tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87060485003996595652024-03-27T16:54:07.287-07:00Hearing the WordHearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.comBlogger665125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-60329380311310487542024-03-25T08:55:00.000-07:002024-03-25T08:55:01.971-07:00 Easter Sunday A B C<p> <span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"> </span></p><p><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgIEMaummjQc9Snhq9ZWBAOWiTJh4sw8e8fX5PJqJddVDft40sU8PY_mchHJhXzgLJcrX3j0c9cRknkGbRmBRRiK3G9Op5wy0YPgQHGyGUeqx4u6l4R73ObBb2E02Y4fV3nbh0ME2gD9nUsxqk6qtnicQ83vURiHAbWLXY7niMLsRpzrMkJ4h-J4YSAXSM" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="654" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgIEMaummjQc9Snhq9ZWBAOWiTJh4sw8e8fX5PJqJddVDft40sU8PY_mchHJhXzgLJcrX3j0c9cRknkGbRmBRRiK3G9Op5wy0YPgQHGyGUeqx4u6l4R73ObBb2E02Y4fV3nbh0ME2gD9nUsxqk6qtnicQ83vURiHAbWLXY7niMLsRpzrMkJ4h-J4YSAXSM=w464-h640" width="464" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michael Torevell</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></b></p><p><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"> Easter Sunday A B C</b></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Acts 10:33-43 Colossians 3:1-4 John 20:1-9</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The readings for Easter express extraordinary joy over Jesus’ triumphant resurrection from the dead and confidently exhort us to a new life based on faith in God’s victory over sin and death. We may all rejoice in singing the refrain of the Easter Psalm: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad” (Ps 118).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Peter’s sermon in the Acts reading proclaims the universal significance of Jesus’ resurrection which brings the good news of God’s forgiving love into the whole world. Peter begins the mission to the Gentiles by announcing the salvation God has wrought in Jesus to the household of Cornelius, a God-fearing Roman centurion. Beginning with the baptism of John, God anointed Jesus with his Spirit to do good and heal those who were in the grip of the devil. Although Jesus was put to death in Jerusalem by “being hanged on a tree,” God raised him on the third day and made him manifest to the chosen witnesses who ate and drank with him (see Luke 24). Now Peter fulfills Jesus’ command to witness to what he has seen (Lk 24:48; Acts 1:8,22) by testifying that Jesus is the one ordained by God to judge the living and the dead, and that in his name forgiveness of sins is available to all. </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In the reading from the Letter to the Colossians Paul exhorts them to live out the consequences of the resurrection. They have been raised up in company with Christ and are now to set their hearts on “the higher realms,” rather than “on things of earth.” In Colossians 3:5-17 Paul contrast these two ways of living. “The things of the earth” to which the Christian has died are fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness (3:5-9). “The things above” are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness (3:10-17) which are to mark the Christian community’s renewed Easter life.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In the Easter Gospel, John emphasizes the initial “darkness” and consternation over the discovery of the empty tomb and contrasts it with the faith of the beloved disciple who believes in Jesus’ resurrection and return to the Father simply on the basis of the sign of the empty tomb. When Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb “while it was still dark,” she discovers the stone has been rolled away, but she meets no angels to interpret its significance as in the other Gospels. Instead, she thinks that the body has been stolen and runs to tell Simon Peter and the disciple “whom Jesus loved.” When they race to the tomb, the beloved disciple arrives first, but he defers to Simon Peter, who enters the tomb and observes the wrappings on the ground and the piece of cloth which had covered Jesus’ head. We are not told Peter’s reaction, although 20:9 reminds us: “Remember, as yet they did not understand the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” In contrast to Peter, when the beloved disciple enters the tomb, we are told very simply, “He saw and believed.” This belief is based on Jesus’ words to the disciples in the farewell discourse at the Last Supper where he announced: </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now, </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">you may believe.” (John 14:28-29)</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">For the beloved disciple, the empty tomb is enough of a sign to believe that Jesus has fulfilled his promise. On this Easter feast, we are called to rejoice in faith with the beloved disciple that Jesus has indeed both returned to the Father and come back to dwell with us believers.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-62719059365312708302024-03-25T08:08:00.000-07:002024-03-25T08:08:06.064-07:00 The Easter Vigil A B C<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFLe1yztCqPhlm_FypVb2bJRZd6e7CgJrISDZKrIMNnlpTkCETjzOLaVnoZ5Axq79L5w82S3QIK5MrbjH905OHaMQyuSN8z2khev9IvmB0u3VTdPvuE8OnSCeMF7DSY9CYBDP3Dojyr6PSbdMoySYp_lFqNCbncrb19wSx0cRRoOZXRNYXfQnvl3nnRqc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2325" data-original-width="2325" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFLe1yztCqPhlm_FypVb2bJRZd6e7CgJrISDZKrIMNnlpTkCETjzOLaVnoZ5Axq79L5w82S3QIK5MrbjH905OHaMQyuSN8z2khev9IvmB0u3VTdPvuE8OnSCeMF7DSY9CYBDP3Dojyr6PSbdMoySYp_lFqNCbncrb19wSx0cRRoOZXRNYXfQnvl3nnRqc=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhv4xHfRPG_o1PUzubBq1Pa9hwDZdLXOAmOydWPGLJV8ujJT_8Bq78bguw-sDdBCQ8VvGxKxS-x-0P4jBIq5xceJU4cTBu2pa-A0ZXDWQsccLPI8xSFKe173iUKt5R36U6jhUalP3F9IWXuPYTP4zzF9J3x31Qrx06KeadJx4DfH8bmacAL18cLw22uAxo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="164" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhv4xHfRPG_o1PUzubBq1Pa9hwDZdLXOAmOydWPGLJV8ujJT_8Bq78bguw-sDdBCQ8VvGxKxS-x-0P4jBIq5xceJU4cTBu2pa-A0ZXDWQsccLPI8xSFKe173iUKt5R36U6jhUalP3F9IWXuPYTP4zzF9J3x31Qrx06KeadJx4DfH8bmacAL18cLw22uAxo=w335-h400" width="335" /></a></div><br /><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;"> </span><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;">The Easter Vigil A B C</b></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Genesis 1:1-2:2 Genesis 22:1-18 Exodus 14:15-15:1 Isaiah 54:5-14</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Isaiah 55:1-11 Baruch 3:9-14, 32-4:4 Ezekiel 36:16-17a, 18-28 </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-align: left;">Romans 6:3-11 </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">A: Matthew 28:1-10 B: Mark 16:1-7 C: Luke 24:1-12</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> On Holy Saturday night the Church celebrates the Easter Vigil commemorating Jesus’ resurrection in a service with an extended Liturgy of the Word of seven Old Testament readings, an epistle reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans proclaiming Christian Baptism as the sacrament of Christ’s Resurrection, and the discovery of the empty tomb and announcement of the resurrection from one of the Synoptic Gospels. Ideally all the readings are to be done, but at a minimum three selections from the Old Testament should be read and the reading from Exodus recounting the escape through the Red Sea is never to be omitted.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Old Testament readings recount the saving works of God for the people of Israel beginning with the defeat of darkness and chaos in the magnificent story of creation at the beginning of Genesis. The primordial condition is one of disorder and darkness: “the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.” In six parallel days God brings order and life out of the chaos simply by the word of his command. On day one he creates light and separates it from darkness, naming them “day” and “night,” and on the parallel fourth day he creates the light bearing bodies: the sun, moon and stars to mark the fixed times, the days and the years and to govern the day and the night and to separate the light from the darkness. On day two God separates the waters by creating a dome (the sky), and on the parallel fifth day he populates the waters and the region beneath the dome of the sky with sea creatures and birds. On the third day God gathers the waters beneath the sky into its basin so that the dry land appears; he names the dry land “the earth” and the gathered water “the sea”, and then he commands the earth to bring forth vegetation. On the parallel sixth day he commands the earth to bring forth all kinds of living creatures and then creates humans in his “image” and “likeness” to rule by having dominion over the animal portion of creation. Repeatedly (seven times) we hear how God saw that what he made was good, and in fact there is no hint of violence in this world as both humans and animals are given the seed-bearing plants for their food. This is the world order that we Christians long for in our Easter hope as we sing in the responsorial psalm: “Lord, send forth your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The second reading recounts the terrifying story of the testing of Abraham in the Binding of Isaac which culminates in the Lord’s oath promising Abraham abundant blessing for himself and “all the nations of the earth” because of his trusting obedience to the Lord’s command. The story is centered on Abraham’s faith expressed in his words to his beloved Isaac who poignantly asks his father, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?” Abraham answers, “Son, God himself will provide (<i>yir’eh</i> “see to”) the sheep for the holocaust.” Abraham’s faith is associated with the name of the place Moriah which is based on the verbal root” to see” (<i>yr’</i>) in Hebrew and is associated with Abraham’s naming of the place after he has passed the test and has spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket to replace his son as the holocaust victim. We are told: “Abraham named the site Yahweh-yireh; hence people now say, ‘On the mountain the Lord will see.’” In Jewish exegetical tradition the site of Moriah is the future site of the Temple in Jerusalem and the lamb that replaces Isaac is associated with the Passover lamb whose blood enables the Israelites to escape from Egypt. For us Christian readers Isaac is a type of Christ who carries the wood of the sacrifice and is rescued from death by God’s command.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> For Christians the story of the Red Sea crossing is symbolic of the waters of baptism and Christ’s saving victory over the forces of oppression and evil through his death and resurrection (cf. the epistle reading from Romans 6). For the Israelites passing through the waters is the path to salvation from the cruel oppression of the Pharaoh. Initially, they are terrified at the approach of his army and chariots and want to return to the security of Egypt, but the Lord commands Moses to tell the Israelites to “go forward” and to use his staff to “split the sea in two, that the Israelites may pass through it on dry land.” Through the Lord’s saving power they march “into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.” As a divine warrior, the Lord then uses the waters of the sea to drown “the chariots and the charioteers of the Pharaoh’s whole army.” Fittingly, when the Israelites see “the great power that the Lord had shown against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and believed in him and in servant Moses” and break into the lyrics of the Song of the Sea: “I will sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously triumphant;/ horse and chariot he has cast into the sea” (Ex 15:1).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The fourth reading from Isaiah 54 proclaims to the Babylonian exiles that the Lord of hosts, as husband and “Maker”, calls Zion/Jerusalem back “like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, a wife married in youth and then cast off.” For Christians, this reading encapsulates our whole Lenten-Easter observance of returning to the Lord in trust for his unfailing saving purpose for us as a redeemed community. As Jerusalem’s redeemer, the Lord says “For a brief moment I abandoned you,/ but with great tenderness I will take you back.” His renewed covenant with the Holy City is “like the days of Noah” when the Lord promised “the waters of Noah should never again deluge the earth.” Even though the mountain and hills may be shaken, the Lord’s covenant fidelity will never abandon the city and temple which he will rebuild in precious stones and where “all your children shall be taught by the Lord” so that “justice shall be established,/far from fear of oppression,/ where destruction cannot come near you.” </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>The fifth reading also from Isaiah 55 is the Lord’s universal invitation to the banquet of life in the restored temple in Jerusalem. His saving word will satisfy the thirst and hunger of all “without paying and without cost.” Those who come to him and find life are assured of the benefits of the everlasting covenant with David: “As I made him a witness to the peoples,/ a leader and commander of nations,/ so shall you summon a nation you knew not,/ and nations that knew you not shall run to you,/ because of the Lord, your God,/ the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.” With special urgency, the prophet exhort us to “seek the Lord while he may be found” by forsaking wickedness and turning to the Lord for mercy. If we doubt our worthiness, we are assured that the Lord’s ways are above our ways and that his word will achieve the end for which it was sent. “For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down/ and do not return there till they have watered the earth, . . .so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;/ my word shall not return to me void,/ but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Baruch reading is an exhortation to conversion in the form of a hymn praising Wisdom found in the Torah as the way to God for the exiles who have forsaken “the fountain of wisdom.” Had the exiles “walked in the way of God,” they “would have dwelt in enduring peace.” Now they must “learn” where prudence is . . . so that they may know “where are length of days, and life/ where light of the eyes, and peace.” Only the creator God knows Wisdom and he “has given her to Jacob, his servant” in the form of “the book of the precepts of God, the law that endures forever.” So Jacob is invited to “Turn . . . and receive her: walk by her light toward splendor.” </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The seventh and last Old Testament reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel announces the reason for the exile—Israelites’ defiling of their land by their conduct and deeds—and the Lord’s intention for the sake of his holy name to take them back to their own land. Using priestly language of purification, the Lord announces to the exiles: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” And, in order that they may now keep his covenant, he promises, “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.” He also promises the gift of the spirit so they may live by his law and renew the covenant: “you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” The symbols of water, change of heart, the gift of the spirit and covenant renewal all point to the baptism of catechumens and renew our baptismal vows latter the Easter Vigil service.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> In the Epistle reading from Romans, Paul is responding to a possible objection to his gospel of salvation through faith in Christ. The question is: Does Paul’s gospel encourage continuation in sin “that grace may abound” (6:1)? Paul’s answer is a definitive “No!” He substantiates this by a reflection on the effects of the baptism Christian converts received. Paul interprets Christian baptism, as an entrance into the death and resurrection of Christ which leads to walking in “newness of life.” It also involves an ethical conversion. The old self “was crucified with him (Christ) . . . that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.” Baptized Christians, freed from sin, must now live in the power of Christ’s resurrection. Paul concludes, “Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>The Gospels for the Easter Vigil are the accounts of the discovery of the empty tomb by the faithful women, always including Mary Magdalene, in the respective synoptic gospels: Matthew for the A Cycle, Mark for the B Cycle, and Luke for the C Cycle. Although all the narratives share certain features—the women coming to the tomb and finding the stone rolled back, their encounter with a young man/angel/young men who tell them not to be afraid and announce that the crucified Jesus has been raised from the dead, and some account of announcing the good news to the disciples—each also has distinctive features. Matthew’s account has a mini-apocalyptic tone with a great earthquake and an angel descending from heaven to roll back and stone and sit upon it. Mark’s account has the young man dressed in a white robe sending the amazed women to the disciples and Peter with the message “that he (the risen Jesus) is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him as he told you” (cf. Mk 14:28). Luke has the two men in dazzling apparel telling the women to remember that Jesus told them while he was still in Galilee “that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise,” a message which the apostles do not believe because they think it was an idle tale.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-4487168994938979672024-03-25T08:03:00.000-07:002024-03-25T08:03:19.163-07:00Good Friday A B C<p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgJufnmuljIn7agPkjQZU2Rt-F1KMGGbcmVEXg2o6TMGwtZeL-z2BzdE3_G6efU5Dmt4kFtZYPOAYw0zuQfa4d4pwzoQngw0aDYo9BhI7hmw6m_Zq5Shf057OYyyHpJhm5Py8EdWqoHFVryjXhCXPxRUfq6vQGPef-o4Lo7EHTIWnXqGslzFiBMu2WglkM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2325" data-original-width="2325" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgJufnmuljIn7agPkjQZU2Rt-F1KMGGbcmVEXg2o6TMGwtZeL-z2BzdE3_G6efU5Dmt4kFtZYPOAYw0zuQfa4d4pwzoQngw0aDYo9BhI7hmw6m_Zq5Shf057OYyyHpJhm5Py8EdWqoHFVryjXhCXPxRUfq6vQGPef-o4Lo7EHTIWnXqGslzFiBMu2WglkM=w400-h400" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEioBliKOPqHIHA9THkAzVDjLOK22fItzjxspOTxrlaZxlcHpiv3NTfIrqypyqOh69kZclrv8ZSglVKC41l-uowVUoR2kPUpKHBW391UKmhUq9uUdiWxsf5GUHtY9aIAv6Z6YKi_otekLG-FEs-I_wqfyFr3QkBM1ZVeC21vZzreLiXD6HzbxB6zNYXbT1M" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><img alt="" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEioBliKOPqHIHA9THkAzVDjLOK22fItzjxspOTxrlaZxlcHpiv3NTfIrqypyqOh69kZclrv8ZSglVKC41l-uowVUoR2kPUpKHBW391UKmhUq9uUdiWxsf5GUHtY9aIAv6Z6YKi_otekLG-FEs-I_wqfyFr3QkBM1ZVeC21vZzreLiXD6HzbxB6zNYXbT1M" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Good Friday A B C</span></b></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Isaiah 52:13‑53:12 Hebrews 4:14‑16; 5:7‑9 John 18:1‑19:42</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The readings for Good Friday present us with Jesus as the obedient Servant and Son of God who lays down his life for the life of the world. Although all three readings allude to both the suffering and the triumph of the passion, there is a progression from a meditation in the Isaiah reading on the poignant sufferings of God's servant, to the consolation in the Hebrews reading of having in Jesus a sympathetic high priest whose obedient death has sealed a new covenant, and finally to the life‑giving triumphant of Jesus' death as the new Lamb of God in John's passion story. The responsorial psalm assigned for this day (Psalm 31) is a lament of a righteous sufferer which invites us to enter the stark reality of Jesus' trustful embrace of his Father at the moment of death. