God’s Message Wins.
The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021
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February 14, 2021
Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; Psalm 32; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45
It is not a stretch to read this leprosy chapter in light of today’s vaccination cards. To hold a card after receiving a second shot means that we are somewhat cleared to re-enter society. In biblical times, the priest was not only a religious leader who gave spiritual and moral counsel, but he was often a judge and a medical doctor. Until the person was declared by the priest to be ritually and bodily pure, lepers were separated from the community. When someone’s skin eruption was healing, the person presented oneself to the priest who would decide whether the person could rejoin society and if the village was protected from the illness that the person could spread.
Any person who interacted with a leper was constituted ritually unclean and was cast off from society until the priest could reintegrate the person. It is much like our quarantining today. Someone who was in the presence of a COVID-infected person is cut off for 10 to 14 days. The person cannot participate in the life of the community and is unable to join the worship services, and one’s normal way of making a living is impeded. Physical distancing cut off a person from human companionship.
In the Gospel, Jesus is the person who must quarantine before being cleared by a priest. The leper, who Jesus sternly implored to remain quiet, told everyone he saw about the cure of Jesus, and news traveled quickly. Therefore, Jesus had a major obstacle to his young ministry. He could not preach in the town centers because he was termed unclean, and he had to preach in deserted places. It is a very challenging set of circumstances in his brand new ministry, but when faced with the leprous man, he just had to have mercy upon him and heal him, and yet, news of his miracle working traveled to all ends of Palestine and people left their admonition to keep away from him because they wanted to hear his preaching and to be healed by him.
This passage becomes a song of praise because through it all, God’s promises are coming true. We may have to be patient, but we learn to trust in God’s promises. In this passage, God tells us that the words and actions of Jesus will win out. Human constrictions and laws cannot halt the love of God. Laws are healthy and are designed for society’s balance and well-being, but it always takes second place to the mercy God wants to give us. Though Jesus abides by safety protocols and puts no one in danger and encourages safe practices, people will still come to him and he will heal them. He will tend to their souls and give them the hope that God knows their suffering and wants to ease their burdens. God’s love will always win out over any obstacle.
We have to be prudent and keep ourselves safe during these times when we wait to be reintegrated back to society, but we turn to the one who can provide for us. We celebrate Ash Wednesday this week and it is good for us to align our need for healing to the compassion of Jesus as he begins his journey to the Cross. Jesus is the one upon whom we can depend. He is the one to bring us wholeness and joy. May our Lent be one of Thanksgiving as we come closer to Jesus because he is the only one who makes sense of all of this that unfolds around us.
Scripture for Daily Mass
First Reading:
Monday: (Genesis 4) The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the LORD.” Next she bore his brother Abel.
Tuesday: (Genesis 6) When the LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.
Wednesday: (Joel 2) Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.
Thursday: (Deuteronomy 30) Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
Friday (Isaiah 58) Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God.
Saturday (Isaiah 58) If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; If you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable; If you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice Then you shall delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.
Gospel:
Monday: (Mark 8) Jesus sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.
Tuesday: (Mark 8) The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread.
Wednesday (Matthew 6) Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others.
Thursday (Luke 9) The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Friday (Mark 9) “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Saturday (Luke 5) Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them.
Saints of the Week
February 14: Cyril, monk, and Methodius, bishop (Ninth Century), were brothers who were born in Thessalonica, Greece. They became missionaries after they ended careers in teaching and government work. They moved to Ukraine and Moravia, a place between the Byzantium and Germanic peoples. Cyril (Constantine) created Slavonic alphabet so the liturgy and scriptures could be available to them. Cyril died during a visit to Rome and Methodius became a bishop and returned to Moravia.
February 15: Claude La Colombiere, S.J., religious (1641-1682), was a Jesuit missionary, ascetical writer, and confessor to Margaret Mary Alocoque at the Visitation Convent at Paray La Monial. As a Jesuit, he vowed to live strictly according to the Jesuit Constitutions to achieve utmost perfection. Together, they began a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
February 16: Mardi Gras is your last chance to eat meat before Lent. This is the last day of Carnival (Carne- meat, Goodbye – vale). Say goodbye to meat as we begin the fasting practices tomorrow.
February 17: Ash Wednesday is the customary beginning to the season of Lent. A penitential time marked by increased fasting, prayer and almsgiving, we begin our 40-day tradition of sacrifice as we walk the way of Jesus that ends at the Cross during Holy Week. Lent is a time of conversion, a time to deepen one’s relationship with Christ, for all roads lead to his Cross of Suffering and Glory.
February 17: The Seven Founders of the Servites (Thirteenth Century) were from Florence and they joined the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin, who were also known as Praisers. They devoted their apostolate to prayer and service and withdrew to a deserted mountain to build a church and hermitage. After adopting a rule and gaining recruits, they changed their name to the Servants of Mary.
This Week in Jesuit History
- Feb 14, 1769. At Cadiz, 241 Jesuits from Chile were put on board a Swedish vessel to be deported to Italy as exiles.
- Feb 15, 1732. Fr. Chamillard SJ, who had been reported by the Jansenists as having died a Jansenist and working miracles, suddenly appeared alive and well!
- Feb 16, 1776. At Rome, the Jesuit prisoners in Castel S Angelo were restored to liberty. Fr. Romberg, the German assistant, aged 80, expressed a wish to remain in prison.
- Feb 17, 1775. The French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Neapolitan Ambassadors in Rome intimate to the newly elected Pope Pius VI the will of their respective sovereigns that the Jesuits imprisoned in Castel S Angelo should not be released.
- Feb 18, 1595. St Robert Southwell, after two and a half years imprisonment in the tower, was removed to Newgate and there thrust into a dungeon known as "Limbo."
- Feb 19, 1581. The election of Fr. Claude Acquaviva as fifth general in the Fourth General Congregation. He was only 37 years of age and a Jesuit for only 14 years. He was general under eight popes. He had been a fellow novice with St Stanislaus.
- Feb 20, 1860. Pope Pius IX visits the rooms of St Ignatius.
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