Ordinary Time

Jan 28 2025

Scripture Study for

One of the Servant Songs, this passage from Isaiah points toward a particularly hostile, yet paradoxically fruitful, result of speaking for God. The Servant begins by affirming his fidelity to God in the face of great hostility. The source of his strength in the face of adversity is not the Servant himself, but the God who sent him. The Servant is in the right when he claims to speak for God, because it is God who has “opened his heart that he may hear.” Despite the social and perhaps religious “shame” that is attendant upon his preaching, the Servant is confident not only that he is in the right, but also that those who currently oppose him will come to recognize this.

James continues to speak about being doers of the word of truth, the true form of worship. Faith cannot be limited to hearing and believing this word. Such “faith” is no faith at all and is not saving because it does not conform the individual to God’s will or way of viewing the world. “Works” here means living according to God’s values, which includes “care for orphans and widows in their affliction” (1:27) and fulfilling “the royal law according to scripture: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (2:8). It is a delusion to think that one could have faith without living in accordance with it, which is to say, by “demonstrating” it.

At Caesarea Phillipi Jesus questions his disciples to provoke a response. Jesus indirectly affirms Peter’s response that he is the Messiah by referring to himself as “the Son of Man,” a messianic term. While Peter recognizes who Jesus is, he is unable to fathom or accept the possibility that Jesus’ death and identity are consistent. Peter’s “rebuke” was probably in the form of a denial that such a thing would be necessary, or even possible (if Jesus is the Christ). Jesus rebukes Peter in turn for failing to recognize that God does not work according to human expectations. Nor should those who follow Jesus expect to avoid his fate.

Jan 28 2025

The Lord Keeps Faith Forever

My dear young friend, I write this to you from the middle of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Have you graduated now? Are you in the first few weeks of medical school as you planned? When you read this, hopefully the pandemic crisis has passed.

Today, the sun comes up. The sun goes down. The birds sing. The buds on the trees, as this is being written, swell in early springtime. The garlic grows. Life goes on.

While all around us changes.

What can I say to you about today’s story of the healing of the deaf man? Jesus groans at the restriction, the brokenness of this earthly life. Then he shouts out, “Be opened!” as in “Make it flow!” and power flows into that deaf man’s ears and he can hear. And the Gentile crowds are amazed!

I also want to see the broken healed. I want to be astonished beyond measure, to be struck with a sudden “Wow!” faith—not a blasé “Well, that’s kind of interesting” faith—shaken to the core by what Jesus is doing.

I want that kind of healing to flow right now.

As I write, people are praying their rosaries in Italy, struggling to breathe, dying alone. A student of mine lost both of her grandparents in one day. A newly pregnant woman develops a sore throat and she is afraid for her baby. Is everything going to be all right? Will we recover?

The people of Israel were beaten down. Isaiah prophesied: “Say to those who are frightened: ‘Be strong, fear not! Your God is coming.’” We are beaten down, too. We are hemmed in by earthly brokenness. Jesus, send your power to flow into us! We want to be healed.

Trust is not easy. We cannot manufacture conviction as a psychological “strong feeling.” Come, God of Jacob, and let the grace to trust flow into us.

Consider/Discuss

The pandemic/economic breakdown revealed to us how much of life is not under our control. This can be a source of anxiety. Anxiety can cause us to turn to prayer, to turn to God. Anxiety can also cause us to turn away from a God who doesn’t seem to be intervening, at least not in the amazing ways that Jesus did when he cured the sick. As you went/got through the time of the pandemic, how did/does your faith respond? What graces did God give you? How are you different today?
What happened to your pre-COVID plans? Has everything turned out the way that you hoped that it would? If so, God be praised! If not, then God be praised as well? How do we trust in God, no matter where life takes us?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, as we read the scriptures, we see people who have been oppressed for centuries. Yet they still hold fast to you, believing that you keep faith forever. On this day, give us the eyesight of centuries, for this day is not looking so good. Show us what we can do today for the world in which we live—whether to forgive and reconcile, to aid those who are hurting, or pray for those who struggle alone. In you we trust. Protect us from the blame and hate and finger-pointing that cause division. Bless this world with a strong dose of your peace.

Jan 28 2025

Scripture Study for

The context of the oracle from Isaiah is a time period or an experience of oppression or military conquest. The oracle contains elements common to many oracles of salvation, such as the exhortation to “be strong, fear not.” Such an exhortation responds to a sense of being defeated and abandoned by God, which is how recurrent political and military oppression at the hands of others was likely to be interpreted. Here the prophet assures the people that God has not in fact abandoned them; God is acting now to “vindicate” them and to bring about a change of fortune. This is exemplified by healing—in the human realm afflictions cease, and in the natural realm the infertile desert blossoms.