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Ps 31:6).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The first reading is taken from the fourth of the so‑called Servant Songs of Second Isaiah. It begins and ends with God's voice (Isa 52:13‑15; 53:11‑12) announcing the triumph of the suffering servant and the salvation he will bring to the startled nations. The central section (53:1‑10) is a confession by a group that has witnessed the ignominious life and death of the servant and now realizes that his sufferings were borne, not for his own sins, but for theirs. They confess:</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> “We had all gone astray like sheep,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> each following his own way;</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.” (Isa 53:6)</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> This confession of a new understanding of God's servant was undoubtedly influenced by the suffering of prophets like Jeremiah and possibly second Isaiah himself. In retrospect, the Israelite community can see that the servant's sufferings in fidelity to his mission have brought life to the exilic community. The servant brings salvation for others by voluntarily offering his life as a sacrifice to atone for "the sins of the many."</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Hebrews reading from chapters 4‑5 continues the theme of salvation through suffering by exhorting us to "confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor and to find help in time of need" (Heb 4:16). According to the author of Hebrews, Christians may do this because in Jesus they have a sympathetic high priest who knows weakness and temptation. Although Hebrews presents the resurrected Jesus as the great high priest who has passed through the heavens, it also stresses that in his earthly existence Jesus was perfected through suffering, obedience and testing. Jesus did not exercise an earthly priesthood by offering animal sacrifices in the temple; rather, in the flesh he learned to be an obedient Son.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The second part of the reading (5:7‑9) probably alludes to Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he offered "prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to God" as he faced death in trust that God could save him. Only through his obedient endurance of death in faith did the Son become perfected so that he might become the source of eternal salvation for all who follow him in obedience.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></span></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> John's passion account is the story of Jesus' movement to glory. Although it contains many incidents familiar from the synoptic tradition, they are handled in a way consistent with John's theology of glory. In the arrest in the garden, for example, (18:1‑14) there is no hint of agony; Jesus has come to the hour of his glory (12:27‑32) and he is in complete control as the Good Shepherd who begins to "lay down" his life only to take it up again (18:4; see 10:17‑18). When the band of soldiers approaches, Jesus asks them "Whom do you seek?' to which they respond, "Jesus of Nazareth" (18:4‑5). When Jesus answers with the solemn "I am he," they draw back and fall to the ground before his divine presence. Jesus then gives the soldiers permission to take him, but, as the shepherd who "has not lost one of those you gave me," Jesus commands them to let his disciples go. When Peter tries to fight to prevent Jesus' arrest, he says, "Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?" (18:11).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> John's account of the trials before the high priest and Pilate presents a much more loquacious and regal Jesus than do the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). Using dramatic irony, John makes the trials scenes dialogues in which Jesus turns the tables on his accusers and convicts them for failing to believe in him. For example, when the high priest questions Jesus "about his disciples and his teaching," Jesus challenges him to question his believing disciples:</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> "I have spoken openly to the world; I have always</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Jews come together; I have said nothing secretly.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> what I said to them; they know what I said" (18:20‑21).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">A word about John's treatment of "the Jews" here and throughout his gospel is in order at this point. Unfortunately, John's gospel was written during a period of hostility between church and synagogue (see John 9:22; 12:42; 16:2), and this has influenced his portrayal of the Jews throughout the gospel. To prevent the possibility of anti-Semitism which would hold the Jewish people as a whole responsible for the death of Jesus, readers might use such phrases as "the religious leaders" or "the Jewish authorities" throughout the passion reading.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></span></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The trial before Pilate revolves around the issue of Jesus' kingship and whether it is of this world or not. In the end, both the Jewish authorities and Pilate will by their words and actions affirm that they are subjects of Caesar, a king of this world, rather than of Jesus, and will thus condemn themselves. When Jesus is questioned by Pilate about the nature of his kingship (18:33‑36), Jesus challenges him to believe in the truth of his divine kingship which he has borne witness to (18:37‑38), and later he assures Pilate that he would have no power over him "unless it had been given you from above" (19:11). The Jewish leaders, on the other hand, threaten Pilate by saying, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend; everyone who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar" (19:12). The trial scene ends with both judging themselves by choosing Caesar's kingship. When Pilate presents Jesus to the crowd with the words, "Behold your King!" they ask for his crucifixion and say, "We have no king but Caesar" (19:14‑15). At this point Pilate capitulates to their earlier threat and hands Jesus over to be crucified (19:16). In the end, however, Pilate becomes an unbelieving witness of the truth of Jesus' identity. He places a title on the cross in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek which reads, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" (19:19‑20). When the chief priests try to force him to change it to read "This man said, I am King of the Jews," Pilate refuses by saying, "What I have written I have written" (19:21‑22).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> John's portrayal of the crucifixion is consistent with his theology of glory. Jesus does not really suffer on the cross; he reigns as he enters his glory with the completion of the task given him by his Father. Jesus is "the Good Shepherd" who lays down his life to take it up again (10:17‑18), "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (1:29,36), and the source of living waters (4:13‑15; 7:38). Rather than having to be assisted by Simon of Cyrene (Mk 15:21; Matt 27:32; Lk 23:26), Jesus carries his own cross to Golgotha (19:17), and dies with the words "It is finished" (19:30). The time of his death is a day earlier than in the Synoptic Gospels so that Jesus, as the Lamb of God, dies on the day of Preparation for the Passover, just as the lambs would be slain in the temple (19:31). Like the lambs used for Passover who were not to have a bone broken (19:36; Ex 12:46), Jesus' legs are not broken when the soldiers discover that he is already dead (19:33‑37). Instead, his side is pierced and blood and water flow out‑‑ the fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 12:10, "They shall look on him whom they have pierced" (19:37).</span></p><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Finally, in contrast to the picture in the Synoptic Gospels where Jesus is deserted by his disciples and the women stand at a distance (Mk 15:40‑41), in John there are believers, including his mother and the beloved disciple, standing by the cross (19:21). Jesus speaks with them and commends his mother and the beloved disciple to one another's care‑‑ a symbol of the love the community he is leaving behind is to have (19:26‑27; see 13:34‑35; 14:18‑21; 15:10‑17). </span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-45331151760868175492024-03-25T07:54:00.000-07:002024-03-25T07:54:02.522-07:00 Holy Thursday A B C<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiN-8608I-y_fLX2jYQrrQO-GtXhxC9ZM7oXq-KvOjJRKkMP8XCBF5GYvLgUS-S_2ALCeSnOa6iIMTOTn6if7-PzH8BEC6PmyGxaHLuhjopNvhpddq4OoELacnlw9uljkm4wwmfaUrIp6_9SE6JCYgvsErz0WcjN7TtjBEJe0B-DyD2SyvO4n8fNLUlBGc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiN-8608I-y_fLX2jYQrrQO-GtXhxC9ZM7oXq-KvOjJRKkMP8XCBF5GYvLgUS-S_2ALCeSnOa6iIMTOTn6if7-PzH8BEC6PmyGxaHLuhjopNvhpddq4OoELacnlw9uljkm4wwmfaUrIp6_9SE6JCYgvsErz0WcjN7TtjBEJe0B-DyD2SyvO4n8fNLUlBGc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiPCo0f-NC4YfQBizxRyRn5oEXbbmB8UfpnJBYZQZbtsQTQEAJ3UyzDaDG8AaxxfCHuRw-UR83IKin8oQrkl6jC0OFiPk4hP09ZJnZ2ZZeMIWQZdQexgPsyZBkqEDd2a0l4cUbSMWZ6fFo9xgiS0S1gX_J95JD7W6QO8C3PJRuEj7rgz6sfmk9Ed6PgYn0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2325" data-original-width="2325" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiPCo0f-NC4YfQBizxRyRn5oEXbbmB8UfpnJBYZQZbtsQTQEAJ3UyzDaDG8AaxxfCHuRw-UR83IKin8oQrkl6jC0OFiPk4hP09ZJnZ2ZZeMIWQZdQexgPsyZBkqEDd2a0l4cUbSMWZ6fFo9xgiS0S1gX_J95JD7W6QO8C3PJRuEj7rgz6sfmk9Ed6PgYn0=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><img alt="" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="650" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiN-8608I-y_fLX2jYQrrQO-GtXhxC9ZM7oXq-KvOjJRKkMP8XCBF5GYvLgUS-S_2ALCeSnOa6iIMTOTn6if7-PzH8BEC6PmyGxaHLuhjopNvhpddq4OoELacnlw9uljkm4wwmfaUrIp6_9SE6JCYgvsErz0WcjN7TtjBEJe0B-DyD2SyvO4n8fNLUlBGc=w400-h209" width="400" /></div><br /> <p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Holy Thursday A B C</b></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></b></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-15</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The readings for Holy or Maundy Thursday present various dimensions of the Passover mystery that are associated with the Christian Eucharist: its Hebrew Bible origins as a memorial of the Lord’s liberating act of the exodus that freed the Israelites from oppression in Egypt and its New Testament fulfillment in Jesus’ act of liberating love, laying down his life as the new Passover lamb who takes away the world’s sins. All three readings emphasize the attitude that should mark those who celebrate Passover. The Israelite congregation is to eat their meal in symbolic readiness to depart from their enslaved condition in Egypt; the Christian community is to celebrate Eucharist in such a way as to be faithful to Jesus’ command to serve one another in considerate love.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> For the Jewish community the central importance of Passover as a memorial of the Lord’s deliverance from Egypt is evident in the instructions given to Moses and Aaron for its celebration. This legislation gives careful directives for the preparation of the Passover feast: the dates for procuring and slaying the lamb, provisions for sharing among households, the type of lamb (one year old male and without blemish) and the way it is to be prepared and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Despite the precise detail, the rituals keep alive the memory of the liberating nature of the original Passover. The actions of placing the lamb’s blood on the two doorposts and lintel of each house and dressing in readiness for flight commemorate the night when the Lord passed over the people’s houses, executing judgment on Egypt and enabling them to escape from the Pharaoh’s tyranny.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The second reading from Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians is the earliest record of Jesus’ actions and words at his final meal with his disciples on the night before he died. From Paul’s account it is clear that “the Lord’s supper” was celebrated both as a proclamation of Jesus’ saving death and an anticipation of his return in glory. The context in which Paul recounts Jesus’ actions at the last supper is noteworthy. He is exhorting the Corinthians to avoid factionalism and inconsiderate behavior at the Eucharist.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">When you meet in one place, then, it is not to eat the</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Lord’s supper, for in eating, each one goes ahead with</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">his own supper, and one goes hungry while another</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">gets drunk. Do you not have houses in which you</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">can eat and drink? Or do you show contempt for the</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">church of God and make those who have nothing feel</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">ashamed? What can I say to you? Shall I praise you?</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In this matter I do not praise you. (1 Cor 11:17-22). </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Such actions are the antithesis of what the community is commemorating: Jesus’ self-sacrificing act of love in giving his body and blood to seal the new covenant of God’s forgiveness. Those who eat the bread and drink the Lord’s cup without consideration for one another in the body that is the community of believers eat and drink judgment on themselves (1 Cor 11:27-34).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Gospel reading for Holy Thursday is taken from John’s account of the Last Supper, which does not speak of the institution of the Eucharist but does narrate the striking story of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet, a tradition not mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels. As the solemn introduction to the Last supper indicates (13:1-2), this incident marks a significant transition in John’s Gospel. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdN2YTF_AKYyMMW-JzqY5ohIngXg_5c26lTqqQVbMNvqmv4Eh79Inm6XvNj1jG5NtMplDzg_3QhHMTTffyivHefm4K6FvslYNFoSLJgwaeEF6GNWrwKxrirlEvhM26iIrhF3x_DYZDYYOkh7p9YkAF4L2YBtSN0Sz6QuEnXRhxw9OxslalIcWEuUo3jjo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="293" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdN2YTF_AKYyMMW-JzqY5ohIngXg_5c26lTqqQVbMNvqmv4Eh79Inm6XvNj1jG5NtMplDzg_3QhHMTTffyivHefm4K6FvslYNFoSLJgwaeEF6GNWrwKxrirlEvhM26iIrhF3x_DYZDYYOkh7p9YkAF4L2YBtSN0Sz6QuEnXRhxw9OxslalIcWEuUo3jjo" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">he loved them to the end.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The hour has come for Jesus to depart from this world by laying down his life in love as the new Passover Lamb who will take away the sins of the world (John 1:29-30; 19:31-37). From this point on Jesus will concentrate his message on his disciples, and it will be one of love—the love of the Father and the Son for each other and of both for the disciples who are given the new command to love one another as Jesus has loved them (see John 14-17). For John, in contrast to the Synoptics, the Last Supper occurs before the Passover festival because he will concentrate the Passover symbolism on Jesus himself, the new Lamb of God who lays down his life to take away the sin of the world; he therefore appropriately dies on the afternoon before Passover as the sacrificial lambs are slaughtered in the Temple (see John 19:31-37; 1:29, 36; etc.). </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> John’s first interpretation of Jesus’ menial action in washing his disciples’ feet (13:2-11) contrasts Judas’ betrayal with Jesus’ prophetic foreshadowing of his own death. John tells us, “The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over” (13:3). Later Jesus will say that Judas, the betrayer, is not clean because he will not participate in Jesus’ action of self-sacrificing love (13:11). The point of the dialogue with Simon Peter about allowing Jesus to “wash” his feet is also about participating in Jesus’ act of laying down his life. When Jesus has been raised, the disciples (Peter) will understand that to be clean/washed is to share in Jesus’ act of love and to be unclean is to betray that love (13:6-11).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The second interpretation of the foot-washing (13:12-15) is more straightforward. Jesus as teacher and master paradoxically acts as servant who washes his disciples’ feet, an act symbolizing his death, when he will lay down his life for his own. Such self-sacrificing love is to be the model for his disciples’ lives (see 15:12-17).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” </span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-71448601539081172702024-03-18T09:22:00.000-07:002024-03-18T09:22:13.504-07:00 Passion (Palm) Sunday B<p style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQuEV10IwYiEZThO4HN8hss09A3FzsgTe-8Y5z_I1W1YoXPD1C_Cj9Mj2HHOQ0IEfGMX3i8V6_MNxBrtBG57lalM2yNUIFMuh9xEX4CyKOhvzGxsmzGEe7qMc24Xhd3wGGHM-M2Zx1weUnFJtrcv-wnHbifpXJUk2YopZOa7eK9r9g6EKF6pTJjr66p2o" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="711" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQuEV10IwYiEZThO4HN8hss09A3FzsgTe-8Y5z_I1W1YoXPD1C_Cj9Mj2HHOQ0IEfGMX3i8V6_MNxBrtBG57lalM2yNUIFMuh9xEX4CyKOhvzGxsmzGEe7qMc24Xhd3wGGHM-M2Zx1weUnFJtrcv-wnHbifpXJUk2YopZOa7eK9r9g6EKF6pTJjr66p2o=w640-h288" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Passion (Palm) Sunday B</b></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Commemoration of the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem: Mark 11:1-10</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 3.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -3.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Isaiah 50:4-7 Philippians 2:6-11 Mark 14:1-15:47</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 3.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -3.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Although the liturgy for Passion Sunday seems to move abruptly from Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem to his agonizing passion, there is an inextricable connection between the two events. In Mark’s theology, Jesus is the suffering Messiah whose full identity cannot be comprehended until the cross and resurrection. His entrance into the city has messianic overtones and precipitates the final conflict with the Jewish leaders which will lead to his death and resurrection. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt, as had been prophesied of the peaceful messianic king in Zechariah (see Zech 9:9), and is greeted by the crowds as the Davidic Messiah with words drawn from Psalm 118.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“Hosanna! Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord!</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Blessed be the reign of our father David to come!</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">God save him from on high!”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">When Jesus follows this triumphant entry with the cleansing of the Temple, the chief priests and scribes seek a way to destroy him out of fear for the multitude who are astonished at his teaching (11:11-25).