11 February 2024 - the touch

Today's Readings

(Audio)

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,

“If you wish, you can make me clean.”

This leper came from a life of isolation, shame, and sickness, to Jesus, as his only hope. The law could only isolate this man and separate him to prevent the spread of his illness. He came with faith in the power of Jesus, power that was sufficient to do what the law could not. But he was not sure this was what Jesus wished. To some extent this was a pious way to avoid presumption. But some of his motivation probably also stemmed from a negative self perception and a real lack of self worth on the part of the leper. It would be hard to avoid internalizing such a self perception when the law required him to "cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!'" when there was anyone in proximity. He knew Jesus could do what he asked. But he may well have doubted that he was worth it. And it was to this deep loneliness, and not merely to a physical malady, that Jesus responded when he was "[m]oved with pity".

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 

touched him, and said to him, 

“I do will it. Be made clean.”

Before he said the words of healing, he reached out toward the leper, and did what must have been shocking to leper and to all those who witnessed it. He "touched him", thus already beginning the deep healing from isolation and shame that had accompanied the man throughout his history with the disease. In any normal case this would have caused the man who touched the leper to become unclean. But Jesus was anything but a normal case. With him it worked precisely in reverse, such that the leper became clean by the power of his touch and the power of his word. This word was like the word that created the universe in that way it said it also accomplished. "God said, "Let there be light," and there was light" (see Genesis 1:3). Jesus said, "Be made clean", and he was made clean.

He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,

but go, show yourself to the priest 

and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;

that will be proof for them.”

Jesus was not yet ready to have his identity widely known. He didn't want to be misunderstood as merely a healer, an exorcist, a prophet, or a teacher. He wanted these aspects of his identity to be understood under the wider context of his Messianic plan, which was not first to conquer, but to suffer. People were all too eager for the healer, but not so ready to accept him as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. They loved him when he provided them with bread. But they were tempted to despise him when he insisted that there were things more important than food and clothing. They were hoping for a Messiah whose kingdom was of this world. But the Kingdom of Jesus was of this world.

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.

He spread the report abroad

so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.

The burden that had previously belonged to the leper, being unable to openly enter any town, had now fallen upon Jesus himself.  Already we see him fulfilling the words of Isaiah that, "[s]urely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (see Isaiah 53:4). The man, by contrast, was to show himself to the priests and offer what Moses prescribed, allowing him to reenter common life and be reintegrated into common worship. 

Jesus did will to heal this man, not only of his unclean status, but of the deep psychological wound that that status had caused in him. In some ways all of us are like this leper, wounded and isolated, not by leprosy, but by sin. Many of us doubt that our condition merits the attention of Jesus. We have been calling ourselves unclean for so long that we may begin to lose hope that any change is possible. But Jesus himself desires to recreate us with his word and his touch just as he did this leper. He wants to heal not only bodies but especially hearts and souls. Let us go to him, particularly in the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion, for he does will it.

In response to the healing power of Jesus in our lives there is no need to keep silent as there was for the leper. We are encouraged to proclaim the good news, and to live our very lives as thanksgiving, just as Paul described.

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,

do everything for the glory of God.

Songs In His Presence - Surely He Has Borne Our Griefs

Darrell Evans - Trading My Sorrows

10 February 2024 - more than enough

Today's Readings

(Audio)

My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,

because they have been with me now for three days

and have nothing to eat.

If I send them away hungry to their homes,

they will collapse on the way,

and some of them have come a great distance.

We are reminded of the time when the angel of the Lord gave a food and water to the prophet Elijah because "the journey is too great for you" (see First Kings 19:6-8). Without the miraculous provisioning he would have grown weary and fainted, but although "youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength" (see Isaiah 40:20-31).

Coming out to a deserted place to be with the Lord means foregoing the usual sources of nourishment. It means that the easy options to satisfy our desires are far away from us, If we try to leave Jesus to go and restore ourselves in the way to which we are accustomed it may result in our entire collapse. In this deserted place we are in a new sphere of life, and returning to the old way is not only not a safe fall back plan but is in fact dangerous. We must not be like Lot's wife who looked back to what and turned into a pillar of salt (see Genesis 19:26). We must not be like those who set their hand to the plow and look back (see Luke 9:62). It is not only that we've come so far as to reach a place of no return. It is actually the case that there is no life to be found apart from Jesus, and we must learn to trust in him to provide for us so we can be nourished at the feast he sets before us.

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all (see First Thessalonians 5:14).

