Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 01-31-05, Memorial, St. John Bosco

January 31, 2005
Memorial of Saint John Bosco, priest

Psalm: Monday 8

Reading I
Heb 11:32-40

Brothers and sisters:
What more shall I say?
I have not time to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
of David and Samuel and the prophets,
who by faith conquered kingdoms,
did what was righteous, obtained the promises;
they closed the mouths of lions, put out raging fires,
escaped the devouring sword;
out of weakness they were made powerful, became strong in battle,
and turned back foreign invaders.
Women received back their dead through resurrection.
Some were tortured and would not accept deliverance,
in order to obtain a better resurrection.
Others endured mockery, scourging, even chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword(s point;
they went about in skins of sheep or goats,
needy, afflicted, tormented.
The world was not worthy of them.
They wandered about in deserts and on mountains,
in caves and in crevices in the earth.

Yet all these, though approved because of their faith,
did not receive what had been promised.
God had foreseen something better for us,
so that without us they should not be made perfect.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24

R (25) Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
How great is the goodness, O LORD,
which you have in store for those who fear you,
And which, toward those who take refuge in you,
you show in the sight of the children of men.
R Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
You hide them in the shelter of your presence
from the plottings of men;
You screen them within your abode
from the strife of tongues.

R Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Blessed be the LORD whose wondrous mercy
he has shown me in a fortified city.
R Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Once I said in my anguish,
(I am cut off from your sight(;
Yet you heard the sound of my pleading
when I cried out to you.
R Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Love the LORD, all you his faithful ones!
The LORD keeps those who are constant,
but more than requites those who act proudly.
R Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.

Gospel
Mk 5:1-20

Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
"What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!"
"He had been saying to him, "Unclean spirit, come out of the man!")
He asked him, "What is your name?"

He replied, "Legion is my name. There are many of us."
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
"Send us into the swine. Let us enter them."
And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened
to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
"Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.

From: Hebrews 11:32-40

The Faith of Moses, of the Judges and of the Prophets

[32] And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the
prophets--[33] who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice,
received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, [34] quenched raging
fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness,
became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. [35] Women received
their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept
release, that they might rise again to a better life. [36] 0thers
suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment.
[37] They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the
sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute,
afflicted, ill-treated--[38] of whom the world was not
worthy--wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of
the earth. [39] And all these, though well attested by their faith,
did not receive what was promised [40] since God had foreseen something
better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Commentary:

32-38. Up to this point, the passage has been recalling outstanding
examples of faith from the time of the Patriarchs down to that of
Joshua (18th to 13th century B.C.). The epistle now goes on to their
exploits and sufferings, wherein their faith brought them victory; the
sacred writer then mentions the testimony of faith of heroes, judges,
kings, prophets and martyrs from the time of the conquest of Palestine
to that of the Maccabees (13th to 2nd centuries B.C.). Not in any
strict chronological order, he mentions only the most important Judges
(Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah), the greatest of the kings (David)
and the most famous of the early prophets (Samuel). Finally he refers
to exploits and other deeds inspired by faith and fidelity, without
giving names.

We know from Sacred Scripture that many of these people had shortcomings
and, in some cases, committed grave sins. However, those weaknesses did
not prevent their filling key roles in God's plans: they let themselves
be used by God to apply his policy and are therefore worthy of being
proposed as examples of faith.

33-35a. "Through faith (they) conquered kingdoms": a reference to the
men who conquer the promised land: Barak, who overcame the Canaanites
(cf. Judg 11), Gideon, who conquered the Midianites (cf. Judg 7),
Jephthah, who conquered the Amonnites (cf. Judg 11), Samson, who
defeated the Philistines (cf. Judg 14), and David, who succeeded in
subduing all the enemies of Israel (cf. 2 Sam 5:17-25; 8:1f; 10).

"Enforced justice": a reference to the authority exercised by the
Judges on a tribal basis, and by Samuel and the kings over the whole of
Israel (cf. 1 Sam 12:3; 2 Sam 8:15); it can also be understood as
meaning those who practised righteousness in God's name and made it
effective, the prophets being the outstanding examples.

