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| “St. Francis de Sales” Artist and Date UNKNOWN |
Reading 1: Hebrews
9:2-3, 11-14
A tabernacle was constructed, the outer one,
in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of
offering;
this is called the Holy
Place .
Behind the second veil was the tabernacle called the Holy of
Holies.
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that
have come to be,
passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not
made by hands,
that is, not belonging to this creation,
he entered once for all into the sanctuary,
not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own
Blood,
thus obtaining eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a
heifer’s ashes
can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the Blood of Christ,
who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished
to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the
living God.
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Commentary on Heb 9:2-3, 11-14
The author of the Letter to the
Hebrews contrasts the tradition of Jewish animal sacrifice or sin offering with
what Jesus has done for us. He
describes, in detail, how Christ becomes the sacrifice that seals the new
covenant. Using this specific Mosaic Law
and imagery, he explains how the Lord came as the ultimate offering for our
salvation.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm
47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
R. (6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a
blare of trumpets for the Lord.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
R. God mounts his
throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
R. God mounts his
throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
For king of all the earth is God:
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R. God mounts his
throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
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Commentary on Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
Psalm 47 is a hymn of praise
celebrating God’s enthronement and kinship over the people. The imagery in the second strophe (v. 6)
strongly suggests the procession of the Arc of the Covenant being processed and
installed as part of this celebration.
The song concludes with a proclamation of the universal claim of God –
King of all the earth.
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Gospel: Mark 3:20-21
Jesus came with his disciples into the house.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
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Commentary on Mk 3:20-21
Jesus returns to his home and is
greeted with disbelief by some his own relatives. They likely believe, because of his excessive
focus on his mission and the claims made about his actions, that he has become
delusional.
This short passage provides a
sense of the challenges Jesus faces in his mission to proclaim the Kingdom of God
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Reflection:
The Gospel begs a question of us today. If we took the Gospel completely to heart and
lived it so diligently that every suggestion the Jesus made about how life was
to be lived was followed completely, would our families think we had lost our
minds? The answer that may have popped
into our minds may have been “No, I try to do that now and no one thinks I am
insane.”
We are invited to consider more closely the circumstances
surrounding Jesus that would have caused that kind of reaction from those with
whom he had grown up. We can only
suppose that he had been apprenticed to his father (foster father) Joseph
during his adolescent and early years before we encounter him at the Jordan
with the Baptist.
He was no doubt thought to be a bit strange by his peers –
probably too good. The adults would have
loved him because of his seeming maturity beyond his years. Perhaps suddenly or with little discussion
with his mother and foster father, he decides that he is called to begin
something important and goes out to see John, baptizing at the Jordan River . Even
if he had been accompanied by some of his relatives, what happened at the Jordan
must have stunned everyone. But the Lord
did not stay there to be questioned. He
was lead or driven into the desert, by himself.
He remains there, alone, for an extended period of time. His family and friends would have wondered
what had happened to him.
Upon his return, the first person to recognize that event
was St. John the Baptist who sees him and
tells his disciples “Behold the Lamb of God”
(John1:29). What a strange title to
use. Yet some of John’s disciples follow
him. This leads to the call of the first
four and quickly that number grows to twelve (symbolic of the number of Tribes
of Israel perhaps).
Some of these “disciples” were of questionable character and
there would have been news of him having developed a power to heal. There would also be some rather disturbing
news about confrontations with the religious leadership. His cousins would have heard that he had been
challenging the Pharisees and scribes – not a good thing and highly
uncharacteristic of the good and gentle young man they had known growing up.
This would have been the prelude to Jesus coming home. His excessive preoccupation with the
proclamation of the Kingdom
of God
It’s fairly clear how these two short verses came
about. Have we not seen similar
situations in our own lives? Have we not
known people who went off on a retreat or perhaps made a Cursio weekend and had
come back changed, significantly changed, not the same person? Did we think of them as fanatics or religious
zealots? We now come back to our
original question. If we took the Gospel
completely to heart and lived it so diligently that every suggestion the Jesus
made about how life was to be lived was followed completely, would our families
think we had lost our minds? The answer
might be yes. And if we did, would that
be such a bad thing?
Conversion comes in stages to most. It is a process rather than an event. What is clear is that even a gradual change
will be met with resistance. The
attitudes and values of Christ are not welcome in many parts of our society and
attempts will be made to silence those who shout too loudly.
Today our prayer is that we too might be thought of as being
a bit mad, if it is Christ’s madness we proclaim.
Pax
[1]
ALTRE
[2]
The picture used today is “St. Francis de Sales” Artist and Date UNKNOWN
[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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