Year B

Jan 29 2025

Lent and Beginning Anew

A snapshot differs from a TV show or movie, which moves along, demanding that we keep up with the storyline. A snapshot allows us to focus on details, to take as much time as we want. Snapshots allow us to pause, ponder, and meditate. There is no need to rush on to what comes next.

Mark’s Gospel opens with a series of snapshots of Jesus, whom Mark proclaims from the start as “Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1). First, he offers a picture of Jesus’ baptism when God’s voice proclaims, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (1:11). Then, the two pictures presented today: Jesus driven into the desert for forty days to be tested by Satan, and Jesus beginning a new ministry of preaching the gospel.

These snapshots begin the work of drawing us into the mystery of the one proclaimed as the Promised One long awaited, but even more, the one who is the Son of God. In him God’s reign comes to us.

Lent is a time for deciding where our loyalty lies in life. To whom or what do we give our allegiance? At the end of the forty days we renew our baptismal promises. We will be called to profess our faith in God who created us and our world out of love, in the Son who died for us and was raised to new life, and in the Spirit who now drives us to confront the power of evil in our world.

Consider/Discuss

How can this Lent be a time to begin anew? What concrete steps can you take to stop and ponder the shape of your life?
How does identifying yourself as being a beloved son or daughter of God influence your daily decisions?

Responding to the Word

Loving God, you have spoken to us at our baptism, calling us beloved children, sending your Spirit upon us, making us heirs of the kingdom of God. Help us to be open to your Spirit this Lent and where it leads. Make us content to rest in stillness and hear your voice.

Jan 29 2025

Scripture Study for

The first reading is an account of the covenant that God entered into after the flood. It was made with Noah, with his descendants, with all the living creatures that were in the ark, and with the earth itself. The covenant was promissory, God pledging that never again would unruly waters destroy the world and its inhabitants. The bow in the sky may well be a reference to the weapon of the divine warrior who was victorious over the forces of primordial chaos. Just as God rested after creation (see Genesis 2:2–3), hanging up the bow is a sign that order has been established in the universe.

The author of First Peter speaks of the efficacy of Christ’s death. It was a sin offering, like the sacrifices of expiation offered daily in the temple, with the blood of the victim sprinkled on the altar. However, Christ’s sacrifice was effective for all time and for all people. It was also vicarious, endured for others. Like the servant in Isaiah (Isaiah 53:4–6), Jesus was the innocent man who bore the guilt of the unrighteous. Christ did this so that we might be brought to God and have access to God’s saving grace. Finally, after ascending into heaven, Christ occupies the place of honor at the right hand of God.

The account of Jesus’ temptation is charged with meaning. The wilderness was the place of trial. Forty days held special meaning. Moses fasted that long as he inscribed the commandments (Exodus 34:28); Elijah fasted for the same length of time as he walked to Horeb (1 Kings 19:8). It was in this same tradition that Jesus fasted. The announcement of his ministry summarizes the content of his preaching. In eschatological thought, the advent of the reign of God called for a change of mind and heart. Since Jesus’ interpretation of God’s will did not correspond to the predominant understanding of his day, his announcement of such a ministry was fraught with danger.

Jan 29 2025

The Real Agenda—Forgiveness of Sins

When Jesus came preaching, teaching, healing, and exorcising, the response was amazement and wonder. He was a “crowd magnet,” as we see in today’s Gospel. When Jesus showed up, it was standing room only. What would be the next miracle? So when the paralytic came down, there might even have been a little “ho-hum” in the air. “Didn’t he do something along these lines that night outside Simon’s mother-in-law’s house?”

But healing the body and casting out demons were only the first steps in the new creation God had in mind. The next step went to the heart of the matter— salvation. “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Alarms went off, at least in the heads of some of the legal experts present. “Did he just say? . . . No, not possible . . . Only God can . . . .” But Jesus, who really could hear people thinking, had no trouble saying it again: “That you may know the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins on earth . . . ” then he turned to the paralytic: “Get up and go.” And the man got up and went.

