Posted on 01/13/2006 9:22:45 AM PST by Salvation
Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Reading I
1 Sm 8:4-7, 10-22a
All the elders of Israel came in a body to Samuel at Ramah
and said to him, “Now that you are old,
and your sons do not follow your example,
appoint a king over us, as other nations have, to judge us.”
Samuel was displeased when they asked for a king to judge them.
He prayed to the LORD, however, who said in answer:
“Grant the people’s every request.
It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king.”
Samuel delivered the message of the LORD in full
to those who were asking him for a king.
He told them:
“The rights of the king who will rule you will be as follows:
He will take your sons and assign them to his chariots and horses,
and they will run before his chariot.
He will also appoint from among them his commanders of groups
of a thousand and of a hundred soldiers.
He will set them to do his plowing and his harvesting,
and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.
He will use your daughters as ointment makers, as cooks, and as bakers.
He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves,
and give them to his officials.
He will tithe your crops and your vineyards,
and give the revenue to his eunuchs and his slaves.
He will take your male and female servants,
as well as your best oxen and your asses,
and use them to do his work.
He will tithe your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves.
When this takes place,
you will complain against the king whom you have chosen,
but on that day the LORD will not answer you.”
The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel’s warning and said,
“Not so! There must be a king over us.
We too must be like other nations,
with a king to rule us and to lead us in warfare
and fight our battles.”
When Samuel had listened to all the people had to say,
he repeated it to the LORD, who then said to him,
“Grant their request and appoint a king to rule them.”
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 89:16-17, 18-19
R. (2) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
For you are the splendor of their strength,
and by your favor our horn is exalted.
For to the LORD belongs our shield,
and to the Holy One of Israel, our King.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Gospel
Mk 2:1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,
it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.
After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,
“Child, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?”
Jesus immediately knew in his mind what
they were thinking to themselves,
so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’?
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”
–he said to the paralytic,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
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From: 1 Samuel 8:4-7, 10-22a
The People Ask For a King (Continuation)
From: Mark 2:1-12
The Curing of a Paralytic
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January 13, 2006    Optional Memorial of St. Hilary of Poitiers, bishop and doctor; Memorial of St. Kentigern, bishop (Scotland) Old Calendar: Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ
In Ireland St. Kentigern's feast is a memorial. He was a missionary to Scotland and bishop of the Strathclyde Britons. Exiled, he fled to Wales. Before the reform of the Roman Calendar the Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ was observed on this day.
St. Hilary St. Hilary was one of those great Christian heroes who poured out their lives laboring and suffering in defense of Christ's divinity. Scarcely had the days of bloody persecution ended (313), when there arose, now within the Church, a most dangerous enemy of another sort, Arianism. The heresy of Arianism denied the divinity of Christ; it was, in fact, hardly more than a form of paganism masquerading as the Christian Gospel. The smoldering strife soon flared into a mighty conflict endangering the whole Church; and its spread was all the more rapid and powerful because emperors, who called themselves Christian, proved its best supporters. Once again countless martyrs sealed in blood their belief in Christ's divinity; and orthodox bishops who voiced opposition were forced into exile amid extreme privations.
Here is an example of Hilary's vigorous style: "Now it is time to speak, the time for silence is past. We must expect Christ's return, for the reign of Antichrist has begun. The shepherds must give the warning signals because the hirelings have fled. Let us lay down our lives for the sheep, for brigands have entered the fold and the roaring lion is rampaging about. Be ready for martyrdom! Satan himself is clothed as an angel of light." A favorite motto of St. Hilary was, Ministros veritatis decet vera proferre, "Servants of the truth ought speak the truth." —The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch Patron: Against snakes; backward children; snake bites.
