Tag: bible

“Do you see anything?” | Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

From the Gospel acclamation: “May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (8:22-26, today’s readings)

Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, “Do you see anything?” Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.

Today’s Gospel acclamation points to what Mark tells us about Jesus as he restores sight to the blind man. The eyes of our hearts need enlightenment in order to see the hope that Jesus is as he stands before us. When Jesus first lays hands on the blind man, anointing him with spittle, he sees indistinctly with distorted vision. When Jesus lays hands on him a second time, his sight is restored perfectly. The interaction between Jesus and the blind man demonstrates the need for relationship with Jesus, to hear and respond to him as he teaches us to see distinctly with the eyes of our hearts.

God, just as the blind man’s vision was clouded and obscured, so is mine in many ways. You alone, Lord, are the just judge who knows the truth of my dependence on you to see you and this present reality with eyes made to behold what is true and good and beautiful. Through your grace, do the continual work necessary to restore my sight as I respond to the love you give in your word and in the sacraments of your Church on earth. You know me and you probe me. In the psalms, what do I have to offer if not gratitude for all your good gifts? “To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Do you still not understand?” | Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “The voice of the LORD is over the waters, the LORD, over vast waters. The voice of the LORD is mighty; the voice of the LORD is majestic.  The Lord will bless his people with peace.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (8:14-21, today’s readings)

And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

On a boat with the disciples, they tell Jesus they have only one loaf of bread with them. Jesus says to them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” Jesus observes that they don’t understand him and asks them whether they comprehend what he means. “Are your hearts hardened?” he asks them. “Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?” Because they don’t yet understand the identity of Jesus as the Son of God and his mission, he goes on to remind them of his feeding of the crowds and asks again if they still don’t understand, spoken not out of questioning their ability to comprehend him but out of love. In this way, he brings us not to a place of self-doubt but one of greater trust in his divinity and goodness as he invites the disciples and all of us to understand him more deeply.

God, help me remember today what Jesus calls me to in questioning my understanding of him. This is not to cast a shadow on your gift of intellect but to draw me closer to him. Let me welcome the question “Do you not yet understand or comprehend?” In a million years, I would not yet understand. Yet, Jesus condescends to make a place for me nearer and nearer to him as I grow to greater understanding through childlike faith. Give me the grace, Lord, to trust in your providence for everything and to stay in the boat with you in the midst of adversity. Give to the LORD the glory due his name!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Why does this generation seek a sign?” | Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “’You sit speaking against your brother; against your mother’s son you spread rumors. When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it? Or do you think that I am like yourself? I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.’ Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (6:17, 20-26, today’s readings)

“Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

The Pharisees come to Jesus asking for a sign from heaven. At this, Mark says, Jesus “sighed from the depth of his spirit.” After he tells them no sign will be given to them, he gets in the boat again and goes to the other shore, continuing his mission elsewhere. Jesus sighs, seeing as God sees, the blindness of his people. Just as God warned Cain about “a demon lurking at his door” and the psalmist calls out those who “sit speaking against your brother,” Jesus sees the evil we are capable of that he brings out into the light. God sees because he is God and we are not. Even in the presence of the Incarnate Word, the sight of faith sometimes fails to function. Jesus is not just a sign but the visible sign of the invisible God who delivers for us his ultimate plan for salvation.

God, help me see as you see. Through the truth of the risen Christ, I am set free to know and worship you, to find meaning even as I ponder the mystery of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. As Saint John Paul II said, “Through this revelation, men and women are offered the ultimate truth about their own life and about the goal of history.” I don’t see you, Lord, as I ought. In my shortcomings, strengthen my faith that you alone are the Lord, to offer you a sacrifice of praise in making yourself known through the incarnation of your Son. “I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus, I trust in you!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Blessed are you . . . . Woe to you.” | Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Luke 6:17, 20-26, today’s readings)

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.”

