospel Mark, after recounting Jesus initial proclamation of the Kingdom of God and the call of the first disciples at the Sea of Galilee, has him immediately take his mission into the physical and temporal center of the established religious order and assert his authority over the demonic forces that have entered there.  Jesus and his disciples come to Capernaum, and on the Sabbath he enters the synagogue and teaches.  The people are astonished at the authority of his teaching because it is “not like the scribes,” the traditional authorities in the synagogue.  Then, in the midst of the synagogue, Jesus encounters the demonic powers of an unclean spirit which had possessed a man.  In Mark’s Gospel Jesus’ ministry is presented as a titanic battle against the evil forces of Satan.  It began with his struggle with Satan in the desert (Mark 1:12-12), and now in his first public teaching in the synagogue he again encounters Satan’s forces.  With calm, authoritative power, Jesus rebukes the demons in the possessed man by simply commanding: “Quiet!  Come out of him!”

An important theme throughout Mark is the mystery of Jesus’ identity.  In today’s Gospel the supernatural demonic forces immediately recognize Jesus as their mortal enemy; they shriek: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”  In contrast, the crowds who witness Jesus’ exorcism are amazed, but are not able to fully comprehend his significance.  “All were amazed and asked one another, ‘What is this?  A new teaching with authority.  He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.’” We, as Mark’s readers, are challenged to go beyond the crowds by accepting and following the authoritative Jesus, “the Holy One of God,” who attacks and defeats the demonic powers of evil, even in the bastions of religious and political privilege.

Third Sunday OT B

3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: Jonah 3:1-5,10  1 Corinthians 7:29-31  Mark 1:14-20

“This is the time of fulfillment.  The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel!”  Jesus’ first spoken words in Mark both proclaim the long-awaited arrival of God’s Kingdom and challenge all to repent and believe in this joyous good news.  As we struggle to discern God’s demanding call, each of us can pray in the words of the responsorial psalm: “Teach me your ways, O Lord” (Ps 25).

To understand the startling message of the first reading from Jonah, we must know something about this peculiar Biblical book.  It is a didactic short story (only four chapters), written as a challenge to the stereotypes of the Israelite prophetic tradition on the basis of God’s merciful action even to the hated foreign enemy.  Usually a prophet, however reluctantly, responds to his call, but invariably the chosen peoples of Israel and Judah refuse to listen to the prophet’s message.  But in the story of Jonah this situation is reversed.  When called to preach against the wicked and hated Assyrian city of Nineveh, Jonah flees by ship in the opposite direction.  Only after being cast into the sea and spending three days in the belly of a great fish, does he reluctantly perform his task.  In contrast to the reluctant prophet, the pagan Ninevites surprisingly respond to Jonah’s preaching with belief and immediate repentance, something both Israel and Judah repeatedly fail to do.  Although it took three days to go through Nineveh, after a single day of Jonah’s preaching the whole city repents in sack-cloth and ashes, and God relents in the punishment he threatened against it.

In the section following our reading, Jonah is angry with the Lord for showing mercy to the hated enemy city.  He leaves Nineveh and waits to see what will happen to it.  God challenges his blind hatred through the lesson of a gourd plant which he gives as shade to Jonah for only a single day.  When the plant dies, Jonah is angry and asks for death himself.  But God reminds him: “You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished.  And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention many cattle?” (Jonah 4:10-11)                                                          

Upon first hearing, the second reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians seems out of step with a Christian commitment to responsible living in this world.  Filled with expectation of Jesus’ triumphant return, Paul seems to advocate ignoring our normal human obligations.  Although Paul’s rhetoric may jar our more practical sensibilities, he is emphasizing the radical demands of Christian living which must never completely identify worldly projects with God’s Kingdom.  Paul lived with an apocalyptic sense of urgency.  Jesus, the Messiah, had come and triumphed over sin and death through his cross and resurrection.  God’s renewal of the world has begun, and then Christ will return in triumph to complete the new creation.  Christians, living in the interim before Christ’s triumphant return, should live for the renewed kingdom of God, rather than this passing sinful world. “From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.”

