Meditation: James 1:12-18

6th Week in Ordinary Time

He willed to give us birth by the word of truth. (James 1:18)

Think of the excitement a husband and wife feel when a new baby arrives. Then compare it to the way God must feel about us. After all, St. James tells us that God has given us a spiritual “birth” through the power of his word (James 1:18). And that spiritual birth, which happens in Baptism, brings joy to our Father’s heart.

But despite the joy he feels at our baptism, God knows that we still have to grow in our faith—just as any human parents know that their newborn child has a long road ahead of him. And how do we keep growing? Certainly we need to keep encountering the word of truth through the sacraments. But we also need to encounter Jesus in the Scriptures.

Scripture is where we can come to know Jesus. We meet him through the Gospel stories, and as we continue to ponder these stories, our friendship with him deepens. We can imagine ourselves accompanying Jesus on his journeys, or we can picture him teaching us. The more we do this, the more Jesus becomes real to us, strengthening our faith that he is with us even now.

Scripture also forms our minds and our way of thinking. It helps us to comprehend more and more deeply who God is and all he has done for us through Christ. It also helps us adopt God’s values rather than the world’s.

Finally, Scripture is an avenue for the Holy Spirit to speak to us. We can expect that as we read, something will jump out at us—something the Lord will use to guide us, comfort us, or help us through the day.

So read the Scriptures every day and take time to reflect on what you read. Take, for example, another verse from today’s first reading: “All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). How does it make you feel? Perhaps it makes you want to thank God for your blessings. Or perhaps it makes you realize that despite whatever struggles you may be enduring, God is still in charge and he is good.

If Scripture gives you an inspiration, don’t ignore it. You never know, God could be trying to “birth” something new in your life!

“Lord, give me a deeper hunger for your word!”

Psalm 94:12-15, 18-19
Mark 8:14-21

Homily of the Day

February 18, 2020

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

In yesterday’s Gospel narration Jesus became quite disturbed. The Pharisees were demanding an extraordinary event of some sort as a sign. The idea was that through the sign God would indicate his pleasure with what Jesus was preaching and doing. In today’s Gospel Jesus gets angry with his disciples because they don’t recognize the signs that he has already given them.

Jesus and his disciples are in a small boat crossing the lake. The apostles forgot to bring food with them and all they had was a loaf of bread. While this anxiety is at the top of their minds, Jesus, who’s concerned about more serious matters, suddenly warns them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. So the disciples let their worries go, figuring that his talk about leaven means how they’ll get their next meal. Jesus explodes: “Can’t you get your minds off your bellies? What about the signs I gave you when twice I fed thousands with a couple of loaves and a few fish? And you’re worried about your next meal? You still don’t understand, do you?”

What Jesus is suggesting here is that the disciples (and we) look to their (and our) past experiences. Our past experiences are signs given us by God, assuring us that we are safely held in his hands. We’ve all suffered deep sorrows. Yet in the past God has always been with us, helping us to survive the pain. We’ve undergone serious illnesses and recovered. We’ve faced insoluble problems and somehow we solved them. We’ve been confronted by irresistible temptations and somehow we managed to resist them. We need to realize that God is worthy of trust and that he will continue to be
with us to the end.