Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time


Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Saint Ansgar, Bishop
Saint Blase, Bishop, Martyr

Alternate Proper for the Memorial of St. Ansgar
Alternate Proper for the Memorial of St. Blase

Readings for Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

Readings and Commentary:
[3]

Reading I:
2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17

King David said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him,
“Tour all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba
and register the people, that I may know their number.”
Joab then reported to the king the number of people registered:
in Israel, eight hundred thousand men fit for military service;
in Judah, five hundred thousand.

Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people,
and said to the LORD:
“I have sinned grievously in what I have done.
But now, LORD, forgive the guilt of your servant,
for I have been very foolish.”
When David rose in the morning,
the LORD had spoken to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying:
“Go and say to David, ‘This is what the LORD says:
I offer you three alternatives;
choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.’”
Gad then went to David to inform him.
He asked: “Do you want a three years’ famine to come upon your land,
or to flee from your enemy three months while he pursues you,
or to have a three days’ pestilence in your land?
Now consider and decide what I must reply to him who sent me.”
David answered Gad: “I am in very serious difficulty.
Let us fall by the hand of God, for he is most merciful;
but let me not fall by the hand of man.”
Thus David chose the pestilence.
Now it was the time of the wheat harvest
when the plague broke out among the people.
The LORD then sent a pestilence over Israel
from morning until the time appointed,
and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba died.
But when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it,
the LORD regretted the calamity
and said to the angel causing the destruction among the people,
“Enough now! Stay your hand.”
The angel of the LORD was then standing
at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
When David saw the angel who was striking the people,
he said to the LORD: “It is I who have sinned;
it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong.
But these are sheep; what have they done?
Punish me and my kindred.”
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Commentary on
2 Sm 24:2, 9-17

Completing the Second Book of Samuel is this encounter between the pride of King David and God. The king seeks to measure his strength in terms of numbers of people who can serve in his army, thinking that this strength will bring him victory. Once he has completed the census the Prophet Gad comes and he sees the sin he has committed in trusting in the strength of his arms instead of the Lord God.

Gad offers punishment options the first of which is similar to that imposed because of Saul’s misdeeds (
2 Samuel 21:1ff) the two other options each contain the number three a number significant in that it represents the most intense representation of the event (three days of pestilence would imply the most intense pestilence). Just as the punishment is to strike Jerusalem, God hold his angel, similar to the way he withheld the hand of Abraham from striking down Isaac.

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Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7

R. (see 5c) Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,”
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

For this shall every faithful man pray to you
in time of stress.
Though deep waters overflow,
they shall not reach him.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
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Commentary on
Ps 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7

Providing hope for mankind following the story of “The Fall” is Psalm 32 rejoicing for the one whose sins are forgiven. The psalmist gives thanks for God’s saving work, emphasizing that only He can deliver man from sin.

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Gospel:
Mark 6:1-6

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place,
accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”

And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.
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Commentary on
Mk 6:1-6

This passage is St. Mark’s account of the Lord returning to his home town. As is his custom he goes to speak in the Synagogue and amazes the people he grew up with. The Lord encounters intense skepticism born out of the fact that the people knew him before he took up his mission. In the version today the part about their attempt on his life is omitted, but we still see the Lord’s response to their lack of faith.

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Reflection:

In this account of Jesus returning home we understand something about the Lord’s early years; that period between age 12 when he was presented at the temple the second time and his baptism in the Jordan by St. John the Baptist. The last we were told following his first presentation was “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.” (
Luke 2: 40) That does not tell us much about his interaction with the community in which he grew up. This exchange, however, hints at what the young Jesus must have been like in those years.

When he came to teach in the Synagogue that sabbath, we are told that those who heard him were “astonished”. They asked themselves where he had come by the knowledge and wisdom he displayed. In order for them to react this way we can only assume that as a young man, Jesus was humble and unassuming. He did not presume to instruct his elders or even his peers. He was growing into what he must become; a humble and compassionate man who could weep for those who mourned at the death of his friend Lazarus (
John 11: 35).

The people of his community would have certainly seen the young Jesus, unassuming, learning the carpenter’s trade at the side of his foster father, St. Joseph. He would not had stood out among his peers with the exception that he never seemed to get into mischief. He could not take the lead in these early years except by example – his ultimate role was much, much larger.

Is it any wonder then, that when he came home after his remarkable transformation at the Jordan, after going into the desert and confronting his nemesis, the people who knew him before he assumed his Father’s mission would be amazed and then angered? They were not with him to see the Holy Spirit descending upon him (
Luke 3: 22), they were not there when he returned from the desert “in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.” (Luke 4: 14-5)

Now, robed as he was in his Father’s mighty mission, we can feel the Lord’s disappointment as the great lack of faith displayed by those friends with whom he had grown up was shown in their petty attacks on him. Such lack of faith would naturally prevent the full affect of his healing power from being effective with those people. We are told “he was not able to perform any mighty deed there”.

And what message do we take away from this encounter? Do we think our friends and families will be kinder to us as we go though our ongoing conversion? Especially if we are away for a while and come home with great zeal for our faith, we should expect to be received as Christ was. Human nature has not changed. Our hope remains in the Lord and when we do encounter this kind of response, we rejoice, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews encouraged, for the trials we face for the faith are a blessing from God our Father. In this case – we know we are doing something right.

Pax


[1] ALTRE
[2] The illustration used is “Jesus Is Rejected In His Hometown” from UNKNOWN; Illustrator of Jerome Nadal's 'Evangelicae Historiae Imagines', 1593
[3] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.

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