Being Restored: The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2024

                                                             Being Restored:

The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2024 

February 11, 2024

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Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; Psalm 32; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45

 

We enter our sacred season of Lent this week, and the readings remind us to pause long enough to give gratitude to God for all that has been given to us. The story of the lepers shows us that the people who live on the outskirts of our society are still part of the community and need to be re-incorporated. For health reasons, a person with skin wounds had to see the priest-doctor to determine if their wound was infectious. If so, for the sake of the community’s well-being, the person needed to be temporarily quarantined. It was the responsibility of the persons to declare themselves unclean and to remain separated. Anyone who came in contact with the person needed to likewise be quarantined until they were verified clean by the priest-doctor. In the Gospel, by encountering the leper, Jesus made himself unclean and was not permitted to enter any village until he showed himself to the priest. 

 

What is interesting is that people knowing that Jesus was unclean kept seeking him and risking their health in order to meet him. We applaud Jesus for acting out of compassion, and yet, his ministry becomes much harder because he is now restricted to move about freely. This is an example where mercy is messy. If mercy is to enter the troubles of another person, one makes oneself vulnerable and experiences unwanted hardship. It shows that the troubles of a person’s life are so great that they will risk so much in order to be in the presence of Jesus, who represents the mind and heart of God.

 

Each of us have found ourselves on the outside of the social circle and feeling vulnerable and inadequate. We can think back on childhood days of having to walk to an empty seat on the bus because no one invites us to sit with them, or getting shunned from the cafeteria table, or being the last player selected on an athletic team. Those moments hurt, and we know what it is like to wonder if we will be accepted. We know what it feels like to be placed on the outside of the “in” social circle, and then when we move to the “in” social circle, we still place people on the outside, even though our experience ought to prepare us for being kinder, more compassionate people. It is easy to forget the distress of being “outsided.” We Christians must do better, and yet, some of us exclude people for all sorts of reasons.

 

As disciples of Jesus, we must bring people together in unity. We will know if a religion is being true to God’s covenant if it unites humanity. If a religion is divisive, it does not know God. In this case, the religion does not speak for God. We can trust that God accompanies each of us on our life’s journey, and that God is aware of the pain and joy in our life. God celebrates our pain and God celebrates our joy. There is no limit to God’s forgiveness. If you are open to the need to transform your life. You will experience and understand that forgiveness. This is what we are about. We are like the leper who is reinstated back to community life to share the joys and to accept the responsibility. In God, no one can be placed outside the community. We are like those townspeople seeking Jesus, going to the outskirts of the villages, to meet him, so he can be a part of our lives. With all that, we can give thanks and be restored. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (James 1) Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 

Tuesday: (James 1) Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters: all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.

 

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) He 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."

 

Tuesday: (Mark 8) 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 11: Our Lady of Lourdes is remembered because between February 11 and July 16, 1858, Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in a cave near Lourdes, France eighteen times. The site remains one of the largest pilgrim destinations. Many find healing in the waters of the grotto during the spring.

 

February 13: 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 14: 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 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 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

 

• February 11, 1563. At the Council of Trent, Fr. James Laynez, the Pope's theologian, made such an impression on the cardinal president by his learning and eloquence, that cardinal decided at once to open a Jesuit College in Mantua, his Episcopal see. 
• February 12, 1564. Francis Borgia was appointed assistant for Spain and Portugal. 
• February 13, 1787. In Milan, Fr. Rudjer Boskovic, an illustrious mathematician, scientist, and astronomer, died. At Paris he was appointed "Directeur de la Marine." 
• February 14, 1769. At Cadiz, 241 Jesuits from Chile were put on board a Swedish vessel to be deported to Italy as exiles. 
• February 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! 
• February 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. 

February 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.