"Received promises": the righteous of the Old Testament received an
earnest of the messianic promises in the form of the fulfillment of
certain prophecies made by God. Barak defeated Sisera as God had
promised (cf. Judg 4:14f); Gideon overcame the Midianites
(cf. Judg 6:14; 7:7); David brought peace to the whole land, as Nathan
had predicted (cf. 2 Sam 7:11); etc.

"Stopped the mouths of lions": a reference to feats performed by
Samson (cf. Jud 14:6), David (cf. 1 Sam 17:34-35), and Benaiah (cf. 2
Sam 23:20), it especially recalls the episode of Daniel in the lion's
den: when thrown there by the king on account of his faith, he told
him, "My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have
not hurt me" (Dan 6:22).

Sacred history also includes people who "quenched raging fire" (like
the three young men in the fiery furnace in Babylon: cf. Dan 3:21-94);
or who "escaped the edge of the sword" (as Moses did, in his flight
from Pharaoh's wrath: cf. Ex 18:4); or like David, who "won strength
out of weakness" in his victories over Goliath and Saul (cf. 1 Sam
17:34ff; 18:11; 19:11). Thanks to his faith Elijah found protection
from Jezebel's persecution (cf. 1 Kings 19:1f); and the Jewish people
were able to escape extermination during King Ahasuerus' reign thanks
to the prayer and intercession of Esther and Mordecai (cf. Esther
3:6ff).

Through faith King Hezekiah was miraculously cured of mortal illness
(cf. Is 38) and Samson received his strength after becoming weak and
blind (cf. Judg 15:19; 16:28-30). Faith enabled the Hebrews, under the
Judges, to take on and defeat the pagan peoples of Palestine; it led
Judith to behead Holofernes and bring about the destruction of his
army; and it enabled the Maccabees to repel the foreign armies of
Antiochus (cf. 1 Mac 1:38).

Then there is the example of the widow of Zarephath, who sheltered
Elijah and had her son restored when the prophet cured him (cf. 1 Kings
17:17f). And Elisha brought back to life the son of the Shunammite
widow (cf. 2 Kings 4:33f).

All these examples show the effectiveness of faith, when it involves a
person's whole life and lifestyle, influencing both everyday events and
great exploits.

35b-36. Faith not only enables people to perform exploits and miracles:
it also enables them to persevere in doing good and to bear all kinds
of moral and physical pain, even torture and the most cruel forms of
death. And so the text refers to various sorts of suffering inflicted
on the prophets and many other just members of the people of Israel.

The writer may have in mind, for example, the death of Eleazar (cf. 2
Mac 6:19ff) and of the seven brothers (cf. 2 Mac 7), who underwent most
cruel torture during the persecution mounted by Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
The king had promised them their lives if they gave up their faith and
laws by eating forbidden meat; but they stayed true to God and were
mercilessly martyred.

However, they had unshakeable faith in the rightness of God's judgment
and in future resurrection (2 Mac 7:19, 14, 23, 29). They desired to
"rise again to a better life": they put their faith in an incomparably
more valuable, more real, life than that of a few more years on earth,
which would have been the reward of apostasy. "They did not escape
death," St Thomas writes, "not because God was not looking after them
but so that they might obtain eternal life, which is a more excellent
thing than being set free from any present affliction or being raised
up again to this life" ("Commentary on Heb.", 11, 5).

The example of these men and women whom faith strengthened to endure
suffering, should encourage Christians to face persecution courageously
and defend their faith at all costs. "Let us pray to God that we do not
suffer persecution, but if that does happen, let us bear it bravely. It
befits a prudent man not to fling himself lightly into danger, but it
befits a brave man to rise to the occasion when danger falls on him"
("Hom. on Heb.", 5).

37-38. Some righteous men were stoned for their faith--Zechariah, for
example, who was killed by order of King Joash (cf. 2 Chron 24:2021);
Naboth, condemned to death through the lies spread by Jezebel (cf. 1
Kings 21:13); and the prophet Jeremiah also, according to an ancient
tradition. Others were sawn in two--Isaiah, for example, whom another
Jewish tradition says was martyred by King Manasseh.

Elijah, in flight from persecution, went around dressed in skins (cf.
1 Kings 19:3ff); similarly Mattathias and his sons during the war
against the Seleucid kings, were forced to hide in the mountains and
had only goatskins to wear (cf. 1 Mac 2:28).