St. Kentigern  St. Kentigern was also known as Mungo ("dear one" or "darling"), his mother was a British princess named Thenaw (or Thaney or Theneva). When it was discovered that she was pregnant of an unknown man, she was hurled from a cliff and, when discovered alive at the foot of the cliff, was set adrift in a boat on the Firth of Forth. She reached Culross, was given shelter by St. Serf, and gave birth to a child to whom Serf gave the name Mungo. Raised by the saint, he became a hermit at Glasgow and was so renowned for his holiness that he was consecrated bishop of Strathclyde about 540. Driven to flight because of the feuds among the neighboring chieftains, he went to Wales, met St. David at Menevia, and founded a monastery at Llanelwy. About 553, Kentigern returned to Scotland, settled at Hoddam, and then returned to Glasgow, where he spent his last days. He is considered the first bishop of Scotland and with Thenaw is joint patron of Glasgow. —Dictionary of Saints, John J. Delaney Glasgow's Coat of Arms includes a bird, a fish, a bell and a tree; the symbols of Kentigern. The Bird commemorates the pet robin owned by Saint Serf, which was accidentally killed by monks who blamed it on Saint Kentigern. Saint Kentigern took the bird in his hands and prayed over it, restoring it to life. The Fish was one caught by Saint Kentigern in the Clyde River. When it was slit open, a ring belonging to the Queen of Cadzow was miraculously found inside it. The Queen was suspected of intrigue by her husband, and that she had left with his ring. She has asked Saint Kentigern for help, and he found and restored the ring in this way to clear her name. The Bell may have been given to Saint Kentigern by the Pope. The original bell, which was tolled at funerals, no longer exists and was replaced by the magistrates of Glasgow in 1641. The bell of 1641 is preserved in the People's Palace. The Tree is symbol of an incident in Saint Kentigern's childhood. Left in charge of the holy fire in Saint Serf's monastery, he fell asleep and the fire went out. However he broke off some frozen branches from a hazel tree and miraculously re-kindled the fire. Patron: Glasgow, Scotland; salmon. Symbols: Bell; bird; fish; ring; robin; salmon; tree. Things to Do:
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1 Sam 8:4-7,10-22 / Mk 2:1-12 In today’s Old Testament reading, we find the Israelites making one of the most foolish mistakes in all their history. They wanted to be like all the other nations around them. They wanted a king. How ironic! They claimed unceasingly to be different from and better than every other nation on earth, indeed, to be God’s chosen people. Yet in the same breath, they said they wanted to be like their so-called inferiors! It’s a foolish mistake we Christians make all too often. Our vocation as followers of Jesus is to live by values that are essentially counter-cultural. True Christians judge success and greatness by standards that are very different from the world’s. Having and getting are not our highest values. Building a just society in which everyone has a place takes top billing for true Christians. The list of differences between Christians and the culture is long, and it poses very nicely the essential question for us: When it comes to lived values, are we recognizable as Christians? Do our daily choices speak unmistakably that we are different from the surrounding culture in wholesome ways? If not, we might want to look again at what happened to the Israelites who so desperately wanted to fit in, that they let go of what made them special. |
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January 13, 2006
 St. Hilary
(315?-368)
This staunch defender of the divinity of Christ was a gentle and courteous man, devoted to writing some of the greatest theology on the Trinity, and was like his Master in being labeled a “disturber of the peace.” In a very troubled period in the Church, his holiness was lived out in both scholarship and controversy. Raised a pagan, he was converted to Christianity when he met his God of nature in the Scriptures. His wife was still living when he was chosen, against his will, to be the bishop of Poitiers in France. He was soon taken up with battling what became the scourge of the fourth century, Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. The heresy spread rapidly. St. Jerome said “The world groaned and marveled to find that it was Arian.” When Emperor Constantius ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, the great defender of the faith in the East, Hilary refused and was banished from France to far off Phrygia. Eventually he was called the “Athanasius of the West.” While writing in exile, he was invited by some semi-Arians (hoping for reconciliation) to a council the emperor called to counteract the Council of Nicea. But Hilary predictably defended the Church, and when he sought public debate with the heretical bishop who had exiled him, the Arians, dreading the meeting and its outcome, pleaded with the emperor to send this troublemaker back home. Hilary was welcomed by his people.
