Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time &
St. Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Biographical Information about St. Hilary
Readings for Saturday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
Commentary:
Reading 1 Heb 4:12-16
The selection from Hebrews today continues the passage from yesterday. It speaks first of the Word of God (The Logos) and how the Lord is omnipresent and hyper-vigilant. The next paragraph introduces Christ as the “great high priest” and contrasts the Lord with the Hebrew high priest, using that image as an analogy.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 15
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
We are given a formula profession of faith in this song. We begin with the Law of God then the rules based upon the Law, and finally on faith in God. Essentially this litany says if you follow God’s law in all its fullness salvation is yours.
Gospel Mk 2:13-17
St. Mark’s story of the call of Levi (who is really St. Matthew) is the setting for the next conflict/response interchange. Today the scribes and Pharisees challenge Jesus on the people he chooses to associate with. The Lord’s answer is one familiar to us; "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."
Reflection:
We can identify with “Levi” the tax collector. He is a civil servant doing a job and in our day, it would be like working for the IRS. Like in our day, that role carried with it a degree of power and that power was frequently misused. So, when the Lord called “Levi”, he was doing something very controversial.
As expected, when Christ does something out of the ordinary, he gets challenged by the scribes and Pharisees who are not tagging along with him, keeping an eye on him, no doubt. His response today was in the form of a thinly veiled analogy. When asked why he associated with sinners, he responded; “Those who are well do not need a physician”.
How easy it would have been for the Lord to have just stayed around Nazareth, working with Joseph at carpentry, talking to friends and not exposing himself to the difficult, seemingly impossible task, of spreading word of the Kingdom of God and calling people to faith. That very contrast is the message we can take away from scripture today.
The Lord did not call us to follow him because it would be easy, or popular, or convenient, or even make us feel good all the time. He called us because it is the path to life and peace. When we start to feel, like the audience of the Letter to the Hebrews, that following that path is too much trouble and it’s frequently not “fun”. We need to remember the “Great High Priest” who could have stayed at home but did not.
We can take this example even further. Just in case we think we are sacrificing for Jesus sake and are going above and beyond (“I give a lot to the Church.” Or “I volunteer several hours a month.”), let’s ask ourselves if we have gone outside our comfort zone. Have we really reached out as Jesus did to the poor and marginalized and brought joy to the hopeless? It is the great paradox. The more we are given, more is expected. If we have gone a mile, we are called to go two or five. Further, we are called to do so joyfully, rejoicing that God has given us this opportunity.
Pax
St. Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Biographical Information about St. Hilary
Readings for Saturday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
Commentary:
Reading 1 Heb 4:12-16
The selection from Hebrews today continues the passage from yesterday. It speaks first of the Word of God (The Logos) and how the Lord is omnipresent and hyper-vigilant. The next paragraph introduces Christ as the “great high priest” and contrasts the Lord with the Hebrew high priest, using that image as an analogy.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 15
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
We are given a formula profession of faith in this song. We begin with the Law of God then the rules based upon the Law, and finally on faith in God. Essentially this litany says if you follow God’s law in all its fullness salvation is yours.
Gospel Mk 2:13-17
St. Mark’s story of the call of Levi (who is really St. Matthew) is the setting for the next conflict/response interchange. Today the scribes and Pharisees challenge Jesus on the people he chooses to associate with. The Lord’s answer is one familiar to us; "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."
Reflection:
We can identify with “Levi” the tax collector. He is a civil servant doing a job and in our day, it would be like working for the IRS. Like in our day, that role carried with it a degree of power and that power was frequently misused. So, when the Lord called “Levi”, he was doing something very controversial.
As expected, when Christ does something out of the ordinary, he gets challenged by the scribes and Pharisees who are not tagging along with him, keeping an eye on him, no doubt. His response today was in the form of a thinly veiled analogy. When asked why he associated with sinners, he responded; “Those who are well do not need a physician”.
How easy it would have been for the Lord to have just stayed around Nazareth, working with Joseph at carpentry, talking to friends and not exposing himself to the difficult, seemingly impossible task, of spreading word of the Kingdom of God and calling people to faith. That very contrast is the message we can take away from scripture today.
The Lord did not call us to follow him because it would be easy, or popular, or convenient, or even make us feel good all the time. He called us because it is the path to life and peace. When we start to feel, like the audience of the Letter to the Hebrews, that following that path is too much trouble and it’s frequently not “fun”. We need to remember the “Great High Priest” who could have stayed at home but did not.
We can take this example even further. Just in case we think we are sacrificing for Jesus sake and are going above and beyond (“I give a lot to the Church.” Or “I volunteer several hours a month.”), let’s ask ourselves if we have gone outside our comfort zone. Have we really reached out as Jesus did to the poor and marginalized and brought joy to the hopeless? It is the great paradox. The more we are given, more is expected. If we have gone a mile, we are called to go two or five. Further, we are called to do so joyfully, rejoicing that God has given us this opportunity.
Pax
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