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The first reading in the Liturgy of the Word is the third of the so-called servant songs from Second Isaiah. It gives an autobiographical report of this prophet’s tireless commitment to speaking a rousing word to the “weary” exiles who think that their Lord is powerless to save them from their Babylonian captors. Because of his confidence that the Lord is his help, the prophet, like Jesus in Gethsemani, has the courage not to turn back from his wearisome task, even though it involves suffering and rejection.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Paul’s magnificent hymn to Christ in Philippians celebrates God’s victory over sin through Jesus’ self-emptying death. In the context of exhorting the Philippians to give up selfish and petty jealousy (2:1-5), Paul uses this early Christian hymn to establish the foundation for the Christian life of selfless love. The pattern, set forth in Jesus, of death to self and resurrection through God’s power, is to mark the life of the community. Christ, in contrast to Adam, did not grasp at being Godlike, but, like the suffering servant in Second Isaiah (Isaiah 53), took the form of a slave and emptied himself by becoming fully human, even to the point of obediently accepting the degradation of death on a cross. God affirmed this act of self-emptying love by exalting Jesus and bestowing on him lordship over the cosmos, so that at his name all beings in the universe might acknowledge him as Lord and Messiah.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></span></div><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Mark’s passion story skillfully presents Jesus as both the long-awaited Messiah, or “anointed one,” and also the one who must be crucified. At the outset, Mark places the story of Jesus’ anointing “for burial” in the midst of the plot to arrest and kill him (14:1-11). In his account of Jesus’ Last Supper (14:12-31), Mark carefully links Jesus’ words and actions to his earlier passion predictions and presents him as in total control of his destiny. Jesus informs his disciples that the room for the celebration of Passover had already been arranged ahead of time. He begins the meal by announcing that one of the twelve will “betray” (“hand over”) him (14:17-21), the same verb used in earlier predictions (9:31; 10:33). Jesus’ words in connection with the bread and wine allude to the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 and make reference to his sacrificial death that will seal a covenant for “the many”--something he had earlier prophesied in teaching his disciples (10:45).</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In the Mount of Olives and Gethsemani scenes (14:26-50), Mark continues to present Jesus as painfully submissive to his destiny, while his disciples are able neither to comprehend nor follow their master in this moment of crisis. As they go out to the Mount of Olives, Jesus predicts that his disciples “will all fall away,” but goes on to announce that this failure will be overcome when he is raised up and goes before them to Galilee. After further proclaiming to a boastful Simon that he will deny him three times, Jesus, in a most human fashion, prays that “the hour might pass from him,” but then ends by accepting his Father’s will. In contrast, the disciples, although they have been warned of the upcoming crisis, are unable to watch with him in his hour of agony, and when he is seized by the crowd brought by Judas from the Jewish leaders, they forsake him and flee. </span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The trial before the Jewish leaders (14:53-65) culminates Mark’s dual themes of both the identity of Jesus as the Messiah and the necessity for him to be rejected. After false witnesses are unable to agree on testimony brought against Jesus, the high priest asks him: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus responds by saying, “I am; and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” In an ironic fulfillment of all Jesus has said concerning his death, this solemn proclamation leads to the council’s decision that he deserves death for blasphemy. In this scene Mark finally reveals the whole scope of Jesus’ identity. He is the Christ (Messiah), the beloved Son of God, who is about to die as the rejected and betrayed one, but he will return in power as the triumphant Son of Man to complete his kingdom. Ironically, just as Jesus is announcing his full identity before the hostile high priest, Peter, the leader of the disciples, is in the courtyard vehemently denying that he knows Jesus (14:66-72).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The trial before Pilate stresses his cowardly complicity in condemning Jesus. He is aware that the chief priests have delivered Jesus up out of jealousy and tries to release the murderer, Barabbas, but in the end “wishing to satisfy the crowd,” he releases Barabbas and, after scourging Jesus, gives him up to be crucified.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></span></div><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Mark’s crucifixion scene (15:16-41) is filled with bitter and painful irony. Using frequent references to lament psalms of righteous sufferers (Pss 69 and 22), Mark has the Roman soldiers, the crowds, and the chief priests and scribes taunting and mocking Jesus, while ironically pointing to his true identity and the salvific effects of his death. The Roman soldiers ridicule him as a would-be king, place on the cross an inscription which reads “The King of the Jews” and, like the mockers in Ps 22:18, cast lots for his garments. Some in the crowd “wag their heads” like the taunters in Ps 22:7 and challenge Jesus to ‘save’ himself by coming down from the cross. Finally, the chief priests and scribes, consistent with their character throughout Mark, mock Jesus by saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In contrast to these taunters, the Roman centurion, when he sees Jesus’ death accompanied by the signs of ominous darkness and the rending of the Temple curtain, affirms Jesus’ full identity: “Truly this man was the Son of God!” This scene captures the spirit of the whole liturgy for Passion Sunday. Only after Jesus has endured his destiny to suffer and put an end to the need for the temple and its sacrifices is it possible to confess him as the Son of God with understanding. As the opening instruction for today’s liturgy reminds us:</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Christ entered in triumph into his own city, to complete his</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">work as our Messiah: to suffer, to die, and to rise again.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Let us remember with devotion this entry which began his</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">saving work and follow him with a lively faith. United with</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">him in his suffering on the cross, may we share his resurrection</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">and new life.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-64287739087084347142024-03-11T12:27:00.000-07:002024-03-11T12:27:36.378-07:00 5th Sunday of Lent B<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh63LevDp6PAre2s-Kf6lYHvVxIb0Dc6tj35QO7vmbzeld7j5FkSnLpU3wbBJWM0tar6TfxGKDF7OPFOqpc28fnBOC0FEcNJobKt_vCUtCUr52skqwhYXIs_pTzAXKaFZDqvxhV9_vSooa8IsLlIR1P_0kzpE5O3rMTdcCBTACL9iPw637JUgUtNHCea90" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1483" data-original-width="2013" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh63LevDp6PAre2s-Kf6lYHvVxIb0Dc6tj35QO7vmbzeld7j5FkSnLpU3wbBJWM0tar6TfxGKDF7OPFOqpc28fnBOC0FEcNJobKt_vCUtCUr52skqwhYXIs_pTzAXKaFZDqvxhV9_vSooa8IsLlIR1P_0kzpE5O3rMTdcCBTACL9iPw637JUgUtNHCea90=w400-h295" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">5<sup>th</sup> Sunday of Lent B</b></span><p></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 4.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -4.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34 Hebrews 5:7-9 </span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 4.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -4.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> John 12:20-33</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">As we move closer to Holy Week, our Lenten readings probe the interior renewal God wants to work within us. In Jeremiah, we hear of the prophet’s longing for a new covenant when God’s law will be inscribed in the human heart. The epistle and gospel readings show us the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy in the person of Jesus, the obedient Son, who embraced suffering and death and thereby becomes the source of life for all who follow him. In our longing for the full realization of the new covenant in our lives, each of us can pray the refrain of today’s responsorial psalm: “Create a clean heart in me, O God” (Ps 51:12).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Jeremiah’s prophecy of a new covenant was forged in the crucible of Judah’s defeat and the destruction of the Jerusalem temple by the Babylonian armies at the beginning of the sixth century B.C. In the years leading up to this disaster, Jeremiah stood virtually alone against kings, princes, priests, prophets, and the people of the nation, as he repeatedly urged an interiorized commitment to God’s covenant law and warned of the impending destruction of the nation. In the darkest hour of Judah’s tragedy, however, when the Babylonian armies were besieging Jerusalem, Jeremiah’s message suddenly became hopeful. He bought a plot of land that he had a right to purchase in the tribal system of family land inheritance in order to assure the people that “homes and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land” (Jer 32:15).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Convinced that God “will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more,” Jeremiah proclaims that “the days are coming” when the old covenant made with the fathers who were brought out of Egypt will be completed in “a new covenant.” Although the forefathers broke the old covenant and the Lord had to “show (him)self their master,” Israel and Judah will again be bonded by law to God and one another. But, unlike the old covenant in which the law was written on tablets of stone, the Lord promises to inscribe the law upon the people’s hearts (the seat of intelligence and will in Hebrew psychology), so that “all from the least to the greatest, shall know me. . .” </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The reading from Hebrews presents Jesus as the obedient Son, who in his flesh lived out the commitment to God’s will envisioned in Jeremiah’s prophecy. According to Hebrews, the earthly stage of Jesus’ life in which he learned sympathy for our weakness by enduring temptation was preparation for his heavenly high priesthood. Jesus did not exercise an earthly priesthood by offering animal sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple; rather, in the flesh he learned to be an obedient Son. In an allusion to Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, Hebrews reminds us of his “prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to God,” as he faced death in faith that God was able to save him. Only through his obedient endurance of death in faith did the Son become perfected so that he might become the source of eternal salvation for all who follow him in obedience. Later, in chapters 8-10, Hebrews describes the heavenly priesthood of Jesus who is the mediator of the new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah (see Heb 8:1-33) by offering his own blood in the heavenly sanctuary.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Gospel reading from John continues this Sunday’s theme of the life-giving power of Jesus’ death. At the final Passover in John’s Gospel, God-fearing Greeks, representing the whole Gentile world, arrive in Jerusalem and ask to see Jesus. He now knows that “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” His hour of glory involves death, but, like the grain of wheat which must die in order to produce much fruit, it will be a glorious lifting up which will draw all to him. Although his soul is troubled at the prospect of death, Jesus refuses to ask the Father to save him from this hour and instead embraces it by praying, “Father, glorify your name!” As we move closer to Christ’s Passover from death to life, let us ponder his words to those who would follow him.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">the earth and dies, it remains a grain of wheat. But if it</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">dies, it produces much fruit.”</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-49052348568308447182024-03-04T08:00:00.000-08:002024-03-04T08:00:30.783-08:00 4th Sunday of Lent B<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiar1UeBYrLwQM3ZOBKW0o5bcB-LAqFB9OCjMr9k-HcWXbIuF0ikBn-TPHU_l8x1QcqbTSNyAQUgKPHjG38Hl-SOechjh3YRZIVQPSWpTdt5qSKyMa4DbBHbwczARW8aie1EHfFPl8ONAPq7r6Ej2yvmUbHfLlt3031ezKmlqpReG6IJP6YEtawlB-Rm2Y" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1527" data-original-width="1780" height="549" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiar1UeBYrLwQM3ZOBKW0o5bcB-LAqFB9OCjMr9k-HcWXbIuF0ikBn-TPHU_l8x1QcqbTSNyAQUgKPHjG38Hl-SOechjh3YRZIVQPSWpTdt5qSKyMa4DbBHbwczARW8aie1EHfFPl8ONAPq7r6Ej2yvmUbHfLlt3031ezKmlqpReG6IJP6YEtawlB-Rm2Y=w640-h549" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;"> </span><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;">4<sup>th</sup> Sunday of Lent B</b></div><p></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 4in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -4in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: 2 Chronicles 36:14-17 Ephesians 2:4-1</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 4in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -4in;"><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: -4in;">John 3:14-21</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 4in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -4in;"><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: -4in;"><br /></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In the midst of our Lenten season of penance, the readings for the Fourth Sunday provide a joyful reminder of the way God’s mercy brings life out of death. With our Jewish ancestors who were restored to Jerusalem after the death of the Babylonian Exile, we listen to the lyrical words of today’s entrance antiphon:</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Rejoice, Jerusalem! Be glad for her, you who love her:</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">rejoice with her, you who mourned for her,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">and you will find contentment at her consoling breasts<i>.</i> (Isaiah 66:10-11)</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The reading from Second Chronicles is a reflection on the Chaldean (Babylonian) destruction of both Jerusalem and the Temple and their restoration by Cyrus the Persian. According to the Chronicler, Judah caused its own destruction by its repeated rejection of God’s prophetic messengers who were sent to warn the nation of covenant infidelity. But, from the Chronicler’s perspective, God’s intention was not simply to destroy the temple and the land of Judah. Rather, the word of God through the prophet Jeremiah had spoken of a sabbatical rest for the land and then its restoration. This promise has been fulfilled with Cyrus’ victory over Babylon and his subsequent decree allowing the Jews to return to Judah and rebuild the temple. Our reading ends with the joyful good news of Cyrus’ proclamation:</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“(God) has . . . charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">any part of his people let him go up and may his God be with him!”</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The reading from Ephesians reminds us of the gratuitous and life-giving character of our salvation in Christ. Before the coming of Christ, both Jews and Gentiles were hopelessly dead in sin. But now through the gift of God, and not through their own doing, both have been brought to life in Christ, who was raised up and has taken his place in the heavens. This new community of Jews and Gentiles is God’s handy-work and is now called to lead a life of good deeds.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">For by grace you have been saved through faith, </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">and this is not from you; it is a gift of God; </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">it is not from works, so no one may boast. </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 1in;">for the good works that God has prepared in advance </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large; text-indent: 0.5in;">that we should live in them.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Gospel reading from Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus in John continues the theme of last week’s gospel by providing us with a symbolic foreshadowing of the cross and resurrection. For John, Jesus’ crucifixion is the beginning of his life-giving exaltation and return to the Father. In his dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus compares his being “lifted up” and giving eternal life to all who believe to an incident in the Israelites’ journey in the desert from Sinai to the promise land. In Numbers 21, some of the Israelites are bitten by serpents and die because they complain to the Lord and Moses, saying, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” At the Lord’s command, Moses makes a bronze serpent and mounts it on a pole. Whoever was bitten and looked at the bronze serpent recovered.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">John understands Jesus’ coming into the world in the same way. The conclusion of the reading is a profound reflection on God’s motive for sending his Son into the world. God has acted out of love for the world and desires to share his eternal life of love with it. The light of God’s revelation in the darkened world of sin is the Son’s act of love in laying down his life “for his friends” (see John 15:11-17). God does not actively condemn the world in John’s Gospel. Condemnation and judgment come when the world rejects the light of God’s love in Jesus and prefers the darkness of wickedness. Evil hates the light of God’s love and retreats into darkness. As we move closer to the celebration of Jesus’ life-giving death and resurrection, let us allow the love of God manifest in Jesus to draw us into<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">the truth of God’s light.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-28325328194873526662024-02-26T07:08:00.000-08:002024-02-26T07:11:07.835-08:003rd Sunday of Lent B<p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigXImcjp1TxJTpWXhPZbGRQBMaSDk-EYy2Iks1Z5tvPWqoN4sAE36AGX3vqif_tBTriEpVDwwiX-s1Rx7bbAYw4q5QjEFxrKP7cvXNjHLDYGxCyjvmlenCG6WVxMrX531t9UlQTQDJhxwsSej6NlHr-VSn-LwzO__dIcqyUvW5tblANJJ172m6EYXmuek" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="569" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigXImcjp1TxJTpWXhPZbGRQBMaSDk-EYy2Iks1Z5tvPWqoN4sAE36AGX3vqif_tBTriEpVDwwiX-s1Rx7bbAYw4q5QjEFxrKP7cvXNjHLDYGxCyjvmlenCG6WVxMrX531t9UlQTQDJhxwsSej6NlHr-VSn-LwzO__dIcqyUvW5tblANJJ172m6EYXmuek=w531-h640" width="531" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br />3<sup>rd</sup> Sunday of Lent B</span></b><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Exodus 20:1-17 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> John 2:13-25</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">This Sunday’s readings continue to proclaim to the Christian community the life-giving power of God’s covenants with our Jewish ancestors, who were delivered from slavery in Egypt, and with the whole of humanity in Christ, who by the folly of his cross has unleashed the saving power and wisdom of God. We are challenged to reject all idols, even the desire for signs and wisdom, which may stand between us and God’s saving will. Humbly aware of the saving gift of God’s covenants, we can pray the refrain of the responsorial psalm: “Lord, you have the words of everlasting life” (Ps 19).