In our own time there are also people who profess their faith in God by
undergoing comparable persecution; but usually hatred of Christ and his
followers takes more subtle forms.

40. This verse is the conclusion following from all the examples
provided. The righteous of the Old Law were outstanding for their faith
and endurance, but for all that they did not have the strength that the
grace of Christ bestows; Jesus remarked, when John the Baptist was
praised to him, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there
has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in
the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Mt 11:11); and he reminded
his disciples of their privileged position: "Blessed are the eyes which
see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired
to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and
did not hear it" (Lk 10:23-24; cf. Mt 13:16-17).

God did not deny their reward to the righteous of the Old Testament,
but he postponed it until heaven's gates were opened by the death and
resurrection of our Lord. They too now enjoy eternal life and they will
attain their final perfecting when their bodies rise in glory on the
last day. God is like a good father, St John Chrysostom comments, who
says to his beloved children when they finish their work, that he will
not give them their supper until their other brothers come back also.
"And you, are you annoyed because you have not received your reward?
What should Abel do, then. He was the first to gain the victory, but
remained uncrowned. And Noah? And all those of those times who are
waiting for you and for those who will come after you? Do you not see
how much better off we are? That is why he says: God in his providence
had arranged something better for us. And, in order that it should not
be thought that those people were superior to us because they received
their crown earlier, God disposed that all should be crowned at the
very same time; and he who won his many years earlier will be crowned
along with you [...]. For if we are all the one body, this body will
the more rejoice if all are crowned at the same time and not one by
one" ("Hom. on Heb.", 28).

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 5:1-20

The Gerasene Demoniac

[1] They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the
Gerasenes. [2] And when He (Jesus) had come out of the boat, there met
Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, [3] who lived among
the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain; [4]
for he had often been bound with fetters and chains, but the chains he
wrenched apart, and the fetters he broke in pieces; and no one had the
strength to subdue him. [5] Night and day among the tombs and on the
mountains he was always crying out, and bruising himself with stones.
[6] And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped Him; [7] and
crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have You to do with
me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure You by God, do not
torment me." [8] For He had said to him, "Come out of the man, you
unclean spirit!" [9] And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He
replied, "My name is Legion; for we are many." [10] And he begged Him
eagerly not to send them out of the country. [11] Now a great herd of
swine is feeding there on the hillside; [12] and they begged Him, "Send
us to the swine, let us enter them." [13] So, He gave them leave. And
the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd,
numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea,
and were drowned in the sea.

[14] The herdsmen fled, and told it in the city and the country. And
people came to see what it was that had happened. [15] And they came
to see Jesus, and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his
right mind, the man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. [16]
And those who had seen it told what had happened to the demoniac and to
the swine. [17] And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their
neighborhood. [18] And as He was getting into the boat, the man who
had been possessed with demons begged Him that he might be with Him.
[19] But He refused, and said to him, "Go home to your friends, and
tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy
on you." [20] And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
how much Jesus had done for him; and all men marvelled.

Commentary:

1-20. The inhabitants of Gerasa were mostly pagans, as one can gather
from the fact that there was such a huge herd of swine there (which
must have belonged to a number of different people). Jews were
forbidden to raise pigs or eat pork (Leviticus 11:7).

This miracle emphasizes, once more, the existence of the devil and his
influence over men's lives: if God permits it, the devil can harm not
only humans but also animals. When Christ allows the demons to enter
the swine, the malice of the demons becomes obvious: they are tormented
at not being able to do men harm and therefore they ask Christ to let
them, at least, inflict themselves on animals. This He does, in order
to show that they would have the same effect on men as they have on
these swine, if God did not prevent them.

Clearly it was not Jesus' intention to punish the owners of the swine
by the loss of the herd: since they were pagans that were not subject
to the precepts of the Jewish law. Rather, the death of the swine is
visible proof that the demon has gone out of the possessed man.

Jesus permitted the loss of some material goods because these were of
infinitely less value than the spiritual good involved in the cure of
the possessed man.