The Gospel selection from Mark contrasts the momentous arrival of God’s kingdom in Jesus’ initial preaching with the rather humble beginnings of that kingdom in the call of four Galilean fishermen.  Mark has prepared us for this critical moment by his previous narrative.  John’s appearance in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy announcing the coming of God’s messenger (Mark 1:2-5).  John then foretold the coming of a “mightier one,” and Jesus came to be baptized.  At Jesus’ baptism the heavens were rent and God’s Spirit descended upon him, as a heavenly voice spoke to him: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (1:6-11).  The Spirit then drove Jesus into the wilderness to battle Satan with prayer and fasting for forty days and nights (1:12-13).  Now, as Jesus begins his mission, he proclaims God’s good news: “This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  We might well expect that the world is about to end.  Instead, Mark follows this announcement with Jesus’ calling ordinary fishermen to accompany him on his mission of gathering people for the kingdom, like fisherman catching fish (see Jer 16:16).

This simple, straightforward story, however, presents the radical character of Christian discipleship. First of all, Jesus reverses the practices of discipleship in his day.  Ordinarily, the would-be scholar, interested in studying the Law, chose a rabbi as his teacher.  In contrast, Jesus takes the initiative in choosing his own followers by authoritatively commanding these ordinary workmen: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  Secondly, Jesus’ call demands a break from “business as usual” so that Simon and Andrew “immediately abandon their nets” and become Jesus’ followers.  James and John also leave their father Zebedee and go off in Jesus’ company.  The arrival of God’s Kingdom in Jesus turns the world upside down and calls for a radical re-ordering of his followers’ lives.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time B

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: 1 Samuel 3:3-10,19  1 Corinthians 6:13-15  John 1:35-42

As the Church begins a short period of Ordinary Time between the end of the Christmas season and Lent, the Lectionary presents us with the mystery of God’s call, often mediated by others, but always leading to a personal encounter with the living God, who invites us in the words of Jesus: “Come and see.”  Our response should be the refrain for today’s responsorial psalm: “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will” (Ps 40).

In the first reading Samuel’s call occurs in a time of darkness for Israel but results in the restoration of the light of God’s revelation.  At the end of the period of judges, the tribes of Israel had fallen into religious, moral and political-social chaos (see Judges 17-21).  Even the priestly family of Eli, which had charge of the ark at the Shiloh sanctuary, was corrupted by greed for sacrificial offerings and sexual immorality (see 1 Samuel 1-2).  In the opening lines of 1 Samuel 3 Eli’s physical blindness and sleep accentuate Israel’s deepening darkness.  Yet the lamp of God is not fully extinguished, as the young Samuel has been brought by Hannah, his pious mother, to serve in the temple of the Lord. “During the time young Samuel was minister to the Lord under Eli,a revelation of the Lord was uncommon and a vision infrequent. One day Eli was asleep in his usual place. His eyes had lately grown so weak that he could not see. The lamp of God was not yet extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was.” No wonder neither Samuel nor Eli initially understand that the Lord is calling the young boy.  Once Eli realizes that the Lord is beginning to speak again through Samuel, he instructs the youth to make himself open to the revelation with the words: “Speak, for you servant is listening.”  This generous response leads to the restoration of God’s word to Israel.  The reading concludes: “Samuel grew up, and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.”

During this early section of Ordinary Time in all three cycles of the Lectionary, the Church reads from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.  In chapters 5-6 Paul is answering ethical problems that have divided the Corinthian community.   Many stem from irresponsible misinterpretations of Paul’s earlier preaching.  Some members were evidently justifying their behavior by saying, “All things are lawful to me . . .” (6:12).  This slogan may have been based on Paul’s own preaching that Christian faith had superseded the Mosaic law and its demands.  But Paul responds by insisting that “not all things are helpful” and that the Christian is not be a slave to a sinful life of immorality (6:12-13).                                                                                   

            The Gospel reading is John’s version of the disciples’ call.  In John’s theology, God’s call is often mediated by the testimony of another.  In this case, Andrew becomes Jesus’ disciple on the basis of John the Baptist’s testimony that Jesus is “the lamb of God.”  He in turn joyfully proclaims to his brother, Simon Peter: “we have found the Messiah!”  Human testimony is to lead would-be-believers to Jesus, who then addresses them personally and invites them to eternal life through full belief in him.  When Andrew begins to follow Jesus, the master turns and says, “What are you looking for,” Andrew already understands that Jesus is a teacher and therefore says, “Rabbi, where do you stay?”  In John’s Gospel the verb menein, “stay, live, abide,” is also used in various Christological passages to speak of the Son’s abiding in the Father (see the farewell discourse chs. 13-17).  When Jesus answers Andrew’s question with the words, “Come and see, he is inviting him into the loving relationship shared by the Father, Son, and Spirit (see 15:1-17).