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Exodus reading recounts the Lord’s giving the commandments to Israel on Mount Sinai; they are to serve as the new basis for their continued covenant relationship with him. The Israelites viewed this covenant with its laws as a saving gift from the Lord who had already freed them from Egypt. In the words of the responsorial psalm: “The law of the Lord is perfect,/ refreshing the soul;/ the decree of the Lord is trustworthy,/giving wisdom to the simple” (Ps 19:8).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Although most of the commandments are worded negatively as absolute prohibitions of certain actions, they actually protect the basic freedom of both God and the members of the Israelite community. In a polytheistic world which tended to worship the forces of nature and the tyrannical power of kings, God demands the right to Israel’s exclusive worship without the fashioning of idols or the vain use of his name for false oaths (see Lev 19:12). The Sabbath is to be kept holy, or separate, for the Lord by observing a day of rest from labor. The last six commands guarantee the basic rights of the Israelites: honor in old age, life free from murderous attack, marriage protected from adultery, property guarded from theft and a neighbor’s covetousness, and reputation preserved from false witness. Is it any wonder the psalmist can say of these commands: “They are more precious than gold/ sweeter than syrup or honey from the comb” (Ps 19:10)?</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In the second reading, Paul reminds the Corinthians, who are divided by their commitments to various apostles, that the gospel is not a form of wisdom, as philosophers understand it. In fact, the heart of the gospel is the folly of a “Christ crucified,” a stumbling block to the Jews, who were looking for spectacular “signs,” and “an absurdity” to the Gentile Greeks who wanted worldly wisdom. In the mystery of God’s plan, the folly and weakness of the cross contain the wisdom and power by which we are saved.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="line-height: 32px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Gospels for the third through fifth Sundays of Lent in the B cycle are taken from John’s Gospel, </span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">and all point symbolically to the life-giving power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In this Sunday’s Gospel </span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Jesus, in the course of cleansing the temple, announces that he in his death and resurrection will replace the </span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">temple where animal sacrifices were offered to God.</span></div><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In contrast to the other Gospels which place this incident at the end of Jesus’ public ministry, John recounts the cleansing of the temple in chapter two on the first of three Passover celebrations in his gospel. A major theme in the first part of John is that Jesus replaces the various institutions of Judaism. In this case, the temple has been corrupted “into a marketplace” where sacrificial animals are sold. Filled with “zeal” for his Father’s house, Jesus makes a whip of cords and frees the sacrificial animals and knocks over the money-changers’ tables.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">When asked for a “sign” authorizing this action, Jesus replies: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” As often happens in John, Jesus’ hearers misunderstand him because they interpret his language as referring to some earthly, often Jewish, reality. His opponents think he is speaking of the temple which “took forty-six years to build,” but the narrator reminds us that Jesus “was talking about the temple of his body.”</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">John also notes that only after the resurrection did his disciples recall and believe both Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple and the saying about his body. For us as well, the life-giving power of the new temple, Jesus’ body, “destroyed” yet “raised up,” is to be remembered and meditated upon as we progress though Lent toward the celebration of Easter. The covenant of our salvation has not been won by spectacular signs nor though sophisticated wisdom, but by the folly of a crucified Messiah, who had the courage to reject turning his “Father’s house into a marketplace.”</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-86772961897491745422024-02-19T12:21:00.000-08:002024-02-19T12:22:05.581-08:00 2nd Sunday of Lent B<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhWHNf4ffNL3i0GekstGEysztTCp4AgLXb3AX6hQYa_E2RQw3HAccBd26UQWvQiseZ13pI9K9NIgjpZlSuNW5FFOhSiNvIbVmzKrIijYvUmKjJSkpCPt7zk5Qj54ZLk1YWcYwvqdJxXWgavZUZMyFpNKOmOpvyNLZ07zcbR8OSNNpMf7J8v5PP5w7Bp3kI" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1228" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhWHNf4ffNL3i0GekstGEysztTCp4AgLXb3AX6hQYa_E2RQw3HAccBd26UQWvQiseZ13pI9K9NIgjpZlSuNW5FFOhSiNvIbVmzKrIijYvUmKjJSkpCPt7zk5Qj54ZLk1YWcYwvqdJxXWgavZUZMyFpNKOmOpvyNLZ07zcbR8OSNNpMf7J8v5PP5w7Bp3kI=w281-h320" width="281" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Titian</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiS5i4BAWnh4AEy4tHrAGwDAKWPI-E9B1wxUDP7XSDp3AjWH1N-8xmFm3XdXPtHWrJfpTIvWhVA9kb8n4EFBeCnHXsItUI7Ba74fTBJkiwnutMb32LfKDEWOqPeGztATcrCg3XC24xXj-blwVJvQZNveq2zYaybwCnTyR17W6DZ2xaLrUY9KwFA0iVjKwY" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1085" data-original-width="1440" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiS5i4BAWnh4AEy4tHrAGwDAKWPI-E9B1wxUDP7XSDp3AjWH1N-8xmFm3XdXPtHWrJfpTIvWhVA9kb8n4EFBeCnHXsItUI7Ba74fTBJkiwnutMb32LfKDEWOqPeGztATcrCg3XC24xXj-blwVJvQZNveq2zYaybwCnTyR17W6DZ2xaLrUY9KwFA0iVjKwY" width="319" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris Brazelton</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2<sup>nd</sup><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Sunday of Lent B</b></span></p><div class="WordSection1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); page: WordSection1;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Genesis 22:1-2,9,10-13,15-18,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Romans 8:31-34 Mark 9:2-10<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">As we continue our Lenten journey toward Jesus’ cross and death, today’s readings give us a glimpse of Jesus’ life-giving resurrection. On the often dark and frightening road to the cross, we are called to walk in trust like Abraham in the first reading, so we can pray in the words of the responsorial psalm: “I will walk in the presence of the Lord, in the land of the living” (Psalm 116).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Abraham’s journey to offer his beloved Isaac in sacrifice is the ultimate Biblical example of a test of faith. Isaac is Abraham’s only hope that God will fulfill his promise of abundant descendants and blessing for the families of the earth (Gen 12:1-3). In the previous chapter, Abraham was forced by Sarah and God to dismiss his oldest son Ishmael and his mother Hagar. Now God commands that he sacrifice Isaac, his only remaining son, for whom he had waited twenty-five years (see Genesis 12-21).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Although the narrator never gives us Abraham’s thoughts during the journey, his actions and words indicate that he both loves Isaac and trusts in God’s providence. When the burdens are divided for the walk to Mount Moriah, Abraham takes the dangerous fire and knife and gently places the harmless wood on Isaac’s shoulders. And, when Isaac asks his father, “Where is the sheep for the holocaust?” Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust” (Gen 22:7-8).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">For the Christian reader, the story’s conclusion foreshadows Jesus’ death and resurrection. Renewed life and blessing come to the obedient Abraham. Isaac is restored to his father, who trusted to the point of raising the knife over his son. And, after the ram has been offered in placed of the redeemed Isaac, the Lord’s messenger repeats the promise of blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“I swear by myself,” declares the Lord, “that because you acted<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as count-<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">less as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The second reading from Romans joyfully celebrates the consequences of Jesus’ cross and resurrection. According to Paul’s theology, even the Law of Moses was not able to overcome the power of Sin and Death that had enslaved humanity (see Romans 7). But now in Christ, God has mercifully justified the whole human family by accepting the obedient act of his death as atonement for the sins of all. By his resurrection, Jesus, the obedient Son of God, has triumphed over Death and now is at God’s right hand to make intercession for us. Because of Jesus’ victory, Paul has unlimited confidence that no cosmic power can separate the redeemed community from the love of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page;" /></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span></span><div class="WordSection2" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); page: WordSection2;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Lent is always the account of Jesus’ transfiguration. Mark’s version is an anticipation of Jesus’ resurrection and comes at a strategic point in his narrative. Jesus has just taught his disciples for the first time that he is destined to “suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.” When Peter refuses to accept a suffering mission for the Messiah, Jesus reprimands him as “Satan” and teaches the disciples, “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mk 8:27-38). Then he takes Peter, James and John and leads them to a high mountain where he is transfigured before their eyes into his anticipated resurrection glory. His clothes become dazzling white, “whiter than the work of any bleacher could make them.” Elijah and Moses, representatives of the prophets and the law-- who had mysterious departures from this world and were expected to return at the end time-- appear and are in conversation with him. Sadly, Peter again fails to understand and proposes to build three booths to honor them all equally. God’s heavenly voice corrects Peter by announcing: “This is my Son, my beloved. Listen to him.” When the revelation is finished, the disciples see only Jesus, who enjoins them not to announce what they have seen before the Son of Man has risen. The Church’s Lenten observance is faithful to Mark’s understanding of Jesus. If we want to share in the triumph of Jesus’ resurrection, we must follow him in trust, down from the mountain and on to Jerusalem and the cross.</span></p></div>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-43575733159668351922024-02-12T08:27:00.000-08:002024-02-12T08:27:44.813-08:00 1st Sunday of Lent B<p style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3hfmjogTjR5tjWvGq4a0FK_FDPSOG62hRHTgxCscL0PwG5JDI03LA23jfTEw4chcFTusmU_VjeWe0ogWPoOJzo3R-hEANlY8ADjhp-7X9PI2wb3r_rxs0cuTl8ABGxWe74x_cc_aY4XMINwUl3ISoJs3c0XFhEbyknaKmayKrSEKicsJDGgm_avpvxAI" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2297" data-original-width="3109" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3hfmjogTjR5tjWvGq4a0FK_FDPSOG62hRHTgxCscL0PwG5JDI03LA23jfTEw4chcFTusmU_VjeWe0ogWPoOJzo3R-hEANlY8ADjhp-7X9PI2wb3r_rxs0cuTl8ABGxWe74x_cc_aY4XMINwUl3ISoJs3c0XFhEbyknaKmayKrSEKicsJDGgm_avpvxAI" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Donald Patten</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLwEHpYGnqvquaAkQB49UaUW_fLvazJce6LlF3GMhuMUZNPud_vONbhs2uXFdaEq4AOFX5lcILnPOt1Ypxj7rFECf1NTEBx2-xchfAs2bokqYfBYoY2V7DpUcganu2vPZU7trKX_Rg-X6O4zuJnLYInwjw-VJD2pSlfHxXoF7g1xhGH9ZiliCbqlY0AcI" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLwEHpYGnqvquaAkQB49UaUW_fLvazJce6LlF3GMhuMUZNPud_vONbhs2uXFdaEq4AOFX5lcILnPOt1Ypxj7rFECf1NTEBx2-xchfAs2bokqYfBYoY2V7DpUcganu2vPZU7trKX_Rg-X6O4zuJnLYInwjw-VJD2pSlfHxXoF7g1xhGH9ZiliCbqlY0AcI" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AI</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;"> </span><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;">1<sup>st</sup> Sunday of Lent B</b></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 3.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: -3.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 3.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -3.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Genesis 9:8-15 1 Peter 3:18-22 </span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 3.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -3.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Mark 1:12-15</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 3.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -3.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Lent is a time of preparation for the Christian community’s celebration of Jesus’ triumphant victory over Sin and Death through his cross and resurrection in the liturgies of Holy Week. As catechumens prepare for full initiation into the rigors and joys of the Christian faith, the whole Christian community readies itself for the renewal of its baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil by again turning from sin to the joys and demands of the Gospel. The readings for the Lenten season in the B cycle will lead us through God’s live-giving covenants in the course of salvation history and deepen our understanding of our baptismal commitment in an often pagan world. In the spirit of renewal, let us pray the refrain of this Sunday’s psalm: “Your ways, O Lord are love and truth,/ to those who keep your covenant” (Ps 25).</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The first reading from Genesis recounts God’s covenant with Noah and the whole created order after the purifying waters of the flood had cleansed the earth of sin. It immediately puts our Lenten observance in a universal and ecological context. God is committed to the restoration of harmony in the universe and calls us to live in peace with every living creature. In contrast to pagan traditions which understood the flood as the action of capricious gods, the Genesis flood story represents God’s attempt at a new beginning, a second creation. In the early chapters of Genesis (1-6), humanity’s sin disrupts the harmony of God’s original creation and unleashes the chaos of titanic pride, murder, blood revenge and violence. Out of this hopelessly rebellious human family, God chooses Noah and his family to begin creation anew. His commitment to the new created order after the flood is irrevocable and universal. The sign of that covenant is in nature itself and is visible to all.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The second reading from 1 Peter applies the flood imagery to Christian baptism which is an entrance into Jesus’ life-giving death and resurrection. 1 Peter was written for Christians in Asia Minor who found themselves in a pagan Roman environment hostile to the values of the gospel. It calls them to live “as aliens and sojourners” in this evil world, but also to give a defense of their faith to unbelievers. In the section immediately preceding our reading, Peter exhorts his follow Christians.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence,</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:15-17)</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></span></div><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In suffering for doing good in a hostile world, Christians are living out their baptism which was prefigured in the saving of the innocent Noah and his family by water in the wicked flood generation. More importantly, their baptism is a sharing in the saving action of Jesus the “righteous” One, who suffered for the “unrighteous” and now has triumphed through his resurrection and reigns at the right hand of God in heaven.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent is always the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness at the beginning of his public life. In Mark’s very short version, Jesus is led by the Spirit, which he has just received at his baptism by John, to the desert, where he is put to the test by Satan during a forty day sojourn. The scene is filled with symbolism drawn from the Old Testament. Unlike his ancestors who failed the test of trusting in God’s providential care during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness as they came out of Egypt, Jesus trusts in God’s protective care. The brief statement, “He was with the wild beasts, and angels waited on him,” is drawn from the imagery of Psalm 91, promising protection to the one who trusts God.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> For to his angels he has given command about you,</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">that they guard you in all your ways.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Upon their hands they shall bear you up,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> less you dash your foot against a stone.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> you shall trample down the lion and the dragon. (Ps 91:11-13)</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Having endured his forty day test, Jesus then launches his attack on Satan’s dominion by going to Galilee and proclaiming: “This is the time of fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the good news!” This is our call for the season of Lent.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-55298620317670093632024-02-05T07:04:00.000-08:002024-02-05T07:04:11.666-08:00 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time B<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLqN1E6Ba7NEICkgcoH4gIpLGpQcUZ2dTmB-u0SKQYJKMIQkYXOSM1Aeu4OCASfnuerwmuljLDeShmtszqmTUq2qUo9jbqo4bp5Gt8jPcJl7gxioP_GPtwzpaK_gTr0Cinlu8L3VI9S-tuIdwn30_cyAzK3Lxb_23vKuMwI4mJY3MAM862Hn3eif1h-40"><img alt="" data-original-height="743" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLqN1E6Ba7NEICkgcoH4gIpLGpQcUZ2dTmB-u0SKQYJKMIQkYXOSM1Aeu4OCASfnuerwmuljLDeShmtszqmTUq2qUo9jbqo4bp5Gt8jPcJl7gxioP_GPtwzpaK_gTr0Cinlu8L3VI9S-tuIdwn30_cyAzK3Lxb_23vKuMwI4mJY3MAM862Hn3eif1h-40=w517-h640" width="517" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">6<sup>th</sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time B</b></span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 4.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -4.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Leviticus 13:1-2,44-46 </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 4.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -4.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 Mark 1:40-45</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 4.5in; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -4.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">This Sunday’s Gospel recounts Jesus’ healing of an outcast leper and restoring him to the community of God’s people. Let us join the leper who kneels before Jesus and prays: “If you will do so, you can cure me.” With that humble spirit, we can pray this Sunday’s psalm: “I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation” (Ps 32).