15-20. Notice the different attitudes to Jesus Christ: the Gerasenes
beg Him to go away; the man freed from the devil wants to stay with Him
and follow Him. The inhabitants of Gerasa have had our Lord near them,
they have seen His divine powers, but they are very self-centered: all
they can think about is the material damage they have suffered through
the loss of the herd; they do not realize the marvel Jesus has worked.
Christ has invited them and offered them His grace but they do not
respond: they reject Him. The man who has been cured wants to follow
Jesus with the rest of His disciples but our Lord refuses; instead He
gives him a task which shows Christ's unlimited compassion for all men,
even for those who reject Him: the man is to stay in Gerasa and
proclaim to the whole neighborhood what the Lord has done for him.
Perhaps they will think again and realize who He is who has visited
them, and escape from the sins their greed has led them to commit.
These two attitudes are to be found whenever Christ passes by--as are
Jesus' mercy and continuous offer of grace: our Lord does not want the
death of the sinner but rather that he should turn from his way and
live. (cf. Ezekiel 18:23).

20. The "Decapolis" or "country of the ten cities", among the more
famous of which are Damascus, Philadelphia, Scythopolis, Gadara, Pella
and Gerasa. The region was located to the east of the lake of
Gennesaret and was inhabited mainly by pagans of Greek and Syrian
origin. This territory came under the Roman governor of Syria.

A Voice in the Desert

Monday January 31, 2005 Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading (Hebrews 11:32-40) Gospel (St. Mark 5:1-20)

As we hear in the Gospel reading today about this man who was possessed by Legion, it is interesting to note what Our Lord does after the man had been delivered of the demons. This is a pagan man who was living in pagan territory, and Jesus did with him something that was entirely different from what He was doing with anybody else. He told the man, Go out and tell everybody what God has done for you. Normally, He would say, “Just go and show yourself to the priests. Don’t say anything,” or He would tell the people, “Be silent.” Of course, we know the people went off and told everybody anyhow. But in this case, Jesus told this man to go off and tell everybody what the Lord had done.

The reason for this is because this man was a pagan and he was living with the pagans. So He allowed this man to tell the pagans, to preach the Gospel (even to the Gentiles in this case), because Jesus had come, as He tells us Himself, to call back the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It was generally only to the people of Israel that Our Lord came preaching the Gospel. It was the Israelites who had all of the promises, they had the grace, and they would have been the ones who should have recognized Him. That is precisely why the Lord did not allow anybody to go off and tell the Jewish people what it was He had done. They needed to be able to recognize Who He was based on the Scriptures, based on all the things that had been promised regarding Him; whereas the pagans, not knowing these things and worshiping false gods, needed to hear that there was only one true God and that God had now sent His Son into the world to free humanity from sin.

When we think about how this is going to apply to our own selves, what we need to realize, number one, is what the Lord has done for us. We were not possessed by Legion – thanks be to God! – but nonetheless, if we look at our own lives and we see what Our Lord has delivered us from, it is pretty extraordinary. Now it is for us to be able to go and bring the message of Christ to others, to let the world know what Jesus has done for us. Of course, we do that through our words, but especially through our actions, through the way that we are going to live our lives. We also know from experience that most people do not want to hear it. They are not interested because they do not want to be bothered and they do not want to change their lives. So it winds up being for us just as it was for the people Saint Paul is talking about in the first reading. They did all of these various things, but they wound up being rejected. He says of these people: The world was not worthy of them. Would that we would someday be able to say the same thing about ourselves, that the world was not worthy of us. That means we have to get rid of the worldliness that is within us. It means we have to truly be living our lives for Christ so that we will be able to rise above the ways of the world, that we have to live in this world temporarily but we are not to be of the world. That is the challenge.

When we see what Our Lord has done for us, we need to change our lives. For the man who was possessed, it was pretty evident what kind of change was going to happen immediately. We are not possessed, but nonetheless we have to realize what Our Lord has freed us from and we need to change. As I have mentioned hundreds of times, the problem is that we do not want to change. We do not like to change, and if we do not change then what we would do if we were this possessed man, even though we were now free of the demons, we would have just sat in the tombs because that is what people expected, because that is what they were used to. He did not do that. He did more than just sit there in his right mind, fully clothed. He went off to the Decapolis cities and started to preach the Gospel. He changed his life entirely. So too for us, it is not enough to say, “Okay, I’m simply not going to do those things anymore that are so sinful, but then I’ll continue to live my life pretty much the same way otherwise.” That is not an option. We need to change. The Lord is asking us to be holy; He is asking us to become saints. He is not asking us to simply leave behind some of the mortal sins but otherwise live like the pagans. That is not an option for us. If we are truly going to recognize what He has done, then we have to change our lives; and changing our lives, we are going to be persecuted, we are going to be rejected, but so was He. We need to praise God when those things happen. And God willing, we can actually grow in holiness to the point where it will be able to be said of us: The world was not worthy of them.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