Because of the Eucharistic overtones of the miracle of the loaves we tend to think of the disciples as the predecessors of our modern clergy and ourselves as those who are fed. And this is no doubt meant to be a primary interpretation. It is the Eucharist that strengthens us so that, like Elijah, we can go "in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God" (see First Kings 19:8). But might there be a secondary interpretation about those we ourselves might either nourish or send away? Are there people who are drawn to us because we are disciples of Christ whom we might either choose to feed or otherwise cast back upon their own inherently insufficient resources? We become acutely aware that we have, of ourselves, nothing to offer. We tend to think "Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?", even regardless of how many times before Jesus has multiplied our meager supply. This feeding of the four thousand is meant to be a reminder to us to rely on Jesus in all things. In the first place we rely on him to sustain us with his Eucharistic presence. Then, second, we trust that he will multiply our own meager offerings so that "so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work" (see Second Corinthians 9:8).

BarlowGirl - Enough

9 February 2024 - open for business

Today's Readings

(Audio)

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment

and begged him to lay his hand on him.

He took him off by himself away from the crowd.

Sometimes Jesus simply performed healing miracles with the crowd still surrounding him. But there were other instances such as this healing of the deaf man where something different was needed. In some instances of healing he chose to remove the crowds from the scene or, as in this case, to remove the man from the crowds as he "took him off by himself". The crowd seemed enthusiastic, positive, and supportive. They were not like the mourners whom Jesus put out as he raised the daughter of the synagogue leader (see Mark 5:21-43). The reason for that seemed more obvious, in that it created a space of faith for Jesus to work. Why, then, step away from this enthusiasm, and the apparent faith of the crowd? Perhaps Jesus had a sense that the deaf man was unable to connect with that enthusiasm, and felt all the more isolated looking around him at the crowds. Perhaps to have a genuine encounter with Jesus it needed to be more personal and intimate and away from all the bustle and noise, however celebratory and positive it may have been.

He put his finger into the man's ears

and, spitting, touched his tongue;

then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,

"Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!")

Jesus truly engaged with this man, with a healing process that progressed in intimate steps. This may have allowed the deaf man to gradually connect to what was happening if he had previously been somewhat dissociated and adrift among the crowd. The steps Jesus performed would have brought him fully into the present moment as an embodied creature. It was so such an intimate process that it might have been embarrassing for others to see transpire, but was nevertheless a miracle he would treasure, as evidenced by the fact that he couldn't help but proclaim it, no matter what Jesus told him. 

The crowd, after seeing the results, realized that in Jesus they were witnessing the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah:

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

then shall the lame man leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute sing for joy (see Isaiah 35:5-6)¹

We may not be deaf or mute. But we may not be ready and attentive listeners to the word of God, at least not as much as we would like to be. And when we know we should proclaim the Gospel do we find ourselves to be mute? Do we listen to what God says about us and our situation rather than what the world would have us believe, and do we in turn speak our agreement with God's word? Or are we silent as the world insinuates about us something less than our full identity as beloved children of God? If so, we too need healing. A crowd, full of enthusiasm, may help get us to the doorstep. But the only thing that we truly avail for us is a personal encounter with Jesus himself. But we need not fear. He continues to do all things well and desires to say, "Ephphatha" within our own hearts.

1) Healy, Mary. Gospel of Mark, The (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture) (p. 148). Baker Book Group - A. Kindle Edition. 

Delirious - Shout To The North

8 February 2024 - not hearing a no

Today's Readings

(Audio)

She came and fell at his feet.

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,

and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

Although Jesus was trying to keep a low profile this woman managed to seek him out. She clearly had such deep concern for her daughter that no obstacle was too great if there was some possibility of hope. Jesus himself represented that possibility, as he had by now acquired the reputation for authority that allowed him to drive out demons. In spite of being from a different ethnic and religious background she nevertheless fell at the feet of Jesus and begged him for the favor she sought. 

He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.

For it is not right to take the food of the children

and throw it to the dogs.”

She had already humbled herself and made herself vulnerable before Jesus. This initial response from Jesus represented a real test of her faith in him. Was such a test even fair? Her faith that Jesus was someone who could help was new and most likely still fragile. She had already lowered herself to fall at his feet. Wasn't such a test just as likely to provoke her and push her away? Yet Jesus only said it because he believed that she was able to make a response like the one she did, that it would draw from her, not rejection, but still deeper faith.