James continues to develop his thoughts regarding how to be “doers of the word and not hearers only.” One clear manifestation of this is to “keep oneself unstained by the world,” which is to say, to refuse to live according the greater society’s values, such as the elevation of the rich over the poor and the treatment of the poor with contempt. James has already noted that pure religion involves caring for the vulnerable and the poor, who have a special place in God’s heart, and who will inherit the kingdom. This is the opposite of the world’s perspective. Those who would be doers of the word of truth must be prepared to reject the privileges and privileging of the rich and the powerful.

The Decapolis was a group of ten autonomous city-states, most of them east of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus here enters Gentile territory. Yet here also the people have heard of him and immediately approach him with a deaf man for healing. It is unusual for Jesus to be depicted performing a healing ritual (see, though, 8:22–26; John 9:6–7).

Usually he either touches the sick or simply proclaims that they are healed. Jesus was not limited to one approach to healing. The man is cured, the people are amazed, and word spreads. The Decapolis context of all this indicates that the reign of God is being actively extended beyond the ethnic and geographical borders of Israel.

Jan 28 2025

Wash Up and Wake Up!

Have you ever been relaxing in a nice hot shower when suddenly you got blasted with cold water? Someone started the washing machine, turned on a hose, flushed, and—unexpectedly—liquid icicles stream from the shower head. It wakes you up!

That’s what Jesus did to the Pharisees in today’s reading. They were comfortable with their purification rules. Washing hands mattered to them—they washed when they woke up. They washed before eating. They bathed once a week before the Sabbath. That washing set them apart from others in their day. (They probably smelled better than the Romans and the Greeks as well.) They were comfortable with their nice balmy shower. Then Jesus startled them up with a blast of cold water. They cried out, “What? Your disciples don’t wash?”

Jesus didn’t say, “Don’t wash.” He said, “Don’t be satisfied with external washing only.” In the Beatitudes, he also said, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” Clean is good.

Seasons of blessing flow upon us like a nice warm shower. Times of trial, on the other hand, wake us up. Hardships can be more than a sudden blast of icy water. Sufferings can rip us apart. Our true character is revealed in times of trouble; we can no longer bask in ease.

Jesus calls us to a cleanliness that is deeper than soaping our shoulders in a warm shower. Jesus asks us to allow the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier to flood us, to purify us, to wash us from the inside out: as St. James says, to do justice, to walk blamelessly, to be doers of the word and not hearers only, to care for widows and orphans, to keep ourselves unstained by the world. Clean is good. Jesus says, “Be holy.” Nothing less.

Consider/Discuss

What? Don’t wash your hands? In our world, “Wash your hands” messages are still everywhere. Yet in the ancient world, hand washing and other hygienic practices were rare. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that a Hungarian doctor discovered that washing his hands between treating new mothers increased their survival rates—he was considered to be an oddball. How does this passage strike you, that Jesus’ disciples didn’t wash their hands? How much knowledge about disease transmission do we take for granted?
Holiness—where have you seen goodness and kindness in ordinary life, a robust “doing” of the word rather than “just talking about it”? Who do you know whom you’d consider a “clean” or “pure” person as St. James defines it, by the way that person treats others?

Living and Praying with the Word

Holy Spirit, you are the one who sanctifies. You are the one who makes us pure. You are the source of our holiness. Wash us clean. Scrub out the gunk that blocks your love from flowing through us. This world needs your strength and your power. The world in which we live needs your goodness and your care. We cannot do this on our own. Sanctify us for this task.

Jan 28 2025

Scripture Study for

The thrust of the book of Deuteronomy is that the Promised Land that Israel is about to enter is a gift to them from God, but one that they accept as part of a covenant relationship. For them to continue to enjoy the land they must be faithful to this relationship (otherwise, there really is no relationship). Thus the first part of the reading stresses fidelity to the covenant. The second part of the reading alludes to the formation of Israel as a people who are destined to introduce their God to the rest of the world by manifesting the wisdom and justice of that God. Thus, fidelity to the covenant is not just to the benefit of Israel, but to the nations as well.

The Letter of James begins with an exhortation to persevere in times of trial and temptation. The author challenges those who claim that their temptations have come from God as a test, arguing instead that what comes from the unchanging God is not testing but “all good giving and every perfect gift.” The greatest of these gifts is new birth in the “word of truth” (the gospel). For this word of truth to bear fruit, however, it must be “done,” that is, acted on and lived by, rather than passively accepted in an abstract or purely intellectual sense. Caring for the vulnerable and avoiding contamination by the values of the “world” (that aspect of reality opposed to God) are ways that we live the word of truth we have received. Just as earlier in Mark’s Gospel questions had been raised about the Jesus’ disciples and fasting (3:18–22), now the Pharisees note that Jesus’ disciples also do not engage in ritual hand-washing before meals. Jesus suggests by quoting from Isaiah that such cleansing can be simply a superficial observance that conceals a failure to observe “God’s commandment.” He goes on to assert that cleaning the outside of the body as a form of purification means nothing if the inside remains defiled by the various sins he lists. These are not purified by washing; only repentance can accomplish that.