Thoughts for Today

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Monday of the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time B-2

Entrance Antiphon Ps 95 (94):6-7 O come, let us worship God and bow low before the God who made us, for he is the Lord our God.

Collect Keep your family safe, O Lord, with unfailing care, that, relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace, they may be defended always by your protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(February 6) Saint Paul Miki, martyr, and his companions, martyrs (d. 1597)

St Paul Miki & Companions Nagasaki, Japan, is familiar to Americans as the city on which the second atomic bomb was dropped, immediately killing over 37,000 people. Three and a half centuries before, 26 martyrs of Japan were crucified on a hill, now known as the Holy Mountain, overlooking Nagasaki. Among them were priests, brothers and laymen, Franciscans, Jesuits and members of the Secular Franciscan Order; there were catechists, doctors, simple artisans and servants, old men and innocent children—all united in a common faith and love for Jesus and his Church. Brother Paul Miki, a Jesuit and a native of Japan, has become the best known among the martyrs of Japan. While hanging upon a cross Paul Miki preached to the people gathered for the execution: “The sentence of judgment says these men came to Japan from the Philippines, but I did not come from any other country. I am a true Japanese. The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I certainly did teach the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason I die. I believe that I am telling only the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you to become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ’s example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”

When missionaries returned to Japan in the 1860s, at first they found no trace of Christianity. But after establishing themselves they found that thousands of Christians lived around Nagasaki and that they had secretly preserved the faith. Beatified in 1627, the martyrs of Japan were finally canonized in 1862. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today: 1 Kings 8:1-7.9-13; Psalm 131; Mark 6:53-56

When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognised Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went— into villages, towns or countryside— they placed the sick in the market‑places. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed. (Mark 6:53-56)

Christ’s power Consider the character of the earthly “powers” that often bear down on man, adversely affecting him. If man does not work, he will starve — so the world will crush him if he does not defend and protect himself by his work. He gets sick, cold and hungry. He easily falls victim to the hostility of his fellows. He can be swept away to his death in minutes. Fr. Ted Tyler His experience of the “powers that be” is often painful, and when he himself gains power over others, often it happens that they suffer. The possession of power can corrupt, and absolute power can corrupt absolutely. In view of all this adverse experience of power, it is not surprising that in history man has sought rescue and aid from the higher powers. The supernatural powers, the gods, are perceived as beings of “power.” Most cultures have used specific terms to designate the supernatural powers: Mana, Mungo, Numen, the Sacred, Spiritus, Vis Naturalis, Wakan, Wisdom, the gods or God. The list goes on. Higher powers were usually associated with special persons, places, and objects, and people went to these in order to gain the aid of the Supernatural. It is said that the oldest known pilgrimage site is Mount Kailash in Tibet which, situated at 18,000 feet, has been the goal of religious journeys for some 15,000 years. Some Buddhists claim that doing the long trail around that Mount erases sins, and that doing so over 100 times gives access to Nirvana. In classical Greece, there was the great oracle at Delphi from which would come utterances of the god Apollo — it was the major site for the worship of Apollo. All this is to say that the gods, as opposed to man, are imagined as powerful. They can do great things. But what we also notice in the history of man’s religious thought is that while the deities are regarded as powerful, they are not necessarily nor notably friendly and moral. The gods of the myths were a mixed bunch, and it was quite a business keeping them on side. Into this very uneven picture, and as the answer to man’s yearning, has come the intervention of the God of historical revelation, the God of Abraham and the prophets, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. He revealed himself as a God of almighty power, as an all-holy God, and as a God who is love.

