Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time &
Saint Josephine Bakhita, Religious &
Saint Jerome Emiliani, Priest
Biographical Information about St. Josephine Bakhita
Biographical Information about St Jerome Emiliani
Readings for Thursday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
Commentary:
Reading 1 Gn 2:18-25
We continue the Yahwehest creation account with the creation of life. It is important to note early near eastern peoples felt that the individual who named a person or thing, had dominion over it. Here we see man naming all the animals in God’s creation thereby having dominion over them.
The passage concludes with God’s creation of woman as the perfect companion for man. He does so by taking a rib (thus also explaining why there is a “spare rib”). This passage will be familiar to those who attend weddings as it is one of the texts frequently uses because of the closing line: That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Psalm 128 supports the creation of woman and the marriage theme in the Genesis reading. It is the logical extension of the two becoming one flesh and the children flowing from that union.
Gospel Mk 7:24-30
This can be a particularly difficult Gospel on the surface. As luck has it I ran across it last year and did a good bit of research – If you would like to see that reflection and exegesis it is in the Blog Archive. In spite of what it may look like, Jesus is actually indicating two edifying points; First, he came for all peoples and second, we are given through our faith in him, the power of the Holy Spirit, that can heal even a wounded soul.
Homily:
This Gospel message is a bit difficult unless we stop and take a better look at it. Jesus has just come to Tyre and he is tired (No pun intended. Actually it would not have worked in Aramaic anyway because the word for tied sounds like MoANaA). He was hoping to be left alone but a Greek woman, a gentile who had apparently hear of his healing power, found him and interrupted his rest asking him to cure her daughter (moms are like that when it comes to their children).
Jesus, thinking about all the difficulty he had just faced with the Pharisees, (remember yesterday and the argument about what foods could be eaten) and his response to the woman is; “Let the children (Hebrew people) be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs (this reference is to a household custom where the children were fed first and then the leftovers were given to the family pets and was not intended as a degrading statement).”
The woman, however seized upon his innocent analogy, acknowledges the Hebrew’s prior claim on the Lord. Jesus knows when he has been beaten, he relents a cures the woman’s daughter.
In doing so the Lord sends a message. It is a message that, in the history of the world may be most needed at this time. He came for all people. Pope John Paul the Great heard this message a took steps to insure that we would have a clear reminder when he Canonized St. Josephine whose memorial we celebrate today. She was born in Sudan and raised in the Islamic faith until events brought her through many trials to the Lord. In this time of heated unrest that makes it so easy to stereotype Ishmael’s descendants as hated enemies, we need this example. It is exactly at this time that we need to recall that Christ came to bring us his peace and that gift is only attainable through love.
As we go out today, let us be especially aware that we do not fall into the trap of disrespecting others because of their racial or religious backgrounds. Jesus came for us all and we can do no less.
Pax
Saint Josephine Bakhita, Religious &
Saint Jerome Emiliani, Priest
Biographical Information about St. Josephine Bakhita
Biographical Information about St Jerome Emiliani
Readings for Thursday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
Commentary:
Reading 1 Gn 2:18-25
We continue the Yahwehest creation account with the creation of life. It is important to note early near eastern peoples felt that the individual who named a person or thing, had dominion over it. Here we see man naming all the animals in God’s creation thereby having dominion over them.
The passage concludes with God’s creation of woman as the perfect companion for man. He does so by taking a rib (thus also explaining why there is a “spare rib”). This passage will be familiar to those who attend weddings as it is one of the texts frequently uses because of the closing line: That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Psalm 128 supports the creation of woman and the marriage theme in the Genesis reading. It is the logical extension of the two becoming one flesh and the children flowing from that union.
Gospel Mk 7:24-30
This can be a particularly difficult Gospel on the surface. As luck has it I ran across it last year and did a good bit of research – If you would like to see that reflection and exegesis it is in the Blog Archive. In spite of what it may look like, Jesus is actually indicating two edifying points; First, he came for all peoples and second, we are given through our faith in him, the power of the Holy Spirit, that can heal even a wounded soul.
Homily:
This Gospel message is a bit difficult unless we stop and take a better look at it. Jesus has just come to Tyre and he is tired (No pun intended. Actually it would not have worked in Aramaic anyway because the word for tied sounds like MoANaA). He was hoping to be left alone but a Greek woman, a gentile who had apparently hear of his healing power, found him and interrupted his rest asking him to cure her daughter (moms are like that when it comes to their children).
Jesus, thinking about all the difficulty he had just faced with the Pharisees, (remember yesterday and the argument about what foods could be eaten) and his response to the woman is; “Let the children (Hebrew people) be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs (this reference is to a household custom where the children were fed first and then the leftovers were given to the family pets and was not intended as a degrading statement).”
The woman, however seized upon his innocent analogy, acknowledges the Hebrew’s prior claim on the Lord. Jesus knows when he has been beaten, he relents a cures the woman’s daughter.
In doing so the Lord sends a message. It is a message that, in the history of the world may be most needed at this time. He came for all people. Pope John Paul the Great heard this message a took steps to insure that we would have a clear reminder when he Canonized St. Josephine whose memorial we celebrate today. She was born in Sudan and raised in the Islamic faith until events brought her through many trials to the Lord. In this time of heated unrest that makes it so easy to stereotype Ishmael’s descendants as hated enemies, we need this example. It is exactly at this time that we need to recall that Christ came to bring us his peace and that gift is only attainable through love.
As we go out today, let us be especially aware that we do not fall into the trap of disrespecting others because of their racial or religious backgrounds. Jesus came for us all and we can do no less.
Pax
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