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| “The Temptation of St Anthony Abbot” by Annibale Carracci, 1597-98 |
(Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary
Time)
Reading 1: Hebrews 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
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Commentary on Heb 3:7-14
We hear in today’s selection from the letter to the Hebrews a
paraphrase of Psalm 95:7-11. This part of the psalm is concerned with the
loss of faith by the Hebrews as Moses led them out of Egypt
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 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.
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Commentary on Ps 95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11
We hear the very familiar strains of the
Invitatory Psalm from the Divine Office today.
The psalm is a song of praise and thanks giving with a historical
reminder of all that God has done for the people he loves. Today it supports
the reading from Hebrews above as we are enjoined not to rebel against God
because the journey is so difficult.
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Gospel: Mark 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.
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Commentary on Mk 1:40-45
Jesus cures the leper in the passage from the Gospel of St. Mark
we are given today. This healing occurs
after the leper demonstrates faith that Jesus can accomplish this feat even
though there are only two times in Old Testament scripture when this was done (Numbers
12:10-15; 2 Kings 5:1-14).
Jesus asks the leper not to tell anyone
how this was accomplished but to show the Hebrew priest he was clean and be
allowed to rejoin the community. He did
not do this and the Lord is mobbed by those seeking God’s favor.
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Homily:
The Gospel of St. Mark’s story of Jesus healing the leper provides us
with a foundation for our belief in the forgiveness of sins Jesus brings to the
contrite. The elements of that
reconciliation are all there.
The leper comes to Jesus in
faith. He even provides us with language
we use prior to receiving the Eucharist “If you
wish, you can make me clean.” We will declare that it is not though our merit that he
offers this precious gift but at his word.
To that profound and humble
offering of faith the Lord responds that it is his will that the leper be
restored to health. What comes next is
truly remarkable. Against the
prohibition of the Law which forbids lepers to come within roughly ten feet of
those not also infected, “…he (Jesus) stretched out his hand, touched the leper and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.””. It
is not just a simple healing that takes place but it makes the leper, the
outcast, the infirmed, whole – one again with his family and friends. He will be seen now as one beloved of God,
favored by his faithfulness.
We see in this simple story,
one of the less spectacular healings recorded in scripture, an example of what
Christ brings us, what he offers in the most holy sacrifice of the altar. He reaches out and touches us and we, through
his grace, are made clean, sanctified, made holy, a vessel of God’s love.
The two elements that make
this possible are there for our taking.
Christ is always there, anxious to offer his love and forgiveness. It was for this reason he came, that we all
might see the incredible mercy of God.
All that is missing is faith and it is we who must bring that truth to
the feast he provides.
Today as we once more recall
Christ’s encounter with the leper, an unworthy outcast who represents all of
us, we once more pray that God will heal us from all sin and touch us with his
grace.
Pax
[2]
The picture used today is “The
Temptation of St Anthony Abbot” by Annibale Carracci, 1597-98
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This
re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
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