Reflections for the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2012**
** These homilies were written by Fr. Howard in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
They refer to the daily readings for the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2012.
Sunday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2012
January 15, John 1: 35-42
Link to Readings for Daily Mass
God’s love for us is a mystery. Remember, a mystery is not something we cannot understand, but rather it is something that is endlessly understandable, something we can go on and on about and never resolve it or exhaust it. God’s love is unconditional and limitless. This means, among other things, that we will be saved in spite of ourselves and our many rejections of God by our sinful actions. God is love, we read in St. John’s First Letter (I John 4:8). God cannot not love.
Despite our many rejections of God by going our own way, God never abandons us and never ceases to call us back to himself. In today’s Gospel, he invites the disciples to “come and see” and stay with him. When we “come and see”, we go to him and leave behind our own way of doing things and we begin to see that it is his way, truth, and life that brings us the happiness, joy and peace we so fundamentally desire. We stop focusing on ourselves and focus instead on Jesus. When this happens, we have truly turned the corner and made the U turn of true conversion and repentance to the Lord. This is what it is all about, and it is the greatest gift of his love for us that we can imagine.
Jesus, Lover of us all, come to us!
Fr. Howard
Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2012
January 16, Mark 2: 18-22
Link to Readings for Daily Mass
“Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
The Greek word nebel means a container, including the translations “pitchers,” “bottles,” “skin,” and “jar.” There are many references in Scripture to bottles (literally “skins”) of wine (ISam. 1:24; 10:3; 25:18). A wineskin can literally be a bag that is made from the skin of an animal that is used for holding wine. We used to have a couple of those floating around that we used when we went cross country skiing. My point with all this rambling on here about wineskins is: why can’t we ourselves be allegorically referred to as wineskins since we are the ones who drink, hold, contain, the “new wine”, the Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. In order to hold the new wine and keep from bursting, we have to be “new skins” that will expand with the gas or the power of the new wine. If we are old skins, we must become new to hold the teachings of the Christ. We must be able to change our old attitudes to hold the “new wine,” the new teachings of Christ.
What attitudes do I find in myself (for example regarding prejudices, dislikes, resentments, etc.) that are unable to hold the new ideas of equality and love of even my enemies, and forgiveness taught by Christ? What do I have to change in order to become a new wineskin?
Fr. Howard
Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2012
January 17, Mark 2: 23-28
Memorial of St. Anthony
Link to Readings for Daily Mass
Once again in today’s Gospel selection, the Pharisees see Jesus and his disciples violating the laws of the Sabbath. Mark again takes this opportunity to show Jesus’ teaching on the Sabbath. Again, Jesus refuses to place a “thing,” a day, ahead of people. Jesus always prefers people over things. I once was told that it is abnormal and irresponsible to prefer things over people. Many of us do this when it comes to our personal time or work. How many times have we said: This is “my” time for my own use right now. I can’t be bothered with your interests right now. Or how many times have we said to someone, particularly our children, “Can’t you see I’m busy now? Come back when I have finished my work.” I dare say we have all done this in one form or another and it is irresponsible behavior when we do.
Interruptions that place people above things are good. And we see this happening in the Gospel for today. Jesus answers the Pharisees: “The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Do we hear ourselves phrasing it the other way occasionally?
Fr. Howard
Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2012
January 18, Mark 3: 1-6
Link to Readings for Daily Mass
After reading the Gospel chosen to be read in today’s Liturgy, I asked myself when I had last heard the word “wither” used in ordinary, everyday conversation. I decided I couldn’t even remember when. It really isn’t too common a word. The Gospel for today speaks of a man in the synagogue with a “withered” hand. I looked in my on-line dictionary to see the definitions for “withered” and found: shriveled, faded, decayed, dry. None of these meanings seem particularly applicable to a hand. Perhaps we could say in more modern lingo that the man in the Gospel was handicapped in the use of his hand.