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Friday January 13, 2006 First Week in Ordinary Time
Reading (1 Samuel 8:4-7, 10-22a) Gospel (St. Mark 2:1-12)
In the Gospel reading today, we hear about this paralyzed man, and we recognize that the paralysis of this man was far more spiritual than it was physical. Although he was obviously afflicted physically and was unable to walk, nonetheless, as Jesus makes very clear, this had to do with his sinfulness. When his sins were forgiven, he was able to walk. If we look at our own selves, of course, we realize what happens to us is that sin causes us to be paralyzed in a spiritual way. We become blinded to things, but more than that, we become paralyzed; we are not able to function the way that we ought. We wind up either doing things we should not, or failing to do the things we should.
If we couple that, then, with the first reading, we look at the people who are rejecting God. They come to Samuel with no faith in God at all and beg him to appoint for them a king. Samuel lays out for them all the problems that are going to come about if they have a king, and they basically ignore him and say, “We don’t care. We want a king anyway.” And God said to him, They are not rejecting you, they are rejecting Me. Now we have to remember that at the time of Samuel there had not been a prophet for quite some time. So God raises up Samuel, and now the elders come to him and say, “Your sons aren’t following your example. Obviously, there isn’t going to be an immediate successor, so give us a king.” They did not trust that God could raise up someone else. If they could not see that one of Samuel’s sons was following in his footsteps, then it must not be that there is anybody who would be able to do this.
Of course, we can see the foolishness of their position, but it is just plain human, that is, it is humanity afflicted by sin. We cannot think straight because of sin. We cannot act properly because of sin. It is only when we recognize that, and have our sins forgiven, that the spiritual paralysis is lifted so we can see clearly. And we have the exact same point laid before us: Whom will we follow? We have our king – Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords; the question is: Are we willing to allow Him to be our king? Most of us, just like the people of old, because we cannot see Him right now, we will not accept Him as our king. If we asked the people of ancient Israel if God was their king, they would all say, “Oh, yes, God is the king of Israel.” Yet here they are saying, “Appoint for us a king, a king who is going to lead us into battle” – as if God did not, “a king who is going to rule over us” – as if God did not. But because they could not see Him and because they could not hear Him, they simply rejected Him because they wanted something tangible to hang onto. Once again, the spiritual paralysis and the blindness of sin.
We have Our Lord, and He is King. Now the question is: Is He truly the king of our lives? Objectively, He is the king of the whole universe. But subjectively, is He the king of our own individual lives? Are we allowing Him to be that? Or, from a spiritual perspective, are we lying on a mat like the paralytic in the Gospel because we are afflicted by sin and we are unable to function properly in a Christian manner? That is something we all need to take to prayer. We need to look honestly within ourselves and ask ourselves some pretty hard questions. But it really comes down to one thing: Whom will you serve? Who will be your king? That is the question we have to answer. Are we going to be like Joshua, who challenged the people in that same kind of way and said, As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord? But we have to understand, as Saint Paul makes clear in Romans, all of us will serve someone. If it is not God, then ultimately it is going to be Satan. Satan will present himself in many forms, whether it is money or self or materialism or whatever it might be; it does not matter. It is one or the other; the choice is ours. God will not force Himself on us. He is there and we know the truth, now we have to choose whom we will serve.
* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.