She replied and said to him,

“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”

She noticed perhaps that Jesus had not said no. He only mentioned what should happen first, not that the dogs would never be fed. This referred to the promises of God to the Jewish people, that salvation was first to them, and only later to the world, because "salvation is from the Jews" (see John 4:22), and as Paul and Barnabas said, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you" (see Acts 13:46). But it was always the plan that God's blessings would eventually go forth from Israel to the entire world. This would happen when Jesus, in his own flesh, tore down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile (see Ephesians 2:14), removing the veil, and opening the presence of God to all people (see Hebrews 10:19-20). Her faith reached out to a future not yet come and drew it into her present moment. She chose to trust in the overwhelming abundance of God which made it so that feeding even the dogs would in no way deprive the children. Rather than retaliating against the apparent slur, she creatively appropriated it in order to make the case for the favor she desired.

Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.

The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed

and the demon gone.

Her faith was able to attain the goal of the salvation of her daughter because and not in spite of the fact that it was tested. In similar situations we tend to infer too much from what Jesus says to us, hearing refusal when he says not yet. And we often disengage or rebel when our faith is tested such that what is not yet remains in the future whereas if we instead humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God our faith might grow enough to draw the future, the life of the resurrection, into the here and now.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (see Romans 8:11).

Let us opt for the faith of the Syrophoenician woman rather than the idolatry of Solomon. If we do not seek our satisfaction and fulfillment in God we will have no alternative but to chase after fleeting pleasures and false gods just as Solomon did. Even great wisdom is no guarantee against this temptation. What matters is the disposition of our hearts. The anonymous woman in the district of Tyre is an icon of how this is meant to look whereas the great king is a cautionary tale.

Hillsong - This Is Our God

7 February 2024 - from within

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Hear me, all of you, and understand.

Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;

but the things that come out from within are what defile.

Those like the Pharisees who were preoccupied with what enters from outside would not readily accept this. They preferred external ritual purity, purity that could be maintained perfectly without any need for conversion of heart. In another place Jesus would criticize this about them, saying, "For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence" (see Matthew 23:25).

When he got home away from the crowd

his disciples questioned him about the parable.

Even the disciples, whose motives were not as inherently corrupt as those of the Pharisees, had a hard time understanding this teaching of Jesus. For much of the law seemed to be about matters of ritual purity. Could such things be truly set aside? And in any case, what was to be done about the thing that Jesus said was actually the problem, the human heart? After all, about this spiritual center of the person Jeremiah had said, "[t]he heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (see Jeremiah 17:9). 

“Are even you likewise without understanding?

Do you not realize that everything

that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,

since it enters not the heart but the stomach

and passes out into the latrine?”

Jesus went on to explain that external ritual purity could not truly effect the change it was meant to symbolize. It was meant to point to the need to transformation of heart but could not itself achieve that transformation. Only by the coming of Jesus among his people was there any hope that the heart could be healed. By declaring all foods clean Jesus set aside what would be henceforth only a distraction. Rather than pursuing a legalistic and external perfection according to ritual, people were now meant to pursue Jesus himself, and allow themselves to be transformed by him. Rather than ritual washing, baptism would truly regenerate the soul. In place of food laws that excluded the Gentiles all people would be invited to the feast of his own Body and Blood. There was no need any longer to pursue that which was only a symbol and a reminder of the need for purification. Even the Gentiles could be welcomed into fellowship without risk of contamination.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God (see Hebrews 10:11).

This is good news for us, whose hearts are still in some measure defiled by sin. Jesus himself desires to heal us of evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly, in whatever form they take within us. Even if we aren't given over to the full blown form of any of these, it is likely that none of them are completely absent. If we had to change ourselves on our own, especially at this level of our being, we would despair. Even if we had the wisdom of Solomon on which to rely it wouldn't make much of a dent at the level of the heart. But we have the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who himself promised to give us new hearts.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (see Ezekiel 36:26).

Mark Schultz - Give Us Clean Hands

6 February 2024 - inhumane traditions

Today's Readings

(Audio)

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,

"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders

but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"

The Pharisees who asked this question weren't so concerned with ritual purity as they were with asserting their superiority over the disciples of Jesus. For them, the ritual handwashing was just one more item in a litany of performance that they did, not for God, but so that they could compare themselves favorable with others. Rather than become an occasion of humility as the cleansing of water reminded them of their reliance on God it became instead a point of prideful ostentation. The modern equivalent might be a Catholic who practices every possible devotion, says every novena, and recites every litany, but only in order to look down on other Catholics who do not do those things. We probably all know someone who makes a law out of their favorite tradition, insisting that it is all but necessary for salvation. Hopefully we ourselves avoid this temptation even for those traditions which have been very helpful for us individually. It is possible to share the value we find in such devotions without creating a sense of guilt in those who are not inclined to take them up.

How well you have set aside the commandment of God

in order to uphold your tradition!