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Leviticus reading sets the religious and social background for Jesus’ healing and restoration of the leper in the Gospel. It is part of a long section treating “leprosy” which rendered persons “unclean” and forced them to dwell apart, outside the Israelite community. As is clear from the description, “leprosy” is a term for various skin blemishes and fungi (scabs, pustules or blotches), and not Hansen’s disease. In Israel the priests, the descendants of Aaron, had the responsibility of diagnosing the leprosy, declaring persons unclean, and then pronouncing them clean when the leprosy was healed. Until the leprosy was healed and the proper sacrificial rituals were performed, the leper must “keep his garments rent and his head bare, and . . . muffle his beard,” and, as long as the sore is on him, he almost must “cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’”. This, then, is the ostracized condition of the leper in our Gospel reading. </span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The second reading is the conclusion of Paul’s long exhortation in 1 Corinthians on the problem of whether Christians were free to eat meat that had been “offered to idols” and to attend pagan banquets (see 1 Cor 8:1-11:1). Paul’s treatment of these issues is a good illustration of how his ethical teaching is based on the Christian command to love rather than on “knowledge” and “rights” as in a philosophical ethics. For Paul, love “builds up” the community by being concerned with the physical and spiritual welfare of others. But “knowledge” only “puffs up” the individual and has no regard for the needs of others. While sarcastically agreeing with the knowledgeable that the idols have no real existence, Paul asks that they, out of consideration for the weaker brethren who are recent converts, not eat the food that has been offered to idols in their presence (10:23-28). In the matter of the pagan banquets, Paul forbids participation because the Christian Eucharistic meal is a participation in the body and blood of Christ which precludes participation in pagan sacrifices (10:14-22). In the midst of this section, Paul offers his own behavior as an example to the Corinthians (9:1-27). As an apostle he has certain rights, for example, the right to support from his communities and to take a wife in marriage. But he has freely given them up in order to be of service to those to whom he preaches the gospel. In the same manner he asks the Corinthians to be willing to give up their liberties and privileges in matters of food for “the glory of God” and their brethren’s spiritual needs.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1in; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">do everything for the glory of God. </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">or the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many,</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In his story of Jesus’ healing a leper, Mark continues his twin themes of Jesus opening the kingdom of God to the diseased and outcast in Israel and his desire for secrecy about the miracles. At the same time Mark is preparing for the hostility of the scribes and Pharisees in the next section (see 2:1-3:5) because Jesus’ actions imply God-like power and override the authority of the priests and Temple. In Mark the simple faith of outsiders brings them into God’s kingdom, while the Temple-bound legalism of the scribes and Pharisees keeps them out. In contrast to the scribes who claim that Jesus has blasphemously usurped God’s power to forgive sins (2:6-12), the leper humbly recognizes the divine power operative in Jesus and begs for healing and restoration to a state of cleanness. “A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, ‘If you wish, you can make me clean.’” Moved with pity, Jesus, with God-like power, simply stretches out his hand, touches the leper, and says, “I do will it. Be made clean.” As often happens in Mark, the cure is “immediately” accomplished. In the concluding dialogue Jesus continues to command secrecy about his miracle working (see Mk 1:25,34), but tells the cleansed leper to show himself to priest and offer the sacrifices prescribed in Leviticus for restoration to the community (see Leviticus 14). But, in typical Marcan fashion, the man goes away and begins to publicize the whole matter. Despite Jesus’ attempt to avoid the crush of the crowds by remaining outside the towns in deserted places, the people keep coming to him from everywhere. Mark gives us the impression that, although Jesus wants to wait for the full revelation of the kingdom (see Mk 8:27ff), his healing ministry has thrown open the gates to the kingdom, and long rejected outcasts have coming streaming in, as the prophets had prophesied (cf. Isaiah 35)</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-70582638511504126422024-01-29T10:41:00.000-08:002024-01-29T10:41:16.174-08:00 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time B<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqsR93ETEcY1zWvAut6A_Go4JyHvO4LuHQWZTdOW3Ta0nXsiENwnVpONuLXIj0X0VSZ9P_-ptvT4OqhmCt-52zdmrmBSz_IQCzcghiea12ml0r4SHq8ILWWZ6tDOQrKPYBkBcJvGx2PWrkxHpfTmy5evqtCfEy9eqocAxQzlak5INPlbd9fhhNEPc_W88" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="760" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqsR93ETEcY1zWvAut6A_Go4JyHvO4LuHQWZTdOW3Ta0nXsiENwnVpONuLXIj0X0VSZ9P_-ptvT4OqhmCt-52zdmrmBSz_IQCzcghiea12ml0r4SHq8ILWWZ6tDOQrKPYBkBcJvGx2PWrkxHpfTmy5evqtCfEy9eqocAxQzlak5INPlbd9fhhNEPc_W88=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">5<sup>th</sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time B</b></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Job 7:1-4,6-7 1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23 Mark 1:29-39</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Or where were the upright cut off?</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> As I have seen, those who plow iniquity</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> and sow trouble reap the same.” (4:7-8)</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">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).</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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 where 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. Paul, the apostle, 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.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> In many ways the Gospel 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.”</span></p><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> This Sunday’s liturgy is a challenge to face the hard reality of the world’s suffering without resorting to the</span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> moral platitudes of Job’s friends nor the wonders of a miracle working Christ who simply sweeps away the evils of </span></div><div class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 2.4;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">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). </span></div>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-12223390895466099562024-01-22T08:25:00.000-08:002024-01-22T08:25:58.815-08:00 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6q9FLqVYm4zqtH5VVj61HB7x1wac2iHLjGmWq636xt_wqzkColUhujoUTMxVKHeSmBgTkb6e-48eZS9zb77xIhgLwT9mz7UxrGr9KWlilmZmt18bRhOjfD0jG93HG8jaLGFjoWJF4eNp_EfJ_KVftS2VUfI9ahv0RjnhAKSkcj6bpswMbeNL4aak0Jps" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="739" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6q9FLqVYm4zqtH5VVj61HB7x1wac2iHLjGmWq636xt_wqzkColUhujoUTMxVKHeSmBgTkb6e-48eZS9zb77xIhgLwT9mz7UxrGr9KWlilmZmt18bRhOjfD0jG93HG8jaLGFjoWJF4eNp_EfJ_KVftS2VUfI9ahv0RjnhAKSkcj6bpswMbeNL4aak0Jps=w400-h332" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">4<sup>th</sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time </b></span><p></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Deuteronomy 18:15-20 1 Corinthians 7:</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">32-35 Mark 1:21-28</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> “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).</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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.”</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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!”</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-25968996204076461892024-01-15T08:29:00.000-08:002024-01-15T08:29:24.891-08:00 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time B<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGVo5aimckLmJcD9CTlJeZvDIxD4IJsT7oG2baOPu5LpTwNrXzFvZ2LvAUKH1uNCA3xWTG-6t6o7Kl5QlHjpWGUCOV8WSIfeh9U03FvDXDDE7wGI4y9L1KeV-G8elBjG_vEo_MQ7yFMgPndut0w7ehh0KyO6mlz9owjRHXs44GEks-x_QcLW6OOlODzms" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="800" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGVo5aimckLmJcD9CTlJeZvDIxD4IJsT7oG2baOPu5LpTwNrXzFvZ2LvAUKH1uNCA3xWTG-6t6o7Kl5QlHjpWGUCOV8WSIfeh9U03FvDXDDE7wGI4y9L1KeV-G8elBjG_vEo_MQ7yFMgPndut0w7ehh0KyO6mlz9owjRHXs44GEks-x_QcLW6OOlODzms=w640-h512" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">3<sup>rd</sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time B</b></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Jonah 3:1-5,10 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> “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).</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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: </span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> “You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred thousand</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left,</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> not to mention many cattle?” (Jonah 4:10-11) </span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing,</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully,</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> For the world in its present form is passing away.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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).</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> 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.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-23472974675120875862024-01-08T07:42:00.000-08:002024-01-08T07:42:54.484-08:00 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time B <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRRMW5soel0dg3OjYHsl5bR6EN3crl8mJvOpJ-e7qqxFkDNCcxQsvjI0KVz74jeibOttMPbKUlts_Capx6GFX3uHgAPd1L1TQyESbGOJogGRY8_lWL4LXuUvLfK7WQFhi52sx-iZ6BAz3vBTead2NsMv09Cfbq0z_mY7rEOUcr6urow4uodRcc9vHmnII" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="624" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRRMW5soel0dg3OjYHsl5bR6EN3crl8mJvOpJ-e7qqxFkDNCcxQsvjI0KVz74jeibOttMPbKUlts_Capx6GFX3uHgAPd1L1TQyESbGOJogGRY8_lWL4LXuUvLfK7WQFhi52sx-iZ6BAz3vBTead2NsMv09Cfbq0z_mY7rEOUcr6urow4uodRcc9vHmnII=w400-h245" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2<sup>nd</sup><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Sunday in Ordinary Time B<o:p> </o:p></b></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0in 5in; text-indent: -5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: 1 Samuel 3:3-10,19 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0in 5in; text-indent: -5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">1 Corinthians 6:13-15 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0in 5in; text-indent: -5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">John 1:35-42<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0in 5in; text-indent: -5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">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.” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Our response should be the refrain for today’s responsorial psalm: “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will” (Ps 40).<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">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. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In the opening lines of 1 Samuel 3 Eli’s physical blindness and sleep accentuate Israel’s deepening darkness. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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.<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">During the time young Samuel was minister to the Lord under Eli,<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">a revelation of the Lord was uncommon and a vision infrequent. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">One day Eli was asleep in his usual place. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>His eyes had lately grown<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">so weak that he could not see. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The lamp of God was not yet<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the Lord<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 1in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">where the ark of God was.<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">No wonder neither Samuel nor Eli initially understand that the Lord is calling the young boy. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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.” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This generous response leads to the restoration of God’s word to Israel. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The reading concludes: “Samuel grew up, and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.”<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">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. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In chapters 5-6 Paul is answering ethical problems that have divided the Corinthian community. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Many stem from irresponsible misinterpretations of Paul’s earlier preaching. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Some members were evidently justifying their behavior by saying, “All things are lawful to me . . .” (6:12). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This slogan may have been based on Paul’s own preaching that Christian faith had superseded the Mosaic law and its demands. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> <o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>The Gospel reading is John’s version of the disciples’ call. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In John’s theology, God’s call is often mediated by the testimony of another. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In this case, Andrew becomes Jesus’ disciple on the basis of John the Baptist’s testimony that Jesus is “the lamb of God.” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He in turn joyfully proclaims to his brother, Simon Peter: “we have found the Messiah!” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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?” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In John’s Gospel the verb<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>menein</i>, “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). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When Jesus answers Andrew’s question with the words, “Come and see,” he is inviting him into the loving relationship share by the Father, Son, and Spirit (see 15:1-17).<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jesus’ dialogue with Peter gives him the special title “Cephas,” “Peter” (Rock). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>At the end of the Gospel, the resurrected Jesus will commission Peter, the rock and shepherd, to feed his flock (21:15-17). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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:<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“Amen, amen I say to you, when your were younger,<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>you used to dress yourself as you wanted;<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>but when you have grown old, you will stretch<o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>out your hands, and someone will dress you and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 32px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>lead you where you do not want to go.” (21:18-19)</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-26225802257780270752024-01-02T07:41:00.000-08:002024-01-02T07:41:28.894-08:00 Epiphany A B C<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjMOrWNZkA7ZTypvaPHylq7LUL5bDwUJhBiMxNbotVBDcBUjun9MVZgjsELRSDnbt1GqpfoaniSpndDuLNPLI3qlfWWYzqDcwaQ39pWigf7CawteU1xwzasItMuqQUtDGyZp1jPwB7lo8JqnoEEeyU4bAYpmjEFTV6QXDx5iREYCfxRQ70ZRIE-nT7KEeA" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="833" data-original-width="590" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjMOrWNZkA7ZTypvaPHylq7LUL5bDwUJhBiMxNbotVBDcBUjun9MVZgjsELRSDnbt1GqpfoaniSpndDuLNPLI3qlfWWYzqDcwaQ39pWigf7CawteU1xwzasItMuqQUtDGyZp1jPwB7lo8JqnoEEeyU4bAYpmjEFTV6QXDx5iREYCfxRQ70ZRIE-nT7KEeA=w453-h640" width="453" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: "Market Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;">J.C. Leyendecker</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px;">Epiphany A B C</b></span></p><div class="WordSection1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Readings: Isaiah 60:1‑6 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Ephesians3:2‑3,5‑6 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Matthew 2:1‑12<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">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). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of God's salvation to all peoples. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In the words of the responsorial psalm, we pray: "Lord, every nation on earth will adore you" (Ps 72:11).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">The Isaiah reading looks forward to the time when nations will walk by the light of God's blessing shed upon Jerusalem. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Speaking to exiles recently returned from Babylon, the prophet <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Is 60:3,5‑6).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">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 co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the preaching of the gospel." <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Paul had to fight for the Gentiles’ right to be part of the new Messianic community without the duty of becoming observant Jews. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>According to Paul, Jesus' death and resurrection is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>the</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>saving event, long anticipated by the prophets, which has opened the way for the Gentiles to become members of the people of God. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This good news also calls Christians to a new way of living together in a love, rooted in Christ's own love for us. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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).<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px;"><br style="break-before: page;" /></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px;"></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px; line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Matthew's story of the adoration of the magi foreshadows that the Gentiles will receive the gospel . <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px; line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Herod's character is modeled on previous wicked kings who attempt to thwart God's promises, only to bring them to fulfillment. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px; line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">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<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>magus</i>), to curse them, but he can only pronounce blessing on God's people (see Numbers 22‑24). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px; line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">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." <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When they learn from the Scriptures (Micah) that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, they continue their journey, again guided by the star. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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.<b>Epiphany A B C</b></span></p><div class="WordSection1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Readings: Isaiah 60:1‑6 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Ephesians 3:2‑3,5‑6 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Matthew 2:1‑12<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">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). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of God's salvation to all peoples. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In the words of the responsorial psalm, we pray: "Lord, every nation on earth will adore you" (Ps 72:11).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">The Isaiah reading looks forward to the time when nations will walk by the light of God's blessing shed upon Jerusalem. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Speaking to exiles recently returned from Babylon, the prophet <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Is 60:3,5‑6).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">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 co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the preaching of the gospel." <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Paul had to fight for the Gentiles’ right to be part of the new Messianic community without the duty of becoming observant Jews. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>According to Paul, Jesus' death and resurrection is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>the</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>saving event, long anticipated by the prophets, which has opened the way for the Gentiles to become members of the people of God. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This good news also calls Christians to a new way of living together in a love, rooted in Christ's own love for us. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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).<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px;"><br style="break-before: page;" /></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px;"></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px; line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Matthew's story of the adoration of the magi foreshadows that the Gentiles will receive the gospel . <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px; line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">Herod's character is modeled on previous wicked kings who attempt to thwart God's promises, only to bring them to fulfillment. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px; line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">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<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>magus</i>), to curse them, but he can only pronounce blessing on God's people (see Numbers 22‑24). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 28px; line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville;">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." <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When they learn from the Scriptures (Micah) that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, they continue their journey, again guided by the star. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-355234026767201482023-12-26T07:45:00.000-08:002023-12-26T07:45:57.053-08:00 Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God A B C<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhjQfofoU57J3whYQHdU3gKutBG0EZAxyrQccGtW2LYPsUxwPBW0Yew3rnPXac_Rk5UmrvbKKoQbIlNFX1EhYkeRZE3AtQ3wS0OIz-TxP8h36rNVFseRZCRdIAU4nD45kXnghfPIA35EwPDcbAxQ1C_982dSTxWmAXMRiAKhknGwNTm6CKrAZf55VjZARA"><img alt="" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="488" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhjQfofoU57J3whYQHdU3gKutBG0EZAxyrQccGtW2LYPsUxwPBW0Yew3rnPXac_Rk5UmrvbKKoQbIlNFX1EhYkeRZE3AtQ3wS0OIz-TxP8h36rNVFseRZCRdIAU4nD45kXnghfPIA35EwPDcbAxQ1C_982dSTxWmAXMRiAKhknGwNTm6CKrAZf55VjZARA=w397-h400" width="397" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God A B C</b></span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Numbers 6:22‑27 Galatians 4:4‑7 </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Luke 2:16‑21</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Today's feast celebrates the merciful God, whose name has been fully revealed in Jesus, and Mary, the mother of God, who is our model for pondering the mysteries of the Christmas season. As we wish for others the blessings of the Christmas season, let us pray today's psalm: "May God bless us in his mercy" (Ps 67:2a).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> In the Numbers reading the Lord instructs Aaron and his sons in the way they are to bless the children of Israel. The actual words of the blessing are three parallel poetic lines petitioning the Lord's protection associated with his presence or "face." “The Lord bless you and keep you!/</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!/ The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!” The first half of each line requests the Lord's attentive care, and the second half elaborates its consequence for the individual. God's blessing culminates in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>shalom</i>, "peace" or "well‑being," material and spiritual prosperity in all its fullness (see Deut 28:3‑6). </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> In the Galatians reading Paul is describing the consequences of belief in Christ through a contrast between the state of Jews and Gentiles before and after his coming. Until Christ came, both groups were in a state of slavery, but now they have become free children and fully adopted heirs of God's kingdom. In today's selection Paul is describing the Messiah's liberation of the Jews, like himself, who were living under the law; he therefore uses the first person plural. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.” The proof of this new status for both Jews and Gentiles is the new, intimate way that they may address God as "Abba, Father!”. Paul then concludes by reiterating the new status of Christians as fully adopted children and heirs. “So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God.” </span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="line-height: 32px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Gospel reading completes Luke's nativity narrative with three scenes. In the first, the shepherds, most unlikely candidates for God's revelation, become the first apostles of the Christian message. After deciding to go to David's city to verify the message that the angels have given them, they find "Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger," just as the angels had announced. They now understand "what had been told them concerning this child," namely that he is destined to be "a Savior . . . the Messiah and Lord." Not content with keeping this news concealed, they report it to others, and "all who heard of it were astonished." As the shepherds return, they glorify and praise God "for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them."</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> In the second scene, Mary's reaction is distinguished from the others. Luke notes that she "kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." The verb is the same one used by Luke to describe Mary’s reaction to Gabriel's initial greeting in the annunciation (1:29) and later of her response in the story of Jesus' remaining behind in the Temple at Passover when he was age twelve (2:51). It has the sense of intense thought which returns to the subject time and again. In Luke's theology Mary is a model of discipleship. She hears God's word, reflects deeply upon it, and then acts in accord with it. </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The concluding scene of today's Gospel narrates the circumcision and naming of the child, as "Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb." Luke deliberately harkens back to the annunciation where the name "Jesus" ("the Lord saves") was associated with the child's destiny to become the Messiah with his heavenly exaltation after his crucifixion and death (1:31‑33; see Acts 2:22‑36). At the end of Luke's Gospel, Jesus will commission his disciples to preach forgiveness of sins in this sacred name."Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things" (Lk 24:46‑48).</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-50846722768130657312023-12-26T07:41:00.000-08:002023-12-26T07:41:58.989-08:00 Holy Family B<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqaaJYlpLqzAKpTOmKLPhYDkAe8jFJhUkwz4ppY2-1pFAIP-Lv4lUeR3z1oAmC9WPvy8-VQXD4kF4zNcWMlZ7BYAbl4_sH8YJvxxaZKlxRmzDyjUpmKoUjJER2VzMRCAstNztK0qNLoUoGadZLjCUyQvFFGYXRvbhizQQCBRKB9mRCWoatPdV_VjvR_Tc" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3820" data-original-width="2729" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqaaJYlpLqzAKpTOmKLPhYDkAe8jFJhUkwz4ppY2-1pFAIP-Lv4lUeR3z1oAmC9WPvy8-VQXD4kF4zNcWMlZ7BYAbl4_sH8YJvxxaZKlxRmzDyjUpmKoUjJER2VzMRCAstNztK0qNLoUoGadZLjCUyQvFFGYXRvbhizQQCBRKB9mRCWoatPdV_VjvR_Tc=w456-h640" width="456" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Saints Project</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Holy Family B</b></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Sirach 3:2-6,12-14 Colossians 3:12-21 </span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Luke 2:22-40</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> During the Christmas season the Church celebrates the Incarnation by dwelling on various aspects of this mystery. Holy Family Sunday reminds us that Jesus was both called to a unique saving mission by his Father but also fully shared our experience of living in a family with all its confusion, pain and mystery. As we struggle with the obligations of our commitments to God and family, let us pray in faith the words of this Sunday’s responsorial psalm: “Happy are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways” (Ps 128).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Sirach reading is a wisdom instruction based on the commandment to honor father and mother (Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16). This obligation is about caring for elderly parents when their health and minds fail.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> My son, take care of your father when he is old;</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> . . . Even if his mind fail, be considerate with him;</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> revile him not in the fullness of your strength. (Sir 3:12-13)</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">According to Sirach, care for elderly parents will be reciprocated by God. “He who honors his father atones for sins;/ he stores up riches who reveres his mother” (3:3).</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Paul’s instructions to the Colossians put family obligations in a Christian context. Christians are to divest themselves of their old lives of sin (see Col 3:5-9) and clothe themselves with Christian virtues: heartfelt mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and especially love “which binds the rest together and makes them perfect” (3:12-14). They are to pray in joyous thankfulness to God the Father, as their words and actions are done “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul concludes with specific words for each member of the family. Wives are to be submissive to their husbands; husbands are to love their wives and avoid any bitterness toward them; children are to obey their parents; fathers are not to nag their children “lest they lose heart.”</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Luke’s account of Jesus’ presentation in the Temple both celebrates the surprisingly joyful fulfillment of Israel’s messianic expectations but also ominously foreshadows that this messianic child will know opposition, rejection and suffering. Like the pious Zechariah and Elizabeth (Lk 1:6), Jesus’ parents fulfill the Jewish law by presenting Mary for purification (cf. Lev 12:2-8) and dedicating Jesus their first-born son (Ex 13:2,12). The centerpiece of the scene is Simeon’s prayer. As a representative of the poor of Israel who await the kingdom of God’s justice, the elderly Simeon is moved by the Holy Spirit to take Jesus in his arms and proclaim the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel of the Savior who will be “a revealing light to the Gentiles.”</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> “Now, Master, you can dismiss your servant in peace;</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> you have fulfilled your word.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> For my eyes have witnessed your saving deed</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">displayed for all the peoples to see: A revealing light to the Gentiles, the glory of your people Israel.”</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">But Simeon’s prophetic vision also foreshadows the divisive character of Jesus’ ministry. After blessing the marveling parents, the prophet informs Mary his mother: “This child is destined to be the downfall and the rise of many in Israel, a sign that will be opposed– and you yourself shall be pierced with a sword–so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid bare.” Jesus’ proclamation of the Father’s forgiving love will divide Israel between those who repentantly accept this message and those who self-righteously refuse it (cf. Lk 7:18-50). Mary’s own blessedness will also be challenged, when Jesus himself announces that true blessedness “is hearing the world of God and observing it” (see Lk 1:38-45; 8:20-21; 11:27-28).</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-29148811600472296782023-12-21T07:11:00.000-08:002023-12-21T07:11:58.102-08:00 Christmas Mass During the Day A B C<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7hf_P4N3HgzHzVPD3f0L1Bhj4sPl9ior2ZFwR0lT8vYU28pJkSBXBP3iSCtBaE1NzjUsVpaV2ZoKRLnyGBzx4bC4Be4jEuGmUjoKd_1SYkvO0cNz-JEN6R5HykPl_nbvgS0LDfXw-iRb6JTIZQ2m23eIKCQZusgCC3yBedm4fWY00vo_qtJKVumEnO0/s501/1836-2.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="361" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7hf_P4N3HgzHzVPD3f0L1Bhj4sPl9ior2ZFwR0lT8vYU28pJkSBXBP3iSCtBaE1NzjUsVpaV2ZoKRLnyGBzx4bC4Be4jEuGmUjoKd_1SYkvO0cNz-JEN6R5HykPl_nbvgS0LDfXw-iRb6JTIZQ2m23eIKCQZusgCC3yBedm4fWY00vo_qtJKVumEnO0/w289-h400/1836-2.jpg" width="289" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Christmas Mass During the Day A B C</b></span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10 Hebrews 1:1-6 John 1:1-18</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The readings for Christmas Mass during the day have a note of unrestrained joy over God’s final act of salvation in the coming of Christ, the very word of God, who has come in the flesh to share and redeem our fallen humanity. This mood is most evident in the lyrics of the responsorial psalm.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God. (Ps 98:3c)</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds;</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">his right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm. (Ps 98:1) </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>The Isaiah reading is a joyful poem addressed to the Jewish exiles living in Babylon whose situation appears to be hopeless. Their homeland is in ruins; the Temple has been destroyed, and they have been living in bondage for several years. Despite the bleakness of their situation, the prophet announces the joyous, good news of the restoration of Jerusalem. The artful poem moves through three stages. First, the prophet rejoices over the arrival of the messenger who brings “the glad tidings” of peace (<i>shalom</i>) for Zion as the God returns to the city in triumph as their “king.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> How beautiful upon the mountains</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">are the feet of him who brings glad tidings,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">announcing peace, bearing good news,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">announcing salvation, and saying to Zion,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“Your God is king!”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Secondly, he envisions Jerusalem’s watchmen raising a cry and shouting for joy as the Lord begins to restore Zion. “Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry,/ together they shout for joy,/ for they see directly, before their eyes, the Lord restoring Zion.” Finally, he invites the “ruins of Jerusalem” to “break out together in song” because the Lord “comforts his people” and “redeems Jerusalem.” The prophet’s vision is not limited to a narrow nationalism. Jerusalem’s salvation is meant as a revelation to “all the nations.” “The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations;/ all the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The second reading from the beginning of Hebrews emphasizes the completeness and finality of God’s spoken word through the son (Jesus), in contrast to the “partial and various ways” of revelation “in times past . . . to our ancestors through the prophets.” Hebrews is more of a homily than a letter, and it asserts that with the coming of Jesus, “the final age” has arrived in which God’s saving acts have come to their completion.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> In this opening section, Hebrews insists on Jesus’ superiority to the angels, whom some were tempted to revere above Jesus because they had not been contaminated by descending into this material world of impermanence and change. Using many of the same concepts as the evangelist John, the author of Hebrews stresses the son’s unique greatness, power, and closeness to God. Like Lady Wisdom in the Old Testament, the Son is the agent of creation (Prv 8:30; Wis 7:22), “the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being” (Wis 7:26), and the “mighty word” which sustains all things. Although Jesus did descend into the world and “accomplished purification from sins,” he now has taken “his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high” where he has received the titles “Son” and “heir” which make him superior to the angels who are commanded to worship him.