The Word Among Us

Monday, January 31, 2005

Meditation
Mark 5:1-20

What do you think bothers the devil the most? Would it surprise you that his greatest source of frustration is knowing that he has lost the battle and has no hope of regaining his power? This fallen angel is one of God’s creations. However, he chose to use his intellect and will to rebel against God. As a result, the devil eternally removed himself from his Creator’s love. Now, he roams the world seeking to drag others with him into condemnation.

While this can sound quite scary, remember what we said in last Monday’s meditation: Jesus has already plundered Satan. Rather than being victims of his attacks, we can be victors the moment we call on the name of Jesus. We even have Scripture to remind us that Christ in us is far greater than the devil, who roams the world (1 John 4:4).

Jesus is alive in each of us. If we stay close to him, we need not worry about the devil’s tricks. We can be confident, knowing he will flee any situation that exposes his lies for what they are. He will flee any situation that exposes him for who he is. So whenever the devil knocks at our door with temptation, all we have to do is send Jesus to answer it.

Overcoming the temptations of the devil doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out process. Sometimes, simply making the sign of the cross and declaring ourselves as children of God is all we need to do. Sprinkling a room or a whole house with holy water may be all that’s required, or invoking the name of Jesus over a tense situation may be all we need to cast out the devil. Of course, there are other times when sustained, prolonged prayer for healing or deliverance may be necessary, but in the day-to-day rhythms of our lives, they are far less common—and can be avoided more through simple prayers of protection early on, before we become too deeply entangled. No matter how grim the situation may appear, however, victory can be ours as we place our faith in the power of Jesus’ cross and ask him to do battle for us.

“Jesus, in your name we have the power to overcome anything that comes against us. Keep us confident as we remember to walk in your love.”

One Bread, One Body

<< Monday, January 31, 2005 >>

St. John Bosco

Hebrews 11:32-40

Psalm 31

Mark 5:1-20

View Readings

ARE YOU A LOSER?

“Before long they were begging [Jesus] to go away from their district.” —Mark 5:17

The people of the Gerasene town had lost two thousand swine to drowning (Mk 5:13). They intuitively realized that if Jesus stayed around, they would lose even more things, so they told Jesus to leave.

The Gerasenes cut their losses and cut their costs by asking Jesus to leave. We cut our losses when we refuse to lose our lives or lose anything further by getting more deeply involved in the kingdom of God. But “what profit does he show who gains the whole world and destroys himself in the process?” (Lk 9:25)

As followers of Jesus, we must embrace the fact that we are losers. We lose money, friends, homes, possessions (Mt 19:29; Heb 10:34), and even our very lives (Lk 9:24). In fact, the more closely we follow Jesus, the more we wind up losing (Jn 3:30).

If we beg Jesus to stay in the center of our lives by continuing to lose all for Him, He pays the price for our sins Himself (1 Cor 6:20). When we cut our losses by expelling Jesus from our lives, we decide to pay the price for our sins ourselves. However, that cost is impossible for us to pay (Ps 49:8-9; Mt 18:24ff). If we cut our losses by cutting out Jesus, we become eternal losers.

With St. Paul, let us declare with all our heart: “Those things I used to consider gain I have now reappraised as loss in the light of Christ. I have come to rate all as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:7-8).

Lose your life for Jesus (Lk 9:24) and lose your eternal guilt.

Prayer: Jesus, never let me be parted from You.

Promise: “You heard the sound of my pleading when I cried out to You.” —Ps 31:23

Praise: St. John Bosco took in one and then another and then many “little ones” beloved by the Good Shepherd. Soon he had a thriving ministry that saved the lives of these “little ones.”

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