If we do this, we can open the way for a bit of reflection on how we deal with the handicapped people we meet along the way of daily living, both the physically and the mentally handicapped. They are special people, beautiful people, but sometimes they are not treated as such by others. I was blessed with a developmentally handicapped brother who was God’s greatest gift ever to me. If you are looking for some people to be of assistance to, you might do well to look to volunteering your gifts and talents to helping these dear people. They will end up doing much more for you than you will ever accomplish for them. Want to bet?
Fr. Howard
Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2012
January 19, Mark 3: 7-12
Link to Readings for Daily Mass
We read in today’s Gospel reading that Jesus’ actions attracted crowds of people from all over the place. Jesus was something of a sensation. Who is this man who is going around changing the accepted way of doing things, who is healing people and driving out demons? So many people flocked around Jesus that he was afraid of being crushed and had the disciples bring a boat so he could shove off from shore and talk to them from out on the water.And once again the “Marcan secret” is part of the Gospel: “He warned them (the unclean spirits who recognized him) sternly not to make him known.” Let the people wonder who he was until they finally figured it out for themselves that he was the Messiah, the Anointed One of God.
Have I figured out yet from his actions in my life that Jesus is the Son of God?
Fr. Howard
Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2012
January 20, Mark 3: 13-19
Link to Readings for Daily Mass
In today’s Gospel, Jesus gets into some very important business: the appointing of the Twelve whose ultimate purpose is to carry his message to the whole world. The Gospel tells us that Jesus went up the mountain to do this. This Gospel does not say explicitly that Jesus went up the mountain to pray as it does on numerous other occasions. I think we can assume that he did as he was in the habit of praying before important happenings in his mission. Surely the appointing of the Twelve was of the utmost importance and Jesus prayed before he called them.
Again the reminder is there for all of us. Do we remember to pray before beginning an important part of our day? These times might include our waking from sleep in the morning, at meal times, our being together with a family member for special times, going to work or school, cleaning the house, before retiring at night. All of these are important times of our day and a prayer before doing them acknowledges their importance and asks God’s presence and help. It might be a good idea to tie an imaginary string around our finger to remind us to do this throughout the day. It certainly seems to me that things go better and easier when I do this.
Fr. Howard
Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 2012
January 21, Mark 3: 20-21
Memorial of St. Agnes
Link to Readings for Daily Mass
“He is out of his mind.”
If I were to say the above quoted words to someone right now, they would think I was telling them they were crazy or coo-coo. And maybe this is what Jesus’ family, neighbors or friends were saying to him at this time. And when you stop and think about it, they probably had pretty good cause to think he was crazy, that Jesus had lost it. He did choose for himself a road that was to lead to his destruction. He left a safe place at Nazareth where he was working as a carpenter to preach a message to the people that was unpopular and to which the people often responded by being hostile and nasty. He had gone from a safe place to an unsafe place. He challenged and antagonized the religious leaders of the people by seemingly brushing aside their hallowed rules regarding the sabbath day, eating and fasting, and all their many purification rites. He spoke against the system and gave them ample room to think he was possessed or crazy.
So, the people may have been telling Jesus literally that he was out of his mind. On the other hand, there are different ways of translating the Greek word that is translated “out of his mind.” Literally the Greek word means “out of himself.” My Commentary says it was related to the Greek word for “ecstasy.” In using this word, Mark may have intended to say that Jesus had a more elevated consciousness than those around him. Indeed, he came to make things new and this could well mean he came to raise the level of human consciousness which he did by preaching his values of love, caring, compassion, forgiveness, service to others, unselfishness, being peaceful. All of these values were rather contrary to the ordinary way of acting at that time.
Analyzing all of this, I think we can conclude that we should feel good if someone sees us following the values of Jesus and tells us we are crazy for doing so. Indeed, maybe we should feel uneasy if people do not believe we are a little strange as Christians. There are many Christians and other just plain good people who are not greedy, lustful, angry, violent, warmongers, selfish, unforgiving, resentful, unethical in making a lot of money by exploiting the poor and vulnerable people they meet, and other ignorant people who make the wrong choice for lives of crime, addiction and so forth.
Has anyone told you you are crazy lately?
Fr. Howard