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Gospel reading is the prologue of John which is a hymn to Jesus as the incarnate Word (<i>Logos</i>) of God and the Light that has come into a darkened world. It celebrates the whole sweep of salvation from creation to the coming of the Word in the flesh. Periodically, it is punctuated with asides about the role of john the Baptist as witness to Jesus, the light (1:6, 7, 15). The first two strophes speak of the Word’s relation to God (1:1-2) and to creation (1:3-5). John uses several allusions to the first creation story in Genesis: the opening words, “In the beginning,” creation through a word of command, and the references to light and darkness (Gen 1:1-5). Just as in the initial act of creation light entered a darkened world, so in the re-creation of the world darkened by sin, the Word as “the light shines in the darkness,/ and darkness has not overcome it.” The third strophe (1:9-13) speaks of the Word’s relation to humans in the world. It evokes rejection and acceptance, death and rebirth. Although the Word is “the true light, which enlightens everyone,” and “all things came to be through him,” the world did not know him and “his own people did not accept him.” But to those who do accept him, the Word gives the power “to become children of God.” The final strophe (1:14, 16-18) concentrates on the Word’s relation to believers. Like God’s presence through the Tabernacle and the Law in the Old Testament (Ex 25:8-9; Sir 24:4-8), the Word has “made his dwelling among us” and revealed “his glory.” But this presence in the Word become flesh is superior to the law given through Moses. It is a revelation of “grace (love) and truth.” The law was inscribed on tablets of stone (Ex 31:18), and Moses was not allowed to see God (Ex 33:18-23), but now the Son, who has been with God from all eternity, has revealed him.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> From his fullness we have all received,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> grace in place of grace,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> because while the law was given through Moses,</span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;"> grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;"> No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, </span><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;">who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> On this feast of the Incarnation, let us rejoice in God’s coming to us in our humanity with all its pain and suffering, joys and delights, sin and hatred. And let us take hope in the continued presence of God with us through the incarnate Son.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-13783526907209157942023-12-21T07:02:00.000-08:002023-12-21T07:02:16.597-08:00 Christmas Mass at Dawn A B C<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBVten0owZext8bXknvuq6cgFprZpJWdUGqiiwWjeNHa92znNLWz2SqKNAvM_v4wQd3LZ6zeLmw6PGplLycILgFpmnlv9vPLzASRPUUwj3DmsxB336jzguOzxuGvlRabz3hACmariyCPEIlBXsSDsFQ3TMkyzvoTPvcKwx-u8SDBJDhAgxnAw5O0un75g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBVten0owZext8bXknvuq6cgFprZpJWdUGqiiwWjeNHa92znNLWz2SqKNAvM_v4wQd3LZ6zeLmw6PGplLycILgFpmnlv9vPLzASRPUUwj3DmsxB336jzguOzxuGvlRabz3hACmariyCPEIlBXsSDsFQ3TMkyzvoTPvcKwx-u8SDBJDhAgxnAw5O0un75g=w312-h400" width="312" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Christmas Mass at Dawn A B C</b></span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Isaiah 62:11-12 Titus 3:4-7 </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Luke 2:15-20</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Christmas Mass at dawn has a special character. It is meant to be celebrated only at or near dawn because its theme is Christ the sun of justice and the light to the nations. The words of the responsorial psalm best express the uniqueness of this special liturgy.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> R. A light will shine on this day: the Lord is born for us.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Lord is king; let the earth rejoice;</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">let the many isles be glad.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The heavens proclaim his justice,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">and all the peoples see his glory.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Light dawns for the just;</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">and gladness, for the upright of heart.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Be glad in the Lord, you just,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">and give thanks to his holy name. (Ps 97:1, 6, 11-12)</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>The Isaiah reading is from the conclusion of a larger song (Is 62:1-12) which celebrates the restoration of Jerusalem, or Zion, after the Babylonian exile. Combining images associated with Jewish wedding customs and the celebration of the grain and grape harvest at the joyous feast of Tabernacles, the prophet envisions daughter Zion being visited by her savior God who remarries his forsaken bride and repopulates the once abandoned city.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>Say to daughter Zion, your savior comes!</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Here is his reward with him,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">his recompense before him.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">They shall be called the holy people,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">the redeemed of the Lord,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">and you shall be called “Frequented,”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">a city that is not forsaken.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>The short reading from Titus is a succinct summary of the central tenants of Paul’s gospel. Like the reading from Titus for the Mass at Midnight, it is a joyful proclamation of the full Christian mystery. In the course of reminding Titus that Christians are to be responsible citizens, the Pauline author speaks of the change effected in them by the coming of Christ and their baptism. Formerly, he says, “we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another” (3:5). But now through “the kindness and generous love of God our savior” and without any merit on our part, we have been saved “through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” that was poured out on us “through Jesus Christ our savior.” The next section insists that this transforming “bath of rebirth” should make Christians “devote themselves to good works.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The Gospel reading for the Mass at Dawn is the continuation of the Gospel for the Mass at Midnight. The shepherds, most unlikely candidates for God’s revelation, become the first apostles of the Christian message. They decide to go to David’s city to verify the message that the angels have given them. “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” When they find “Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger,” just as the angels had announced, they understand “what had been told them concerning this child,” namely that he is destined to be “a savior . . . the messiah and Lord.” Not content with keeping this news as a private revelation, the shepherds report it to others, and we are told “all who heard of it were amazed.” As the shepherds return, they glorify and praise God “for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Mary’s reaction is singled out and distinguished from the others. Luke notes that she “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” The verb translated “reflected” is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>dielogizeto</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>which is also used by Luke to describe Mary’s reaction to Gabriel’s initial greeting in the annunciation scene (1:29) and later her response to Jesus’ saying that he must be in his Father’s house in the story of his remaining behind in the Temple at the Passover festival when he was age 12 (2:51). It has the sense of intense deep thought which returns to the subject time and again. In Luke’s theology Mary is a model of discipleship. She hears God’s word, reflects deeply upon it, and then acts in accord with it. This is most clear in her acceptance of Gabriel’s message at the annunciation where she responds by saying, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (1:38). Later in the Gospel, Jesus also says, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (8:21).</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-75866137093968004842023-12-18T07:26:00.000-08:002023-12-18T07:26:15.070-08:00 Christmas Midnight A B C<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOvDoCKs4eoAKutQUbu8c-VLeponArQA39BKg45Tj3K1n00FMgNF3IodFT0MPbKI1ayV0wZ2g1UAFNxNH5wZ5p_DAdJdcvD9yDLEVC73vh_TWYeW7yxkoDjMZClSnqojkmKLjjz41Ba-XvvLRH7uJyiOgH5aZOG0QixrAvVEF2xrR6H_aX-MLlaH7MxUU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1120" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOvDoCKs4eoAKutQUbu8c-VLeponArQA39BKg45Tj3K1n00FMgNF3IodFT0MPbKI1ayV0wZ2g1UAFNxNH5wZ5p_DAdJdcvD9yDLEVC73vh_TWYeW7yxkoDjMZClSnqojkmKLjjz41Ba-XvvLRH7uJyiOgH5aZOG0QixrAvVEF2xrR6H_aX-MLlaH7MxUU=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Christmas Midnight A B C</b></span><p></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Isaiah 9:1-6 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The readings for Christmas at midnight proclaim the joyous, yet humble, arrival of Jesus as the light of the world. He comes to bring peace to all and calls Christians to live temperate and just lives as they await his return in glory. Let us rejoice as we hear the angel’s proclamation to the shepherds:</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> that will be for all people. For today in the city of David a savior has</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Isaiah’s messianic oracle expresses the hope for a king in the Davidic line who will bring peace in the aftermath of an Assyrian invasion of Israel. The prophet prefaces his description of the king’s just rule by praising the Lord for delivering the nation from the Assyrian yoke.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder,</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">And the rod of their taskmaster</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">You have smashed, as on the day of Midian<i>.</i></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Isaiah believes this liberation is only the initial act of a two part drama. He expects that “the zeal of the Lord of hosts” will raise to the Davidic throne a king who will rule with wisdom, power, paternal care and peace. Although Jesus did not assume a worldly throne, we Christians believe he is the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s oracle though his life, preaching, death and resurrection, and return in glory (see Peter’s sermon in Acts 2). Jesus has begun the Kingdom of God that will ultimately triumph in the peace and justice Isaiah so urgently awaited.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Titus reading presents us with the whole mystery of salvation: the appearance of God’s grace in Christ’s offering salvation to all, the challenge of the Christian life, and our hope for the final appearance of God’s glory and our savior Jesus Christ. Even on the feast of Christmas, the Church does not lose sight of the demands of our renewed life and the urgent expectation of the second coming. As the letter to Titus proclaims, all have been cleansed and redeemed in Christ, but we still wait in hope, as did Isaiah, for the appearance of the full glory of God’s kingdom. In the interim, we are called to reject godless ways and to live temperately and justly.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Luke’s beautiful nativity story is best understood in relation to the major themes of his gospel, especially his insistence that Jesus is a universal savior, who was prophesied in the Scriptures and will overturn worldly expectations for greatness. This universality is most explicit in the angel’s greeting to the shepherds which is the center piece of his entire narrative.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“I proclaim to you good news of great joy</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">that will be for all people.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">For today in the city of David a savior has been</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">born for you who is Christ the Lord.”</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="line-height: 32px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">By dating Jesus’ birth in the reign of Caesar Augustus, Luke contrasts the powerful Roman emperor with the lowly Jesus who is born as an exile. Luke’s initial readers were aware that Augustus had inaugurated the Pax Romana and that many entertained messianic expectations about his rule. For Luke, however, Jesus’ humble birth is the joyous beginning of the long-awaited fulfillment of God’s promises of salvation in the Hebrew Scriptures. Salvation and peace will not come from the emperor who has the power to order a census of the whole world, but from Jesus whose parents must obey the emperor’s commands.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Luke’s special emphasis on the fact that Jesus has come for the lowly is evident in the role of the shepherds. In Jewish tradition, they were considered disreputable and their testimony was invalid. Yet in Luke’s account they receive the initial annunciation of Jesus’ birth and even function as evangelists. When they proceed to Bethlehem, they witness the truth of the angel’s message and then make it known to others. Likewise, when they return, they glorify and praise God “for all they have heard and seen.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Other details of Luke’s story make symbolic allusion to Jesus as the unexpected fulfillment of the Scriptures. The swaddling clothes recall a saying associated with King Solomon who says: “I was nurtured in swaddling clothes, with every care./ No king has known any other beginning of existence” (Wis 7:4-5). Despite the lowly circumstances of Jesus’ birth, he is already a king like the great Solomon. The manger (feeding trough) also has more that literal significance. Isaiah had criticized his generation’s failure to understand the Lord in the following oracle: “An ox knows its owner,/ and an ass its master’s manger./ But Israel does not know, my people has not understood” (Is 1:2-3). In contrast to the senseless people of Isaiah’s time, the humble shepherds, representative of a renewed people of God, go in haste to the infant lying in the manger who is food for the world. Setting aside our pride, let us follow the shepherds to adore the Christ-child.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-16057083665324141682023-12-18T07:17:00.000-08:002023-12-18T07:17:08.802-08:00 4th Sunday of Advent B<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPzCcmpQdau6NKe35E3GU4AJPvUtglg2PWjega0WEHheOOw_yEHrZ6leoVtnJ-USNaQQIDnLRKhFiHQJTM8oIPVORTgr1h6BdzIbxz8_kw_dZHa-BjvuoswoKe41_dbPeJe04BECknU1ve0IdPaAWvbkr6NxnSEkNK1bKTvzELqhXbDPo2WoYpNNymY90" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="718" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPzCcmpQdau6NKe35E3GU4AJPvUtglg2PWjega0WEHheOOw_yEHrZ6leoVtnJ-USNaQQIDnLRKhFiHQJTM8oIPVORTgr1h6BdzIbxz8_kw_dZHa-BjvuoswoKe41_dbPeJe04BECknU1ve0IdPaAWvbkr6NxnSEkNK1bKTvzELqhXbDPo2WoYpNNymY90=w318-h400" width="318" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike Moyers</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">4<sup>th</sup> Sunday of Advent B</b></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-5,8-11,16 Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> As the Feast of Christmas approaches, the readings for the final Sunday of Advent present us with the mystery and scandal of God’s plan for our salvation in Jesus. The divine purpose does not proceed according to human ambitions and calculations. Although Nathan’s prophecy to David and Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary may lead us to expect a powerful Messiah who will bring peace by ruling in splendor “from the throne of David his father,” we have hints in the readings that God’s will often overturns human expectations. David is not allowed to build the glorious house (temple) of his dreams. instead, the Lord will build a house (dynasty) for him. God’s fulfillment of “the mystery hidden for many ages” is first revealed to Mary, a lowly virgin from the insignificant town of Nazareth in the obscure region of Galilee. As Mary obediently submits herself to the Lord’s impossible plan for the birth of the Messiah, we may already expect that her child’s rule is not going to conform to the standards of earthly power and prestige. Let us praise the Lord for his mysterious ways in the lyrics of our responsorial psalm: “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord” (Psalm 89).</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Nathan’s prophecy in 2 Samuel 7 is a culminating point in both Israel’s history and David’s own life. The Lord has finally given Israel and David “rest” from all their enemies. After Saul’s death, the Lord guided David in uniting Judah and Israel, defeating the Philistines, and centralizing the nation by establishing Jerusalem as the capital where he placed the ark in a tent shrine (see 2 Samuel 1-6). Now David, who has already built himself a splendid place of cedar, proposes to the prophet Nathan that he wishes to build a “house of cedar” (i.e. a temple) for the ark. At first, Nathan encourages David in his ambitions, but that night he learns that the Lord’s plan does not depend upon David’s limited vision. A mysterious divine purpose has been operative since David was taken as a shepherd boy to be commander of God’s people, and it ultimately will culminate in God’s giving Israel peace from its enemies and the establishment of a lasting house (i.e. dynasty) for David. The editors of 2 Samuel 7, using the royal ideology of the Solomonic period, envision Solomon’s reign as a partial fulfillment of this promise. He is the son who “will build a house for my name” (2 Sam 7:13; 1 Kings 5-9), but even they also recognize that neither David nor Solomon, for all their glory, were the complete realization of Nathan’s prophecy; both kings bring tragedy upon themselves and their people by their sins in the latter stages of their reigns (see 2 Samuel 11-20; 1 Kings 2 and 1 Kings 11-12). With the fall of the Davidic monarchy, Nathan’s promise became the basis for Davidic messianic hopes, as are found in our responsorial Psalm.</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Romans 16:25-27 is a doxology, praising God who is able to strengthen the Christian community in the gospel which has now been revealed to the Gentiles through Paul’s preaching. It emphasizes the hidden mystery of God’s plan, which completes the message of the prophets and is now revealed to all nations. This plan for salvation, now open to the Gentiles, is not manifest according to human timetables, but “at the command of the eternal God.”</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> With an aura of solemn wonder and joy, Luke’s annunciation narrative describes the beginning of the fulfillment of the long-awaited time of salvation. In the style of birth stories in the Old Testament, the angel Gabriel announces Jesus’ birth and destiny to Mary, as he had previously done for John the Baptist to the doubting Zechariah (see Lk 1:5-23). The scene is filled with improbabilities. The site is Nazareth in Galilee; there has been no Davidic court in Jerusalem for almost 600 years. The recipient is a virgin, who is “deeply troubled” by the angel’s greeting and later has to ask, “How can this be since I do not know man?” Rather than normal human conception, the child will be conceived by the power of the Most High, and the confirming sign that Mary’s baby is indeed to be called Son of God is that her kinswoman Elizabeth has conceived a son in her old age. In language reminiscent of the annunciation of Isaac’s birth to Abraham and Sarah (see Genesis 18), Gabriel ends by affirming “nothing is impossible to God.” In contrast to the incredulous Zechariah and her laughing ancestress Sarah, Mary acquiesces to the mysterious divine plan. “I am the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.”