January 13, 2005
Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Psalm: Thursday 5
Reading IHeb 3:7-14
The Holy Spirit says:
Oh, that today you would hear his voice,
"Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion
in the day of testing in the desert,
where your ancestors tested and tried me
and saw my works for forty years.
Because of this I was provoked with that generation
and I said, "They have always been of erring heart,
and they do not know my ways."
As I swore in my wrath,
"They shall not enter into my rest.""
Take care, brothers and sisters,
that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,
so as to forsake the living God.
Encourage yourselves daily while it is still "today,"
so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.
We have become partners of Christ
if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.
Responsorial PsalmPs 95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11
R (8)
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.Forty years I was wearied of that generation;
I said: "This people"s heart goes astray,
they do not know my ways."
Therefore I swore in my anger:
"They shall never enter my rest."
R
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
GospelMk 1:40-45
A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
"I do will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then 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."
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.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
From: Hebrews 3:7-14
The Need for Faith; the Bad Example Given by the Chosen People
[7] Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, when you hear his
voice, [8] do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day
of testing in the wilderness, [9] where your fathers put me to the
test and saw my works for forty years. [10] Therefore I was provoked
with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their
hearts; they have not known my ways.' [11] As I swore in my wrath,
'They shall never enter my rest."' [12] Take care, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away
from the living God. [13] But exhort one another every day, as long as
it is called "today", that none of you may be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin. [14] For we share in Christ, if only we hold our
first confidence firm to the end.
Commentary:
7-11. A long quotation from Psalm 95 introduces the theme of that
"rest" which the people of the promise will attain at the end of their
wayfaring.
In the Book of Genesis we are told that when God finished his work of
creation, he "rested". The "rest" prescribed in the Mosaic Law was a
kind of imitation of what God did, sharing God's happiness, receiving
the reward merited by a life of fidelity and hard work. The Jews had
gradually come to a more spiritual understanding of "rest" or, as they
termed it, "the place of rest". This idea reaches its highest form of
expression in the apocryphal book of Esdras (IV Esdras), where the
prayer is raised to God to grant the faithful departed "eternal rest",
"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine". The chosen people were helped to
arrive at this notion of rest by reflecting on the spiritual meaning of
the Exodus and the pilgrimage to the promised land. The Exodus was also
seen as a new creation, with God "creating" his people. Like the first
creation, this second creation would be followed by "rest"--entry into
the promised land. The Epistle to the Hebrews shares this
interpretation of the Exodus but it gives it a Christian perspective by
seeing the Exodus as the Redemption whereby Christ, a new Moses, leads
us to eternal rest.
7. The author of the letter reaffirms that Sacred Scripture--in this
case Psalm 95--is the work of the Holy Spirit. As such it always
carries a contemporary message; it is a form God uses to speak to all
men in all periods of history. Readiness to listen to God and do his
will today and now is an important part of Christian living (cf.
3:13). A Christian should be docile to God speaking in his heart; he
should be quick to respond to all the little invitations God gives him
to deny himself and advance in holiness. No excuse is ever valid for
delaying to give a positive response to grace. "Do your duty 'now',
without looking back on 'yesterday', which has already passed, or
worrying over 'tomorrow', which may never come for you" ([St] J. Escriva,
"The Way", 253). "Now! Return to your noble life now. Don't let
yourself be fooled: 'now' is not too soon...nor too late" ("ibid.",
254).
8. Man is free; he can resist grace, and unfortunately often does. "It
is not God's goodness that is to blame for faith not coming to birth in
men, but the inadequate dispositions of those who hear the preaching of
the word" (St Gregory Nazianzen, "Oratio Catechetica Magna", 31).
Scripture calls this resistance to grace "hardness of heart" (cf.,
e.g., Ex 4:21; Rom 9:18; Deut 15:7; Jer 7:26; Acts 19:6).
When withholding belief or resisting conversion, people sometimes claim
to have intellectual difficulties, but, very often, the real problem
has to do with their dispositions, with not "wanting" to respond to
grace. The disobedience and "hardness of heart" or stubbornness of the
chosen people is a recurring subject in the Old Testament (cf., e.g.,
Ex 32:9; Deut 9:13; 2 Kings 17:14; Is 46:12; Jer 5 :3; Ezek 2:4;
etc.). Their rebellion against God's commands was due to pride, which
turned them into a people whose forehead was as hard as brass, whose
neck was "an iron sinew" (Is 48:4; cf. Acts 7:51), a people
uncircumcised in heart, with uncircumcised ears (cf. Jer 9:26; 6: 10).
Conversion cannot operate if someone has that attitude. For this reason
our Lord, and later his Apostles, referred to the Jews' rejection of
him, in order to make Christians steadfast in faith (cf. Is 6:9; Mt
13:13; In 12:40; Acts 28:26).