Jesus speaks to the disciples and great numbers of people. They come, as Luke tells us, from Judea and Jerusalem and the wealthy Phoenician regions of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus shares the Beatitudes with both Gentiles and Jews, rich and poor, the satisfied and the hungry. In speaking to them face to face on a level plain as the Just Judge, he raises the lowly and brings to the level of dust the wealthy. The poor are not satisfied in their hunger, and the rich are not satiated by what has brought them to prosperity. The words of Jesus are not mere observations on the state of humanity; his words level mountains. In the Communion antiphon for today, we hear how his words take root and fulfill us, at whatever level we stand in life: “They ate and had their fill, and what they craved the Lord gave them; they were not disappointed in what they craved.”

God, help me learn to be satisfied less with the food the world offers and rely more and more on the sustenance you provide. Jeremiah reminds me that to stay rooted in you, I am not to put my trust in human beings, in the strength of flesh. Instead, he says, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.” The kingdom of God is here and yet to be. Give me the grace and wisdom not to be filled now, not to pursue consolation as an end in itself, but even in the midst of difficulty and suffering to “be glad and leap for joy” at the true food you give me today. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd.” | Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mark 8:1-10, today’s readings)

His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven.”

In this passage known as the Feeding of the Four Thousand, the words Jesus speaks are as profound as the miracle he performs. What was left over after the miracle also speaks of God’s abundant mercy—seven basketfuls of fragments. Aware of the physical needs of the crowd following him for three days, Jesus feels great compassion for them, and we hear him say, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd.” His care for them extends beyond their physical presence with him: “If I send them away hungry to their homes,” Jesus says, “they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” The great distance they have come is an expression of their desire to be with the Lord, to stay with him. All-knowing and ever merciful, Jesus not only supplies them with food to satisfy hunger but with the fulfillment of our deepest longings.

God, help me trust that you look to the needs of your people at all times with compassion and mercy. What I tend to think I need during the day turns out to be not a need at all but more the fulfillment of requirements I set for myself. Jesus looks out over the crowd and sees what they need and immediately provides for them. Let me put myself in the sometimes uncomfortable disposition to receive your mercy and be fed by you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Memorial of Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop

From the responsorial psalm: “Blessed is he whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered. Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile. Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mark 7:31-37, today’s readings)

He took him off by himself away from the crowd. 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!”) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

The ears of the deaf man are opened because of the miracle Jesus performs but also because people bring the man to Jesus. Not in isolation, the man experiences the love of others who believe Jesus can restore his hearing and speech. In the first reading, the serpent finds and isolates Eve, effectively dividing her from the union she has with Adam and God and all of creation. In restoring the deaf man, Jesus doesn’t merely undo what the evil one did in the Garden of Eden; he restores the man to wholeness in a foretaste of the new creation, the beatific vision in the life of the world to come. Mark tells us that the man’s speech impediment was removed and that he spoke plainly. The plain speech that drives the evil one away is one word: Jesus.

God, let me see the peace that results from the work Jesus accomplished while on earth and the hope of eternal life in his passion, death, and resurrection. At creation, Lord, you said you found all that you had made very good. Jesus took the deaf man aside, away from others who loved and cared for him, in order to draw him into more intimate union with you. In opening his ears and lips, Jesus restores him to your plan for creation so that all may say of your glory, “He has done all things well.” Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son. Saints Cyril and Methodius, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” | Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD. The LORD bless you from Zion: may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mark 7:24-30, today’s readings)

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. 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 replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

Wherever he goes, Jesus cannot escape notice, even among the Gentiles. People come to him from all sides, as the woman in today’s Gospel does for the sake of her daughter. In responding to the woman, Jesus refers to the claim of the Jews that they first receive his ministry as God’s chosen ones. But for the mother who sees the suffering of her daughter, that claim does nothing to hold her back. Jesus gives her the opportunity to demonstrate the depth of her faith expressed in desperate need. Similarly, in the first reading from Genesis, we see the dignity of Adam and Eve standing before God in complete reliance on him, both naked yet feeling no shame. Jesus invites us to come to him with the same dignity, in complete recognition of all he can do for us in his mercy as our Lord and creator.