All the other things Jesus had been doing were acceptable, except when he did them on a Sabbath, for this was crossing a clearly defined line in the law of Moses. Forgiving sin? Only God could do that. Yes, that was the point. And still is. So don’t let past actions—even God’s, much less yours—lock you in or keep God out. God remains at work in Jesus offering forgiveness, reconciliation, atonement to all who realize they need it.

Consider/Discuss

How do you feel when you hear Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven”?
Do you trust God to do new things? For you? In you? Through you?
Do you accept that God has put the Spirit in our hearts “as a first installment” of God’s desire for total communion?

Responding to the Word

Creator God, in giving us Jesus, you began the final move of a new creation in us and in the world. We thank you for offering through your Son the gift of forgiveness for our sins. May we accept this gift of grace and work to bring others to know its healing power. Amen.

Jan 29 2025

Scripture Study for

Israel’s faith was based on the liberating events of the past. So Isaiah’s words, “Remember not . . . consider not,” must have been unsettling. The prophet was probably calling the people away from inordinate dependence on the past, a dependence that prevented them from seeing the astonishing new thing that God was accomplishing before their very eyes. Faithful reverence for tradition is one thing, but insistent absorption in it is quite another. While the new way that stretched out before them was truly astounding, most amazing was the transformation that took place within them. Though sinners, the merciful God wiped away their guilt, and once forgiven, they were recreated.

Paul is forced to defend the merit of his apostolic ministry. He does so by basing his defense on the trustworthiness of God. He argues strenuously that his ministry never demonstrated such inconsistency. He offers three examples of God’s faithfulness. First, Christ is the center of his preaching. Since there is no inconsistency in Christ, there is no inconsistency in his preaching. Second, all of God’s past promises have been fulfilled in Christ. And third, those baptized have been sealed with the Spirit of God. This presentation of God’s plan serves as an argument in defense of Paul’s ministry.

Jesus’ forgiveness of the man who came to him to be healed sets up the conflict between Jesus and the scribes who were present in the witnessing crowd. While they are correct in believing that only God can forgive, they are blind in not recognizing the power of divine forgiveness active in the person of Jesus. Knowing what the incredulous scribes are thinking, Jesus challenges their silent condemnation of him. He points out that forgiving sin is more difficult than healing, so the healing is merely an external sign of internal transformation. The man is sent home forgiven and healed; the crowds are astounded and give glory to God. Only the scribes remain unbelieving.

Jan 29 2025

Bringing Outsiders In

These first days of Jesus’ ministry present him preaching, teaching, and healing to bring people to know that God is near. His message and his deeds bring people back to full life in the community. By casting out demons and curing the sick he restores to full humanity those suffering from possession and illness. Today we find Jesus confronting a condition that must have been even more excruciating—leprosy.

To be a leper was to be cut off from others in all ways. You were cast out of the community, isolated, doomed to live in deserted places, no longer part of the human family, unable to participate in any social events, and considered unfit to worship God. It was assumed that if you had leprosy, you had sinned in some way. Your life was summed up in the words the Law of Moses told you to cry out whenever anyone came near, “Unclean, unclean!”

For Jesus to touch a leper meant that in the eyes of others he also became unclean and unfit to associate and worship with others. Even so, when a leper asked for healing, Jesus was unequivocal in his reply: “I do will it. Be made clean.” It is easy to hear in his response the authority of the Son of God, set on giving glory to his Father. Yet Jesus, ever respectful of the law, sent the man to the priest, as commanded in the book of Leviticus. In Jesus, pity took precedence over the law, but did not abolish it.

Consider/Discuss

Have you ever been or seen anyone cut off from a family, a group, or even the community?
When St Paul says, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ,” how does that speak to your life in terms of Jesus’ healing the leper in the Gospel?

Responding to the Word

Jesus, you came to bring us into deeper communion with the Father and one another. Give us the courage to reach out, as you did, to those in need of our compassion and help. Let us not be afraid of the opinions of others when we see that good can be done. Amen.