9. Psalm 95 contains a reference to the Israelites' rebellion when God
put them to the test in the wilderness. The episode took place in
Rephidim, on the border of the wilderness of Zin, in the south-east of
the Sinai peninsula. Having made their way out of Egypt, the people
grew impatient; they complained about how Yahweh was treating them, and
put him to the test by asking him to work a miracle (Ex 17:1-7). God
did work a miracle: at Horeb he ordered Moses to strike the rock with
his rod, and out of it flowed water to relieve the people's thirst. The
place was therefore given the name of Massah (meaning temptation) and
Meribah (meaning fault-finding or exasperation). This episode in Jewish
history came to symbolize the disgruntlement which typified the Jews in
the desert, an attitude which even affected Moses in Kadesh (cf. Num
20:1-13). The leader of the chosen people, in circumstances similar to
those of the earlier incident, struck the rock twice, not expecting
anything to happen. On account of this he did not merit to enter the
promised land: he was only allowed to see it from Mount Nebo, where he
died (Deut 34:1-8).
"Putting God to the test", " tempting" him, is a sin of presumption. It
involves exposing oneself imprudently and needlessly to physical or
spiritual risk from which God's ordinary providence does not provide
protection (cf. Mt 4:5-7).
In this passage, "putting God to the test" means demanding more proof
than necessary that God is steadfast in his will and continues to
protect his chosen people. "God should not be asked to account for his
activities", St John Chrysostom comments; "if one asks him to prove his
power, his providence, his solicitude, it is the same as not yet being
fully convinced of his power and goodness and mercy" ("Hom. on Heb.",
6).
11. There are three kinds of rest. The first is the "sabbath", when God
rested after creating the world; then there is the rest provided by the
promised land of Canaan after countless afflictions and difficulties;
and "finally there is the true rest which belongs to the Kingdom of
heaven, where the elect rest from their labors and afflictions: the
sabbath is a reflection and symbol of that rest" ("Hom. on Heb.", 6).
St Thomas Aquinas applies the term "rest" to peace of body and soul and
says that there are different kinds of peace--physical ease (cf. Lk
12:19); the peace of conscience a person has who does right in the
sight of God; and the peace of eternal happiness in heaven (cf.
"Commentary on Heb, ad loc.").
12. "Falling away from the living God" seems to be something more
serious than reverting to Judaism; it implies the sad possibility of
total loss of belief in God. Thus, in the case of those to whom the
epistle was written, a reversion from the Gospel to Judaism would not
be simply a matter of returning to a previous religious position but
rather a deliberate act involving voluntary resistance to grace and a
complete break with God. For people who had not received the Revelation
of Jesus Christ, the Jewish religion certainly did provide access to
God; but for those who by embracing Christianity had thereby received
the fullness of Revelation, renunciation of Christ would mean a
virtually irreparable sin (cf. Heb 6:4-6). There is never a valid
excuse for giving up the faith.
The Church teaches and prescribes to its children the need to be true
to the faith even at the cost of life itself. From the very beginning
this was the kind of fidelity practised by the martyrs and confessors
of the faith. "They cut our hands off, they nail us to crosses, they
throw us to wild beasts, imprison us and burn us, and we submit to
every kind of torture; yet everyone knows that we do not betray our
faith. Rather, the worse our sufferings, the more there are who embrace
faith and devotion in the name of Jesus (St Justin, "Dialogue with
Trypho", 110,4).
Some Christians today are called to stay true in the face of violent
persecution; they and others also have to overcome fear of ridicule,
and the temptation to hide their convictions from unbelievers. The
words of the letter remind us that there is a danger that whereas in
earlier times force failed to achieve its objective, nowadays fear of
ridicule could cause us to be ashamed of Christ or to deny him. "'And
in a paganized or pagan environment when my life clashes with its
surroundings, won't my naturalness seem artificial?' you ask me. And I
reply: 'Undoubtedly your life will clash with theirs; and that
contrast--faith confirmed by works!--is exactly the naturalness I ask
of you" ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 380).
13. The more Christians practise charity, the easier it is for them to
be steadfast in the faith. Fraternity, mutual brotherly support, helps
provide protection from the devil's efforts to make us sin: "'Frater
qui adiuvatur a fratre quasi civitas firma". Brother helped by brother
is a fortress.' Think for a moment and make up your mind to live the
fraternal spirit that I have always asked of you" ([St] J. Escriva, "The
Way", 460).
Aware of his personal weakness and of the need to help others and to
let himself be helped, the Christian keeps striving to practise this
fraternity. He loves the good he sees in others, and he tries to uproot
in himself and others anything that implies a defect. Fraternity,
therefore, leads to "fraternal correction", a word of advice which is
always full of understanding, being the outcome of a desire to live in
harmony with others and to remove divisions and barriers. Christian
fraternity binds the Church together.
"Not in vain is there in the depths of man's being a strong longing for
peace, for union with his fellow man, for mutual respect for personal
rights, so strong that it seeks to transform human relations into
fraternity. This longing reflects something which is most deeply
imprinted upon our human condition: since we are all children of God,
our fraternity is not a cliche or an empty dream; it beckons as a goal
which, though difficult, is really ours to achieve" ([St] J. Escriva,
"Friends of God", 233).
