Ordinary Time

Jan 30 2025

Not Your Father’s Messiah

“Who am I for you?” is a question we might ask another when a relationship becomes more serious. We want those we love to know and value who we are, just as we want to know and value them. A relationship deepens and grows from such exchanges.

At this mid-point in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus asks those who have been with him since the beginning of his ministry what they think of him. They have heard him preaching and teaching; they have seen him casting out demons and curing those with various ailments of body and spirit. They have even seen him raise a young girl who had died. So they have been with him long enough to have formed an impression.

Peter’s answer is not given the warm welcome in Mark’s Gospel that it gets in Matthew’s, where Jesus responds by affirming that his heavenly Father has revealed this to Peter. Here Jesus gives a warning “not to tell anyone about him,” and then begins to teach him his own self-understanding.

The notion of a messiah was so caught up with military might and kingly authority that Jesus counters it with a different understanding, rooted in the Servant Songs of Isaiah. (We heard one today as our first reading.) Jesus sees himself as destined to be a suffering messiah, something incomprehensible to his followers, as we shall see. But if they want to be his followers, they must take up the cross in their own life and lose their life for Jesus’ sake.

Consider/Discuss

What does Jesus mean when he tells Peter he is “thinking not as God does but as human beings do”?
How does losing my life for Jesus’ sake lead to saving it?
Did God want Jesus to suffer? Does God want us to suffer?

Responding to the Word

Jesus, you call us to know you as one who gave himself for us, so we might be saved and have fullness of life. Help us to recognize where the cross is to be found and teach us how to embrace it, so that we can continue your work of redeeming the world.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

The opening verse of the passage from Isaiah sets the stage for what follows: “My ears are open!” Hearing is an ability that is most intimate. The ear catches the sound and carries it into the very core of the person. Because of its importance, openness to sound carries the symbolic meaning of openness before God. At the outset, the speaker acknowledges that his ears are open to hear, but it is God who opened them. In other words, though he stands ready to accept God’s will in his life, the readiness itself comes from God. The speaker takes credit for nothing; he is totally dependent on God.

The Letter of James addresses a misunderstanding that has arisen in the church regarding the nature of true faith. Some were satisfied with correct belief expressed in orthodox doctrine. James insists that genuine faith must be practical, expressed in action. Furthermore, it must manifest itself in more than acts of authentic worship. While the issue here is certainly ethical, it pertains to our salvation as well: What kind of faith will save? James’ opponents, whether real or imaginary, wanted to separate faith and good works. James insists that such a separation is impossible.

Jesus asks the disciples what people are saying about him. The question is not self-serving. It seeks to discover how Jesus’ words and actions are under stood, and it prepares the disciples for their own assessment of him. The people believe that Jesus is a prophetic figure who has come back from the dead. Peter speaks in the name of the others when he proclaims that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one of God. Hearing this, Jesus states that he will be a messiah in the tradition of the Son of Man, the enigmatic figure who will come on the clouds at the end of this age. Jesus then bluntly announces that he will be rejected, will suffer and die, but will rise again.

Jan 30 2025

The Tender Touch of Healing

Perhaps you saw the movie The King’s Speech about the future king of England, George VI, whose speech impediment was so severe that it reduced him to tears of anger and humiliation. His wife, Elizabeth, found a speech therapist who was able to help him by using some unorthodox methods, such as rolling around on the floor, cursing, and singing. It is a profoundly moving experience when King George finally addresses his people over the radio and delivers a speech flawlessly, giving courage to his people on the eve of World War II. The story in this Gospel tells us how Jesus helped a man to find his voice. The man whose tongue Jesus touched with his spittle (an element believed to ward off demons) came to speak “plainly.” Another word for “plainly” would be “rightly,” in the sense of correctly or truly. “Be opened,” Jesus says, and it happens. The man then spoke the truth of what Jesus did for him, and honored him. As we hold firm to our faith in the Lord, Jesus calls us to both speak and act “rightly” in the eyes of the world, caring for those who have little and treating them with the same dignity as those who have much. We are called to imitate Jesus by reaching out tenderly to touch those who have been wounded by life and burdened by the rejection of others. Helping others to hear the sound of love can be done in many quiet ways and with little fanfare.

Consider/Discuss

Has anyone ever helped you hear something you were unable to hear up until then, or to find your voice so that you could speak what was in your heart?
Consider how Jesus has touched your life and enabled you to hear his voice and sing his praise.

Responding to the Word

Lord, open our ears to hear the many ways you speak to us in our lives, to listen for the gentle sound of your voice that often comes to us in stillness. May we be still and know that you are our God, ever ready and desiring to draw closer.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

Isaiah depicts two ways in which the renewal promised by God is manifested: those who suffer physical maladies will be healed of their infirmities, and the barren wilderness will be filled with the promise of new life. Just as deprivation and infirmity were considered signs of evil in the world, so this restoration was perceived as a sign of the transformation that only God can effect. It was a testimony to God’s presence in the world and to God’s victory over evil. Once again God reestablished the original order of creation, and all life began again to flourish.

In broad and clear strokes, the author of the Letter of James paints a picture of unacceptable discrimination. He condemns the preference for the man dressed in fine clothing and the contemptuous way the poor man is treated, thus exposing the community’s bias. Such discrimination is not only an example of social snobbery, but it is also in direct opposition to the basis upon which the church was founded, namely, the gathering of all into the reign of God. Such behavior is condemned for two reasons. First, the people are reestablishing distinctions where God has eliminated them. Second, their partiality jeopardizes the justice that they are called to administer.

Jesus is in Gentile territory. There he heals a deaf man. In an oral culture such as his, those who cannot hear are at a great disadvantage. They are marginalized in ways that others are not. Furthermore, hearing symbolizes openness to God. Jesus unstops the ears of a man who was unable to hear his words, so that now the man can hear them and can be open to their message. Those who witnessed this miracle relate the wonders that Jesus can perform to the prophetic promise of regeneration that will take place during the new age of the reign of God. They proclaim that Jesus has accomplished here exactly what was to be accomplished in that time of fulfillment.

Jan 30 2025

What Dwells Within?

“Be careful what you allow to dwell in your hearts,” Archbishop Edward Gilbert of the Trinidad and Tobago archdiocese once preached during an ordination. This thought clearly flows from the words of Jesus today. The criticism of the scribes and Pharisees about his disciples not washing must have sparked something in Jesus because he lands a verbal body-blow on them, calling them hypocrites and then quoting Isaiah against them for saying one thing with their lips but keeping their hearts distant from God.

All the readings come together harmoniously today. Moses calls the people to keep God’s law, to observe all the commandments carefully, not only for their own sakes but so the people might draw others to God. James calls his listeners to welcome God’s word that has been planted in their hearts, and to act on it by taking care of those most vulnerable in society: the widows and orphans.

My brother’s pastor weaves his Sunday preaching into themes that run several weeks. Last Lent he began a series he called “Christian Atheism,” asking whether those who come to church on Sunday act is if they didn’t believe the rest of the week. Sometime we get used to living with two creeds competing for our attention: what we say we believe, even want to believe, and what we act out daily. Jesus reminds us that our actions spring from within. So be careful what you allow to dwell in your hearts. From the heart comes forth good or evil.

Consider/Discuss

What are the commandments that really govern your behavior? Are they God’s or merely commands of human tradition?
Can you think of any time “human tradition” has assumed greater importance than God’s commands?

Responding to the Word

God of truth, we pray for the courage to take inventory of what we truly treasure. Help us to recognize the values that are more reflective of our culture than of your Son. Give us the strength to pursue what you would have us do, and thus honor you as the Father of lights.