</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-65217622251438294442023-12-11T07:30:00.000-08:002023-12-11T07:30:13.649-08:00 3rd Sunday of Advent B<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtxyrSPvvKN_oaW5NH7VPrTiAYxgvZwZxfY6zRnOlknibLPa8T00B2THUKjcECWm5dPXscJo8nj74m_sb8m2cJC41n99URDmLVxbsv_tQYXmRHimHLeiZoxEXoVgpmv2TjtQHXSj9GvI3gGs17zhRGmCXDoplStRJIUJdtj-hXK-zcth48NLu3msYQ1zc/s271/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="186" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtxyrSPvvKN_oaW5NH7VPrTiAYxgvZwZxfY6zRnOlknibLPa8T00B2THUKjcECWm5dPXscJo8nj74m_sb8m2cJC41n99URDmLVxbsv_tQYXmRHimHLeiZoxEXoVgpmv2TjtQHXSj9GvI3gGs17zhRGmCXDoplStRJIUJdtj-hXK-zcth48NLu3msYQ1zc/w275-h400/images.jpeg" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phillipe de Champaigne</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;"> </span><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Libre Baskerville"; font-size: x-large;">3<sup>rd</sup> Sunday of Advent B</b><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></b></span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings Isaiah 61:1-2,10-11 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8,19-28</span></p><p class="elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“My soul glorifies the Lord,/ my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.” These words of Mary’s canticle (Luke 1:46-54) are the responsorial psalm for the Third Sunday of Advent that celebrates the task of proclaiming the Lord’s salvific work. Like John the Baptist in John’s Gospel, we Christians are called to witness to the light, Jesus God’s incarnate Son, and to rejoice in his presence without claiming any exalted status for ourselves.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> The first reading is the commissioning of the anonymous prophet whom scholars call Third Isaiah. In the opening verses, he is anointed to bring good news to the discouraged exiles who have just returned from Babylon. They are the `<i>anawim</i>, the poor of Yahweh, who are totally dependent upon God for their justice. In Isa 61:3-9, which are not included in our reading, the prophet announces a glorious future for the returnees. With the help of strangers and foreigners, they will rebuild the ancient ruins of Jerusalem. Instead of the shame and degradation of exile, they will experience the Lord’s justice when they become priests in the midst of the world’s nations who now honor and acknowledge them as a nation blessed by the Lord.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In the last two verses of our reading the prophet sings a psalm of thanksgiving rejoicing for restored Zion, now “wrapped in the mantle of justice,/ like a bridegroom adored with a diadem,/ like a bride bedecked with her jewels.” With unassailable confidence, the prophet announces that the Lord God will cause “justice” and “praise” to spring up like plants from the earth.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The second reading is from the conclusion of 1 Thessalonians in which Paul addresses the Thessalonian Christians’ anxiety over a number of problems connected with the delay of Jesus’ expected return in glory. Some were anxious that those who had died would not participate in the general resurrection at Jesus’ return; others had degenerated into immoral or irresponsible behavior. Paul assures them that the dead will participate in the resurrection and exhorts the community to live vigilantly as “children of the light.” In our passage, Paul gives a rapid fire series of exhortations before closing. The community should live in joyous, as opposed to anxious and fearful, expectation of the Lord’s coming. With great confidence, Paul prays that the Lord will preserve them in wholeness until he comes. </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In the Gospel reading, John the Evangelist presents John the Baptist as a joyful witness who gives testimony to the Jewish leaders that the light is in their midst, although they do not recognize him. The first part of the reading is taken from John’s prologue, a great hymn to Jesus as the Word of God who is the light which has now entered the world. In a kind of aside in the hymn, we are reminded that John the Baptist “was not the light,” but was only a witness to the light.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In his actual testimony, John takes almost perverse delight in giving negative answers to the questions of the priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem. He refuses to accept for himself the titles of Messiah, Elijah or prophet. His sole task is to be “a voice in the desert, crying out: ‘Make straight the way of the Lord!’” When asked why he is baptizing if he is not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet, John points to Jesus’ unrecognized presence and speaks of his unworthiness to even unfasten the strap of his sandal.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In the other appearances of John in the Fourth Gospel, the evangelist continues to present the Baptist as a joyful witness to Jesus. On the very next day when John sees Jesus, he gives the testimony: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” John has seen the Spirit of God descend upon Jesus, and now he can testify to him. On the third day he allows two of his disciples to leave him and follow Jesus, and later when he learns that Jesus’ disciples are also baptizing, he rejoices and says:</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“No one can receive anything except what has been given him</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said I am not</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">the Messiah, but that I was sent before him. The one who has</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">So this joy of mine has been made complete.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">He must increase; I must decrease.” (Jn 3:27-30) </span></div>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-4902942742164517652023-12-04T08:31:00.000-08:002023-12-04T08:31:31.120-08:00 Immaculate Conception (December 8<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm8zSooePCwjxZB2xMzy0b_AgMALICoNTFbHHc5MpAKeBeRbeDS_FsEpMR_r47bpnS5smrJUJLSmIHlf1MTbSAkYvoDR-x9OetB6Zn2ANRLzZklJen1__lNsecShACdl-GvYk8klc5J53RAr_-1esFOVeoNuq6tk8zahNYv1KpP-6ciLqDCc6V-9Tqrrw/s3051/Inmaculada_Concepcio%CC%81n_(Tiepolo).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3051" data-original-width="1606" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm8zSooePCwjxZB2xMzy0b_AgMALICoNTFbHHc5MpAKeBeRbeDS_FsEpMR_r47bpnS5smrJUJLSmIHlf1MTbSAkYvoDR-x9OetB6Zn2ANRLzZklJen1__lNsecShACdl-GvYk8klc5J53RAr_-1esFOVeoNuq6tk8zahNYv1KpP-6ciLqDCc6V-9Tqrrw/w336-h640/Inmaculada_Concepcio%CC%81n_(Tiepolo).jpg" width="336" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div></div></div></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Immaculate Conception (December 8)</b></span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Genesis 3:9-15, 20 Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 Luke 1:26-38</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary celebrates the mystery that God the Father prepared the Virgin Mary to be the worthy mother of his Son by letting her “share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by his death and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception” (Opening Prayer). This mystery is not directly attested in Scripture but gradually came to be believed in the course of the Church’s traditional understanding of Mary’s special place in salvation history. It was finally defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854 in the decree<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Ineffabilis Deus</i>. The readings for the feast celebrate God’s saving love which triumphs over the power of sin and evil through Christ’s death and resurrection and the obedience of Mary in cooperating with God’s saving plan. Let us rejoice in God’s saving deeds in the words of the refrain for the responsorial psalm: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds” (Ps 98).</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><b> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>The Genesis reading recounts the Lord God’s searching out Adam and Eve after they have sinned by eating of the forbidden tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Rather than abandon them in their sin, shame and hiding, the Lord God asks Adam, “Where are you?” This is not simply a question concerning his physical location but one about his existential condition now that he has sinned. It is addressed to all of us in our choice of selfishness and sin. Adam’s answer reflects the telltale signs of the alienation brought on by sin: “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Adam and Eve’s attempt to become “like the gods knowing good and evil” (3:5) has only brought them fear and shame and caused them to hid from the Lord God. In an attempt to get Adam to accept responsibility for his sin, the Lord asks, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I have forbidden you to eat!” Rather than taking full responsibility for his deed, Adam feebly blames the woman and even the Lord God for his sin. “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” Likewise when she is asked by the Lord God, “Why did you do such a thing?” the woman blames the serpent: “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Our reading concludes with the first of three punishments the Lord pronounces on the serpent, the woman and the man (3:14-19). The serpent as “the most cunning of all the animals the Lord God had made” (3:1) had earlier tempted the woman into sin by suggesting that God had forbidden the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil out of divine jealousy: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.” Now the Lord God punishes the serpent to “be banned from all the animals” and crawl on his belly and eat dirt “all the days of (his) life.” The conclusion of the serpent’s sentence speaks of the ongoing enmity between his offspring and that of the woman. Christian tradition has called this the Proto-evangelium, the first good news of the victory of Christ over Satan who will undo the sin of Adam by his obedience to the Father’s will. “I will put enmity between you and the woman,/ and between your offspring and hers;/ he will strike at your head,/ while you strike at his heel.” Adam’s naming of his wife Eve, “mother of the living,” ends the episode on a hopeful note. Despite the harsh realities of sin and suffering, life will go on in the hope of a victory over sin. This hope begins to be realized when Mary, in contrast to the selfish Eve, consents to her role in God’s plan.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The reading from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is taken from the opening doxology which praises God for the choice of the early Christian communities to share in God’s plan of salvation to unite all things, including the once antagonistic Jews and Gentiles, through redemption in Christ. Ephesians is a theological tract written for Gentile Christians who are now called to share with Jewish Christians the privilege of membership in the community of the saints (cf. Eph 2:11-22). A major theme which runs throughout Ephesians is “the mystery” of God’s plan which calls both Jews and Gentiles into a single body, the Church, destined to be the cosmic presence of Christ, its head, who will eventually integrate “all things in the heavens and on the earth.” This opening hymn highlights the gratuity of God’s favor to both groups. The Jews were chosen “before the world began, to be holy and blameless in his (God’s) sight,” and now they have been favored with redemption from their sins and insight into the mystery of God’s plan to unite all things in the universe in Christ. The Gentiles have also now been chosen to hear “the glad tidings of salvation,” to believe in the good news, and be sealed by the Holy Spirit. Mary in her Immaculate Conception is the prime example of the chosen who “were predestined to praise his glory by being the first to hope in Christ.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Gospel for the feast is Luke’s story of the Annunciation. With an aura of solemn wonder and joy, Luke’s narrative describes the beginning of the fulfillment of the long-awaited time of salvation. In the style of birth stories in the Old Testament, the angel Gabriel announces Jesus’ birth and destiny to Mary, as he had previously done for John the Baptist to the doubting Zechariah (see Lk 1:5-23). The scene is filled with improbabilities. The site is Nazareth in Galilee; there has been no Davidic court in Jerusalem for almost 600 years. The recipient is a virgin, who is “deeply troubled” by the angel’s greeting and later has to ask, “How can this be since I do not know man?” Rather than normal human conception, the child will be conceived by the power of the Most High, and the confirming sign that Mary’s baby is indeed to be called Son of God is that her kinswoman Elizabeth has conceived a son in her old age. In language reminiscent of the annunciation of Isaac’s birth to Abraham and Sarah (see Genesis 18), Gabriel ends by affirming “nothing is impossible to God.” In contrast to the incredulous Zechariah and her laughing ancestress Sarah, Mary acquiesces to the mysterious divine plan. “I am the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” Mary’s obedient and humble participation in God’s mysterious plan of salvation stands in stark contrast to the selfish attempt of Adam and Eve to “become like one of the gods, knowing good and evil.”</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706048500399659565.post-55400768360955534582023-12-04T08:18:00.000-08:002023-12-04T08:18:51.582-08:00 2nd Sunday of Advent B<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhTxxAdS9jBSreW_Off1OeSu_JF0fZNYI6CgV4OqCsbHtmgEoKTc2VyVm3bu_YLPNUCVUa26Bdfd2b9VlBQEiM6yxAb9k1sZb2qf_MoJl-FgIuess1pE_szOvBHcacWF6eUpF0i0gUwArcTzszCE5ZWSZO5eB7rpGX6OaDsyu-6enXqIG0b4QA6TP9-QbI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1200" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhTxxAdS9jBSreW_Off1OeSu_JF0fZNYI6CgV4OqCsbHtmgEoKTc2VyVm3bu_YLPNUCVUa26Bdfd2b9VlBQEiM6yxAb9k1sZb2qf_MoJl-FgIuess1pE_szOvBHcacWF6eUpF0i0gUwArcTzszCE5ZWSZO5eB7rpGX6OaDsyu-6enXqIG0b4QA6TP9-QbI=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><br /> <b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2<sup>nd</sup> Sunday of Advent B</b></span><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Readings: Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11 2 Peter 3:8-14 </span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Mark 1:1-8</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"><i>Semper paratus</i>! “Always prepared!” This motto describes the mood of the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent. John the Baptist, the messenger and herald in the wilderness, alerts us to be prepared for the arrival of the One who will bring God’s creative Spirit to make all things new. With confidence, let us pray the lyrics of the responsorial psalm.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The Lord will make us prosper/</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> and our earth shall yield its fruit.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Justice shall march before him/</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">and peace follow his steps. (Ps 85:14)</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">The first reading is the commissioning of the prophet scholars call Second Isaiah. He is given the task to prepare the weary Jewish exiles in Babylon for God’s glorious action in bringing them home to Jerusalem. Without the preparatory message of this “herald of glad tidings,” the exiles might never have understood that their release from Babylon by Cyrus, the King of the Persians, was God’s saving action in their behalf. The prophet is called to ready this people by proclaiming “comfort” to Jerusalem which has paid double for her past sins and will now see her Lord God bringing home his flock like a shepherd gathering his lambs. In the imaginative poetry of the prophet, the way home from Babylon to Jerusalem will be a super highway across the Arabian desert.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1in; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;"> Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Sometimes an event which we most eagerly anticipate is delayed by circumstances beyond our control, causing us to lose the fervor of our initial anticipation. The Second Peter reading challenges those who are disappointed by the delay of Jesus’ expected return in glory. Some Christians, concluding that Jesus will never come in judgment, are leading dissolute lives (see 2 Peter 2). Second Peter reminds them that God’s time table is different from humans and that what appears as a “delay” should be grasped as an opportunity for “all to come to repentance.” In the time of waiting, the letter exhorts Christians to be people of exemplary conduct whose lives hasten the arrival of God’s kingdom, the “new heavens and new earth where, according to his promise the justice of God will reside.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">Mark’s presentation of John the Baptist in our Gospel both calls us to repentance in preparation for the arrival of God’s kingdom and alerts us to expect the mighty action of God’s Spirit with the coming of Jesus. Although Mark attributes the opening prophecy to Isaiah, it is actually a combination of elements from Exodus 23:20, Malachi 3:1, and Isaiah 40:3. John the Baptist is identified with Elijah, the messenger expected in the apocalyptic Book of Malachi, who will return to prepare the way for God’s final judgment by his sudden appearance in the Temple. Contrary to Malachi’s expectations, John appears in the Judean wilderness where his message is like that of Second Isaiah: “Make ready the way of the Lord,/ clear him a straight path.” But John’s “baptism of repentance which led to the forgiveness of sins” is only preparatory to the theme of his preaching. John proclaims:</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">“One more powerful than I is to come after me.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">I am not fit to stoop and untie his sandal straps.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">I have baptized you in water;</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 56px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Libre Baskerville; font-size: large;">John’s proclamation is the beginning of the “gospel,” the good news of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. It prepares us for the powerful wonders Jesus will perform in the early chapters of Mark’s Gospel where he will authoritatively gather a group of apostles and begin to attack the evil dominion of Satan with the healings, exorcisms, and the proclamation of forgiveness to outcasts. At this stage, the initial reader would never guess that the story of this gospel will entail the violent deaths of both John, at the hands of Herod Antipas, and Jesus, at the hands of Pilate. Later in the Gospel, Jesus will explicitly link his fate with John’s. When Peter, James and John descend from the mount of transfiguration, they ask Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus answers, “Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written to him.” In choosing to follow John and Jesus we choose the path that leads to the cross.</span></p>Hearing the wordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869004241961766396noreply@blogger.com0