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"Nagasaki Martyrs"
artist and date are unknown |
Readings
for Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings
from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: Genesis 1:1-19
In the beginning,
when God created the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss,
while a mighty wind swept over the waters.
Then God said,
"Let there be light," and there was light.
God saw how good the light was.
God then separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light "day," and the darkness he called
"night."
Thus evening came, and morning followed—the first day.
Then God said,
"Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters,
to separate one body of water from the other."
And so it happened:
God made the dome,
and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it.
God called the dome "the sky."
Evening came, and morning followed—the second day.
Then God said,
"Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin,
so that the dry land may appear."
And so it happened:
the water under the sky was gathered into its basin,
and the dry land appeared.
God called the dry land "the earth,"
and the basin of the water he called "the sea."
God saw how good it was.
Then God said,
"Let the earth bring forth vegetation:
every kind of plant that bears seed
and every kind of fruit tree on earth
that bears fruit with its seed in it."
And so it happened:
the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed
and every kind of fruit tree on earth that
bears fruit with its seed in it.
God saw how good it was.
Evening came, and morning followed—the third day.
Then God said:
"Let there be lights in the dome of the sky,
to separate day from night.
Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years,
and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky,
to shed light upon the earth."
And so it happened:
God made the two great lights,
the greater one to govern the day,
and the lesser one to govern the night;
and he made the stars.
God set them in the dome of the sky,
to shed light upon the earth,
to govern the day and the night,
and to separate the light from the darkness.
God saw how good it was.
Evening came, and morning followed—the fourth day.
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Commentary on
Gn
1:1-19
This selection is the beginning of Genesis, the
first book in the Bible. Here we see the first four days of the first of two
creation accounts. This, the Priestly account, shows how God creates order out
of chaos. There are several important concepts referenced in this selection
that are used or referenced by later authors. Reference to the “abyss” in v. 2
was, according to Semitic cosmology, the gathering of all water. In the
creative act, God separated the waters into seas (salt water) and
springs ̶ fresh water from under the earth (see Psalm
33:7; Ezekiel
31:4). Another portion of water is held in the dome
of the sky (“the upper water” see Psalm
33:7; Ezekiel
31:4) to fall as rain (Genesis
7:11; 2
Kings 7:2, 19; Psalm 104:13).
CCC: Gn 1:1-2:4 337; Gn
1:1 268,
279, 280, 290; Gn 1:2-3 292; Gn
1:2 243,
703, 1218; Gn 1:3 298; Gn
1:4 299; Gn
1:10 299; Gn
1:12 299; Gn
1:14 347; Gn
1:18 299
-------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 104:1-2a, 5-6, 10 and
12, 24 and 35c
R. (31b) May the Lord be glad in his
works.
Bless the LORD, O
my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
You are clothed with majesty and glory,
robed in light as with a cloak.
R. May the Lord be glad in his works.
You fixed the
earth upon its foundation,
not to be moved forever;
With the ocean, as with a garment, you covered it;
above the mountains the waters stood.
R. May the Lord be glad in his works.
You send forth
springs into the watercourses
that wind among the mountains.
Beside them the birds of heaven dwell;
from among the branches they send forth their song.
R. May the Lord be glad in his works.
How manifold are
your works, O LORD!
In wisdom you have wrought them all—
the earth is full of your creatures;
Bless the LORD, O my soul! Alleluia.
R. May the Lord be glad in his works.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on
Ps
104:1-2a, 5-6, 10 and 12, 24 and 35c
This section of Psalm 104 is praising God for
the creation of all things, which supports Genesis’ creation accounts Genesis
1:1-2:25. It reminds us not to take that first gift for granted, but
to constantly thank God for the wonders of his works.
CCC: Ps 104 288; Ps
104:24 295
-------------------------------------------
Gospel: Mark 6:53-56
After making the
crossing to the other side of the sea,
Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret
and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country
and began to bring in the sick on mats
to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on
Mk
6:53-56
This selection takes up the account of Jesus'
healing ministry immediately following the account of the feeding of the
multitudes (Mark 6:35-44), and his
encounter with the disciples as he walked upon the waters (Mark
6:45-52). Jesus continues his journey and cures many
people who come to him. This is the same location in which Peter, Andrew,
James, and John had lived and was, in fact, the location where Jesus had called
them. It is for this reason he was so quickly recognized.
“The benefactors plead that their sick friends
might 'only touch the fringe of his garment'. Is this plea a beautiful
confession of humility, or, rather, does it betray a superstitious belief?
Perhaps it would be unfair to force the answer one way of the other. Let us say
the needy crowd sees in Jesus of Nazareth an embodiment of power and goodness
of God and that consequently they simply rush at him, wanting to come into
contact with God incarnate, to touch the flesh of God with their own
flesh." [4]
CCC: Mk 6:56 1504
-------------------------------------------
Reflection:
“Faith is the realization of what is hoped
for and evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) One may wonder why we
begin this homiletic reflection with Scripture not used in the readings
today. It is placed here at the
beginning because faith is so necessary to understand what takes place in the
other Scriptures presented.
The
first reading from Genesis, the very beginning of the Bible and all that
follows, has caused great controversy in the world. Those who look at the world with purely
rational eyes point to the creation account as proof that all we believe is
myth – a fable for those unable to see the logic of science. Others take the words recorded in Genesis and
use them to deny scientific findings, going to the complete opposite end of the
spectrum. And what is the truth?
The
truth is that those who claim to know the scientific facts about earth and its
origins run into a big problem when they start tracing creation back to its
roots. At some point those rooted in the
rational, although many choose not to accept it, run squarely into God and the
need for faith. There is no scientific
evidence for creation, only God’s fingerprints.
At
the same time, those who claim that God’s creation took six days, made up of 24
hours each, have attempted to put God in a box.
They have attempted to understand the unknowable using human language
and concepts. Ironically, they even
ignore Scripture passages that point to this fact (for example Psalm 90: 4, “A thousand years in your eyes are merely a yesterday”).
We
believe that God, who is all powerful and omnipresent, is known to us only when
we are ultimately transformed, and join him in his heavenly kingdom. We cannot fully grasp his purpose or plan. We
can only do our best to come to know him through the Word he left us, the
incarnate Word which we consume in the Eucharist, and the Word of God left to
us in Sacred Scripture. We are enjoined
to use all the faculties of intelligence and faith the Lord gave us to
understand his will and intent, delving into the miracle of his creation.
There
is of course a caution here. Life,
especially human life, is God’s alone to give or take. Mankind is cautioned that delving too deeply,
pretending that like God, man can create life, places him in great peril. We have already seen the result of some of
these excesses. In spite of our best
efforts to the contrary we are likely to see more. We must pray that reason will prevail against
arrogance and megalomania in the years to come.
Today
our prayer is this: That we might come to know God more completely and be given
the grace to understand all that is possible about God’s creation and our place
within it. May we be given the wisdom to
know that which can be known, and the faith to accept that which cannot.
Pax
[1]
The picture used is "Nagasaki Martyrs" artist and date are unknown.
[2]
S.S. Commemoratio[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
republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.[4]
Fire of Mercy Heart of the Word Volume II, Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Ignatius
Press, San Francisco, CA, © 2003 p.395.
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