We must be careful that we do not cling to human traditions at the expense of the commandment of God. Sometimes it's easier to say one more litany than to go out of our way to respond to a friend in need. Donating money as corban to God may have been easier for than honoring father and mother by actively engaging in relationship with them. Or maybe it was just a mask with which those who did so concealed a more hostile disposition toward them. Either way, there was no real and justifiable way to opt out of that commandment. The Pharisees were often experts in finding a little thing that they could set over and against the big picture of the law. And they did so largely to appease their own appetites and to avoid things they saw as difficult or displeasing. The solution that will allow us to avoid such temptations is to ensure that we not only honor God with our lips but with our hearts as well. We must not only tic the boxes of a list of rules, but must try to understand the mercy and love that motivates the heart of God, and allow him to teach us to share those motives.

You nullify the word of God

in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.

And you do many such things.

We are called to cling to the word of God. But we are also called to "hold to the traditions that you were taught by us" (see Second Thessalonians 2:15). The word for traditions in Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians is the same word as Jesus used in today's Gospel. But there is a clear difference between the human traditions that Jesus criticized and the Sacred Tradition upheld as necessary by the Church in every age. If the trick is not to be confused about which is which then the teaching authority of the Church, especially as expressed in the Catechism, is probably a good place to start.

Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?

If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you,

how much less this temple which I have built!

There is a sense in which nothing human, not a temple, and not tradition, can contain the infinite and almighty God. But nevertheless he does choose to dwell among us. His Spirit fills his bride, constantly teaching her, and revealing the depths of his own heart to her. This is why we must have a posture of humble receptivity in the presence of the divine mystery. The Pharisees seemed like a cup that was already full. Worse yet, it was full of their own toxic brew. We must constantly seek to empty ourselves of our selfishness and pride in order that we me be continually filled by God.

I had rather one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere;

I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Matt Maher - Better Is One Day

5 February 2024 - your light has come

Today's Readings

(Audio)

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea,

Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret

and tied up there.

When Jesus last left Gennesaret it was after Jesus healed a man possessed by a demon. That time the people were seized with fear and begged him to leave. Jesus left a community that at best was unable to welcome him and may have been actually hostile toward him because of the disruption to their economy caused by the death of the swine. Or they may even have taken that incident as some kind of statement of Jewish superiority over Gentiles, which would have been aggravating indeed whether or not it was intended to be such a statement. It was only natural that the formerly possessed man desired to follow Jesus rather than remain in a community like that. But Jesus "would not permit him but told him instead, "Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you" (see Mark 5:19). Given the reception Jesus received on this repeat visit we may infer that the man had been effective in this mission.

As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.

They scurried about the surrounding country

and began to bring in the sick on mats

to wherever they heard he was.

At first the sign of a possessed man in his right mind was jarring and the death of the swine was an economic disaster. But the longer he remained in their midst the more they were able to recognize the goodness of the transformation that occurred. The longer the time passed from the death of the pigs the more they were able to realize that such a loss was negligible if it meant that a human life, once oppressed by the devil, could thrive. But such a realization meant in some measure coming to terms with the presence of darkness in their midst. If it was good that this man was healed then it followed that pushing people in his former condition to the peripheries where they could be safely ignored was not a good option. Yet what other option did they have without the presence of Jesus? That may be why when Jesus did return it seemed as though the whole world was waiting for him and came to him.

Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,

they laid the sick in the marketplaces

and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;

and as many as touched it were healed.

The first reaction of the people to Jesus was fear. But that fear gave way to faith. They began to believe that what the Lord had done for the possessed man and for others through the healing power of Jesus might be done for them as well. Jesus coming to their region a second time gave them confidence that he had not abandoned or forgotten them. Indeed their expectant faith was so great that they came to believe that mere contact, even with the tassel of his cloak, would be enough to heal them. Just as it was for the hemorrhaging woman, so too for them, the touch of Jesus was sufficient.

When the priests left the holy place,

the cloud filled the temple of the LORD

so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud,

since the LORD's glory had filled the temple of the LORD.

Just as the glory of the Lord filled the temple when the ark was brought in and set in its place so too did his glory fill Gennesaret at the coming of Jesus. It was another instance when "the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light" (see Matthew 4:16). To us this may at first seem to have been a rare and exclusive privilege. But then we are called to remember that we touch not only the tassel of Jesus but his very body and blood every time we receive him in Holy Communion. With contact so close how can we regard any healing or transformation we need as impossible? The same glory cloud that fills the temple is meant to fill our souls as well. Let us welcome him with praise.

Vineyard Music - I See The Lord