            Jesus’ dialogue with Simon Peter gives him the special title “Cephas,” “Peter” (Rock).  At the end of the Gospel, the resurrected Jesus will commission Peter, the rock and shepherd, to feed his flock (21:15-17).  Peter will then learn that following Jesus, the one who will lay down his life for the life of the world, will also lead where he “does not want to go”: to his own heroic martyrdom , in imitation of his master: “Amen, amen I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself as you wanted; but when you have grown old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” (21:18-19)

Epiphany

Epiphany A B C

Readings: Isaiah 60:1‑6   Ephesians 3:2‑3,5‑6  Matthew 2:1‑12

Beginning with the call of Abraham, God's plan for salvation history extends his blessing from Israel to all the nations (Gen 12:1‑3).  Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of God's salvation to all peoples.  In the words of the responsorial psalm, we pray: "Lord, every nation on earth will adore you" (Ps 72:11).

The Isaiah reading looks forward to the time when nations will walk by the light of God's blessing shed upon Jerusalem.   Speaking to exiles recently returned from Babylon, the prophet  commands them to see their efforts to rebuild Jerusalem's walls and Temple as the beginnings of the epiphany of the Lord's light and glory piercing through the darkness of the whole earth. “Nations shall walk by your light,/ and kings by your shining radiance/. . . . For the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,/ the wealth of nations shall be brought to you/ . . . All from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense,/ and proclaiming the praises of the Lord”  (Is 60:3,5‑6).

Ephesians announces the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy by proclaiming “that the Gentiles are now coheirs with the Jews, members of the same body and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the preaching of the gospel."  Paul had to fight for the Gentiles’ right to be part of the new Messianic community without the duty of becoming observant Jews.  According to Paul, Jesus' death and resurrection is the saving event, long anticipated by the prophets, which has opened the way for the Gentiles to become members of the people of God.  This good news also calls Christians to a new way of living together in a love, rooted in Christ's own love for us.  Our epiphany prayer for one another should be Paul's. “I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner-self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you may be rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:14‑19).

Matthew's story of the adoration of the magi foreshadows that the Gentiles will receive the gospel. Many of the details of the Epiphany story‑‑ the character of Herod, the mysterious star, the magi‑‑ have their background in the traditions of the Old Testament. Herod's character is modeled on previous wicked kings who attempt to thwart God's promises, only to bring them to fulfillment.  Like the Pharaoh in versions of the Exodus story, Herod becomes "greatly troubled" by the birth of "the newborn king of the Jews" and attempts to kill the child by ordering the massacre of the infant boys in Bethlehem.  As a result Jesus, as God's son, must descend into Egypt, like his ancestors, and then be called out in fulfillment of Hosea's prophecy: "Out of Egypt I have called my son" (Hos 11:1; Mt 2:13‑23).

The star that the magi follow is also associated with an Old Testament story about another king who tried unsuccessfully to frustrate God's plan.  When the Moabite king Balak confronts the Israelites in their march through the wilderness, he summons Balaam, a pagan seer (a magus), to curse them, but he can only pronounce blessing on God's people (see Numbers 22‑24).   Among the blessings is the foreshadowing of a Messiah arising like "a star" out of Jacob. “There shall come a man out of Israel's seed,/ and he shall rule many nations/. . . . I see him, but not now;/ I behold him, but not close;/ a star shall rise from Jacob,/ and a man (scepter) shall come forth from Israel” (Num 24:7,17‑‑partially from Greek Septuagint).     

In contrast to Herod, the magi are sincere Gentiles who cooperate with God's plan and, in fulfillment of the Isaiah text, come to "walk by (Israel's) light."  Although they only have the astrological revelation provided by nature, the magi humbly come to Israel seeking fuller knowledge of where the child is to be born so that they may do him homage.  When they learn from the Scriptures that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, they continue their journey, again guided by the star.  And when they see the child with Mary his mother, they respond with joy and in homage offer their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.