| Mk 2:1-12 | ||
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| # | Douay-Rheims | Vulgate |
| 1 | And again he entered into Capharnaum after some days. | et iterum intravit Capharnaum post dies |
| 2 | And it was heard that he was in the house. And many came together, so that there was no room: no, not even at the door. And he spoke to them the word. | et auditum est quod in domo esset et convenerunt multi ita ut non caperet neque ad ianuam et loquebatur eis verbum |
| 3 | And they came to him, bringing one sick of the palsy, who was carried by four. | et venerunt ferentes ad eum paralyticum qui a quattuor portabatur |
| 4 | And when they could not offer him unto him for the multitude, they uncovered the roof where he was: and opening it, they let down the bed wherein the man sick of the palsy lay. | et cum non possent offerre eum illi prae turba nudaverunt tectum ubi erat et patefacientes submiserunt grabattum in quo paralyticus iacebat |
| 5 | And when Jesus had seen their faith, he saith to the sick of the palsy: Son, thy sins are forgiven thee. | cum vidisset autem Iesus fidem illorum ait paralytico fili dimittuntur tibi peccata |
| 6 | And there were some of the scribes sitting there and thinking in their hearts: | erant autem illic quidam de scribis sedentes et cogitantes in cordibus suis |
| 7 | Why doth this man speak thus? He blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins, but God only? | quid hic sic loquitur blasphemat quis potest dimittere peccata nisi solus Deus |
| 8 | Which Jesus presently knowing in his spirit that they so thought within themselves, saith to them: Why think you these things in your hearts? | quo statim cognito Iesus spiritu suo quia sic cogitarent intra se dicit illis quid ista cogitatis in cordibus vestris |
| 9 | Which is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy: Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say: Arise, take up thy bed and walk? | quid est facilius dicere paralytico dimittuntur tibi peccata an dicere surge et tolle grabattum tuum et ambula |
| 10 | But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy): | ut autem sciatis quia potestatem habet Filius hominis in terra dimittendi peccata ait paralytico |
| 11 | I say to thee: Arise. Take up thy bed and go into thy house. | tibi dico surge tolle grabattum tuum et vade in domum tuam |
| 12 | And immediately he arose and, taking up his bed, went his way in the sight of all: so that all wondered and glorified God, saying: We never saw the like. | et statim ille surrexit et sublato grabatto abiit coram omnibus ita ut admirarentur omnes et honorificarent Deum dicentes quia numquam sic vidimus |
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Friday, January 13, 2006 Meditation 1 Samuel 8:4-7,10-22 When God’s people pray, he listens! When Israel had tired of living by faith, they asked God for a king to rule over them. They wanted to be guided by a ruler whose power they—and their enemies—could see, not by an unseen God and his inspired judges. And how did God respond? He granted their request. Even though the request implied some degree of rejection of God, he listened. Though a human king was not exactly what he wanted for them, he granted them their heartfelt request because they were still his beloved people. Imagine: In their call for an earthly king to rule them, the Israelites had traded love and freedom for military security and taxes! Through judges like Samuel and Gideon and Deborah, God had led Israel by his Spirit, not by force but by love. But now, by looking for the protection of a human king, the people placed themselves under his domination. They would trust in their king’s armies and wealth to protect them, even as they hoped never to arouse his anger. Though Israel’s trust in him had wavered, God still loved his people. He gave them their king, seemingly against his better judgment, and it didn’t take long for problems to arise. Yet out of this development that was instigated by a weak and fearful people, God brought an amazing gift: Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, emerged from the line of King David and finally became the righteous and holy ruler over all of God’s people. There is power in prayer! Perhaps we may even be able to “change” God’s mind! It’s possible that God will answer the nagging prayer for a questionable request that we can’t seem to put aside. That’s how patient and gracious he is! And even when he doesn’t answer our prayers as we would like, he still works in our hearts and grants us even greater gifts. If God listened to the petitions of faithless Israel, how much more will he hear our requests now that we have Christ as our advocate? So keep praying. God can take this determination and bless you in surprising ways. “Father, I know you hear my prayers and that you are moved by them. In faith and trust, I ask you to answer my request, even as I surrender to your wisdom and your provision.” Psalm 89:16-19; Mark 2:1-12 |
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That is an exceptional portrayal of this miracle.
Thank you, faithful one for posting these two versions. It gives everyone a choice.
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Among the foremost defenders of the true faith stood Hilary. He belonged to a distinguished family and had received an excellent education. Though a married man, he was made bishop of Poitiers by reason of his exemplary life. It was not long before his valiant defense of the faith precipitated his exile to Phrygia. Here he composed his great work on the Blessed Trinity (in twelve books). It is a vigorous defense of the faith, which, he said, "triumphs when attacked." Finally, after four years he was permitted to return to his native land. He continued his efforts, and through prudence and mildness succeeded in ridding Gaul of Arianism. Because of his edifying and illustrious writings on behalf of the true religion, the Church honors him as one of her doctors. 