God, just as the woman approached Jesus, aware of her otherness but in great need, I ask for the grace to do the same. In willing to do anything to restore her daughter’s health, the mother had heard of Jesus and simply fell at his feet on meeting him. Help me today put to work the exemplary persistent faith of the woman and her holy fear and reverence as she knelt before you. At creation, “The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.” In humility and childlike trust, let me remember to come to you throughout the day, to come with persistence, and to plead that your will—which is love—be done for me and others. Blessed are those who fear the Lord!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Evils come from within and they defile.”| Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD, my God, you are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak. O bless the Lord, my soul!”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mark 7:14-23, today’s readings)

“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

After the Pharisees criticize the disciples of Jesus for not following Jewish traditions of purification, Jesus tells the disciples, “Nothing that enters one from from outside can defile that person.” From the heart come a host of evil thoughts and actions, extending all the way back to original sin in the Garden of Eden. What defiles, Jesus tells us, is not what enters the stomach but what enters the heart and comes from within. This is why baptism and repentance are necessary to restore us to God, because God restores us to the truth. The Gospel acclamation for today is: “Your word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the truth.” What we once took for ourselves from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Jesus gives us abundantly through the sacraments—the embodiment of his passion, death, and resurrection.

God, in recognition that what defiles comes from within, flood me with your grace and mercy today. Left to myself, I have nothing; you are the source of every good gift. The vices that come from my heart have no place to hide in the dark but are scattered by the light of your face. Help me call to mind that after looking on everything you made, you found it very good. Be with me today, Lord.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” | Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place—What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him? O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 7:1-13, today’s readings)

He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

The Pharisees observe that the disciples of Jesus eat their meals with unwashed hands and fail to purify themselves after coming from the marketplace, according to Jewish tradition. In questioning Jesus about this, they point out that the disciples are not followers of the tradition of the elders. Jesus’ response cuts to the heart of the issue as he quotes Isaiah to reveal their oppressive teaching and deep-rooted hypocrisy. He criticizes the Pharisees for allowing traditions to undermine God’s inherently good commandments through their strict adherence to rituals. Intentions matter; in prayer and ritual observance, where do we find God except in hearing and doing his will, inclining our hearts to his decrees?

God, your law is rooted in love, mercy, and justice. Through the person of Jesus, you give us every one of these gifts—not a set of prohibitions or obligations but a call toward the good to build relationship with you and others in a way that corresponds to your will. When Jesus says the Pharisees nullify your word and that they “do many such things,” give me the grace to recognize the ways I turn away from you and your word. When I am tempted to think that those who set aside your commandments and instead upheld tradition lived and died a long time ago, guide me to the realization that I myself have done the same and will do the same again. From Genesis, I read: “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.” Guide me, Lord, to see as you see. Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“That they might touch only the tassel on his cloak.” | Memorial of Saint Scholastica, Virgin

From the responsorial psalm: “Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD, my God, you are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak. May the Lord be glad in his works.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 6:53-56, today’s readings)

They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

Word of Jesus spread quickly throughout the whole region. In Gennesaret, as soon as people realized Jesus set foot on the shore, they begin to bring their sick to him. Not long before, on his way to heal Jairus’s daughter, a woman came to Jesus only to touch his cloak and was healed. Perhaps people heard this story told and began to hurry to get their sick loved ones to Jesus as soon as he was present. Mark tells us this about the places Jesus visits: “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.” Jesus rewards the great faith these people act on with teaching and healing, bringing them to wholeness in this life while preparing them for life in the world to come.

God, help me rest today in the true hope and consolation of Jesus Christ your Son. “Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and cured every disease among the people,” the Gospel acclamation says. Time after time, Lord, let me come to you to hear your word and to know genuine gratitude for all your good gifts. In receiving you in the Eucharist, I begin to perceive the peace the people experienced as you healed them of their illnesses. Stay with me, Lord; make me whole. Memorial of Saint Scholastica, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.