The God of Abraham, the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets was very new on the scene of the gods and higher powers. He had absolute power, he loved and was compassionate, and he was good and holy. He required holiness — the other gods did not require holiness, nor did they abominate sin. Perhaps the most iconic event in the history of the children of Israel was the deliverance from the land of Egypt and the passing over to the Promised Land. It was an act of Yahweh God’s power and loving compassion. He showed himself to be almighty. There is no hint in the Pentateuch of any limitation to God’s power. He was a God of power and might. In this, the religion of Israel had much to tell that was of interest to the religions of man, for they too looked to the heavens for power that would aid man. The God of the Hebrews was a God of unlimited might. The gods of the nations were as nothing to him and he prohibited any recognition of them among his chosen people. When Mary the mother of the Messiah uttered her prayer magnifying the Lord God of Israel, she spoke of him as “he who is mighty” and who “has done great things for me” (Luke 1:49). At his trial, our Lord declared that “you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power” (Mark 14:62). The Christian Creed begins its profession proclaiming the Father “almighty.” All of this brings us to our Gospel today, for it shows our Lord as the answer to man’s yearning for access to a higher power that would aid him in his distress and in his vulnerability to hostile powers about him. We read that “As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognised Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went — into villages, towns or countryside — they placed the sick in the market-places. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed” (Mark 6:53-56). Our Lord, radiating moral goodness, was brimming with power. They had but to touch him to be blessed. The God of power and might was manifestly present in him and the divine presence overflowed with the benefits of his power. Of course, this Jesus was the living God, the source of all power.

Trite as it might sound, a kernel of true religion is belief in the power of God. If we do not look on God as powerful, we have little religion. The mark of faith in revealed religion is belief in God’s almighty power, a power that shows itself in mercy towards needy man. All of this is revealed in Jesus Christ, the image of the unseen God, the One who has made him known. Our Gospel scene today shows forth the divine power of Jesus Christ. He is our Salvation and our Friend. Let us be ever in his company, ever in direct touch with him by faith and the Sacraments, ever receiving the blessings that flow forth from his abiding and limitless power.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (1 Kings 8:1-7.9-13)

Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Zion, the City of David. All the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month. When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark, and they brought up the ark of the LORD and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up, and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted. The priests then brought the ark of the LORD’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim……These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt. When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple. Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.” (1 Kings 8:1-7.9-13)

The Ark and the Eucharist In our first reading today we are told of how the Ark of the covenant containing the two stone tablets with God’s commandments on them were transported from Zion to the Temple. In the presence of the Ark, great numbers of sheep and cattle were sacrificed. The Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies of the Fr. Ted Tyler Temple, and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple in the form of a cloud (1 Kings 8:1-7.9-13). The Ark was a wonderful possession of the people of God. It contained God’s writing which set out his commandments which were the terms of the covenant, and God marked its presence in the Temple with signs of his own guaranteed presence. Our Lord himself was full of love for his Father’s House and on one memorable occasion, physically cleansed the Temple of what he said defiled the place where his Father dwelt. What we read in this passage points to something far greater that was to come, something accessible to all of us who are Christ’s faithful wherever we live in the world. In every Catholic parish there dwells a far greater than the Ark: the Holy Eucharist, which is the Person of Jesus Christ in all his risen reality. With him there is present the Father and the Holy Spirit. Solomon sacrificed vast numbers of sheep and oxen to honour God and the Ark of God. Every day at Mass the greatest possible sacrifice is offered to God. It is the one sacrifice of Calvary made present sacramentally. Just as the writing on the stone tablets in the Ark came from God, so the sacrifice offered in the Mass comes from him, for it makes present again and again the one, all-sufficient and infinitely valuable sacrifice of Christ at Calvary.

Let us read our passage from 1 Kings today, thinking of how wondrously what it describes has been fulfilled every day in our midst, in the midst of the Church. Let us ask the Holy Spirit for a lively faith in the reality of what the Mass contains and of what it is under the form of signs, and let us ask for the spirit of reverence to celebrate it to the full.

(E.J.Tyler)

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H-M Escriva As a Christian, you can give away, within the limits of faith and morals, in everything that is your own; you can give way with all your heart. But in what belongs to Jesus Christ, you cannot give way!

(The Forge, no. 726)

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Morning Offering: O Jesus, through the most pure heart of Mary, I offer you all the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your divine heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I offer them especially for the Holy Father's intentions:

Pope Benedict's general intention for February is: "Access to Water. That all peoples may have access to water and other resources needed for daily life."

His mission intention is: "Health Workers. That the Lord may sustain the efforts of health workers assisting the sick and elderly in the world's poorest regions."