14. This is a repetition of the exhortation in v. 6 to remain true to
the end. "Firm confidence'' is the very opposite of the "falling away"
mentioned in v. 12. From the very beginning of his calling, a Christian
is already sharing in Christ's life and in his glory, but he will not
share in it fully until after death, when he will be able actually to
see the Lord.
This sharing in Christ's grace is a treasure which we carry in "earthen
vessels" (2 Cor 4:7) and can lose at any time through sin. We need to
nurture this grace and protect our faith by being watchful and active
right through our life: "We have shared in Christ's death through holy
Baptism and we have been buried with him; we have shared in his
resurrection provided we keep our faith intact" (Theodoret of Cyrus,
"Interpretatio Ep. ad Haebreos", III).
The Christian life is a matter of constantly returning to God,
beginning anew, and humbly and decisively correcting our course when we
go astray through weakness or indifference.
"What does it matter that we stumble on the way, if we find in the pain
of our fall the energy to pick ourselves up and go on with renewed
vigor? Don't forget that the saint is not the person who never falls,
but rather the one who never fails to get up again, humbly and with a
holy stubbornness. If the Book of Proverbs says that the just man falls
seven times a day (cf. Prov 24:16), who are we poor creatures, you and
I, to be surprised or discouraged by our own weaknesses and falls! We
will be able to keep going ahead, if only we seek our fortitude in him
who says: 'Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest' (Mt 11:28). Thank you, Lord, "quia tu es, Deus,
fortitudo mea" (Ps 42:2), because you, and you alone, my God, have
always been my strength, my refuge and my support" ([St] J. Escriva,
"Friends of God", 131).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
From: Mark 1:40-45
The Curing of a Leper
[40] And a leper came to Him (Jesus), beseeching Him, and kneeling said
to Him, "If You will, You can make me clean." [41] Moved with pity, He
stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be
clean." [42] And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made
clean. [43] And He sternly charged him, and sent him away at once,
[44] and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show
yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses
commanded, for a proof to the people." [45] But he went out and began
to talk freely about it, and spread the news, so that Jesus could no
longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came
to Him from every quarter.
Commentary:
40-44. Leprosy was seen as a punishment from God (cf. Numbers
12:10-15). The disappearance of the disease was regarded as one of the
blessings of the messianic times (Isaiah 35:8; cf. Matthew 11:5; Luke
7:22). Because leprosy was contagious, the Law declared that lepers
were impure and that they transmitted impurity to those who touched
them and to places they entered. Therefore, they had to live apart
(Numbers 5:2; 12:14ff) and to show that they were lepers by certain
external signs. On the rite of purification, see the note on Matthew
8:4.
[The note on Matthew 8:4 states:
4. According to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 14), if a leper is cured of
his disease, he should present himself to a priest, who will register
the cure and give him a certificate which he needs to be reintegrated
into the civil and religious life of Israel. Leviticus also prescribes
the purifications and sacrifice he should offer. Jesus' instruction to
the leper is, then, in keeping with the normal way of fulfilling what
the laws laid down.]
The passage shows us the faithful and confident prayer of a man needing
Jesus' help and begging Him for it, confident that, if Our Lord wishes,
He can free him from the disease (cf. Matthew 8:2). "This man
prostrated himself on the ground, as a sign of humility and shame, to
teach each of us to be ashamed of the stains of his life. But shame
should not prevent us from confessing: the leper showed his wound and
begged for healing. If You will, he says, You can make me clean; that
is, he recognized that the Lord had the power to cure him" (St. Bede,
"In Marci Evangelium Expositio, in loc.").
On the discretion and prudence Jesus required regarding His person, see
the note on Mark 1:34 and Matthew 9:30.
[The note on Mark 1:34 states:
34. Demons possess a supernatural type of knowledge and therefore they
recognize Jesus as the Messiah (Mark 1:24). Through the people they
possess they are able to publish this fact. But Our Lord, using His
divine powers, orders them to be silent. On other occasions He also
silences His disciples (Mark 8:30; 9:9), and He instructs people whom
He has cured not to talk about their cure (Mark 1:4; 5:43; 7:36;
8:26). He may have acted in this way to educate the people away from a
too human and political idea of the Messiah (Matthew 9:30). Therefore,
He first awakens their interest by performing miracles and gradually,
through His preaching, gives them a clearer understanding of the kind
of Messiah He is.
Some Fathers of the Church point out that Jesus does not want to
accept, in support of the truth, the testimony of him who is the father
of lies.]
[The note on Matthew 9:30 states:
30. Why did our Lord not want them to publicize the miracle? Because
His plan was to gradually manifest Himself as the Messiah, the Son of
God. He did not want to anticipate events which would occur in their
own good time; nor did He want the crowd to start hailing Him as
Messiah King, because their notion of messiah was nationalistic, not a
spiritual one. However, the crowd did in fact proclaim Him when he
worked the miracles of the loaves and the fish (John 6:14-15): "When
the people saw the sign which He had done, they said, `This is indeed
the prophet who is to come into the world!' Perceiving then that they
were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus
withdrew again to the hills by Himself."]
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
