Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

“Noah's Ark Cycle: 5. Noah's Sacrifice of Thanksgiving”
by  Kaspar Memberger the Elder, 1588

 
Readings for Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
 
Readings and Commentary: [3]
 
Reading 1: Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22
 
At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark,
and he sent out a raven,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth.
Then he sent out a dove,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
But the dove could find no place to alight and perch,
and it returned to him in the ark,
for there was water all over the earth.
Putting out his hand, he caught the dove
and drew it back to him inside the ark.
He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark.
In the evening the dove came back to him,
and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf!
So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth.
He waited still another seven days
and then released the dove once more;
and this time it did not come back.
 
In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life,
in the first month, on the first day of the month,
the water began to dry up on the earth.
Noah then removed the covering of the ark
and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up.
 
Noah built an altar to the LORD,
and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird,
he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself:
“Never again will I doom the earth because of man
since the desires of man(s heart are evil from the start;
nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done.
As long as the earth lasts,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
and day and night
shall not cease.”
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Commentary on Gn 8:6-13, 20-22
 
This selection is the conclusion of the flood story. Hebrew numerology plays a big part in the symbolism of the story. Forty days represents the fullness of the flood, and the seven day periods waiting for the dove, the perfect number.
 
This passage provides another important symbol, an efficacious sign in the form of a dove. The dove is sent out three times, which would represent the completeness of its mission. It returns finally with an olive branch which has come to symbolize peace, in this case man’s peace with God. The return of the dove at last may represent to some the return of the Holy Spirit, coming back to mankind after our being lost to sin, which was washed away in the waters of the great flood, an image of baptism making an end to sin and a new beginning.
 
Noah completes the test by building an altar and offering a sacrifice to God that seems to appease his just anger at mankind. The “sweet odor” rising up to God from the sacrifice of Noah provides the Church with the image that later translated into the use of incense, the smoke rising to the Lord as sacrifice is offered at our earthly altar.
 
CCC: Gen 8:8-12 701; Gen 8:20-9:17 2569
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Responsorial Psalm: Ps 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19
 
R. (17a) To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19
 
Psalm 116 is a song of thanksgiving. This selection is an individual prayer and promise to God. The singer understands that the Lord is his salvation. A little confusing is “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.” The meaning is that the death of God's faithful is grievous to God, not that God is pleased with the death.
 
CCC: Ps 116:12 224; Ps 116:13 1330
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Gospel: Mark 8:22-26
 
When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida,
people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked,
“Do you see anything?”
Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”
Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.
Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.”
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Commentary on Mk 8:22-26
 
“Jesus' actions and the gradual cure of the blind man probably have the same purpose as in the case of the deaf man (Mark 7:31-37). Some commentators regard the cure as an intended symbol of the gradual enlightenment of the disciples concerning Jesus' messiahship.” [4]
 
"Allegorically (St. Bede, In Marcum): Jesus heals the blind man to announce the mystery of redemption. As God Incarnate, Jesus heals man through the sacrament of his human nature, here signified by his hands and spittle. This grace cures our spiritual blindness gradually, and, as with the blind man, progress is measured in proportion to our faith. Allegorically (St. Jerome, Homily 79), the restoration of the blind man signifies our gradual increase in wisdom, from the darkness of ignorance to the light of truth. Christ's spittle is the perfect doctrine that proceeds from his mouth; it enhances our vision and brings us progressively to the knowledge of God." [5]
 
CCC: Mk 8:22-25 1151, 1504; Mk 8:23 699
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Reflection:
 
The blind man who was cured by Jesus in the Gospel story is the only recorded instance in which Jesus’ touch is not described as fully curing the person whom he intended to cure all at once.  In this instance, he imposes his hands twice.
 
After the first time, he asks the afflicted man: “Do you see anything?”  The man sees, but in a distorted way, not having received the full measure of the healing touch.  A second time Jesus touches him and he “could see everything distinctly.”
 
While we do not wish to read anything into the Gospel that is not there, St. Mark recounted this story where the blind man recovered his sight gradually for a reason.  The fact that the blind man, after Christ’s first touch, did not see clearly could easily be an allusion to our own perception of the reality and person of Jesus.  As children we are introduced to him. We develop an understanding of who he is and what Jesus wants of us.  It is like those first pictures we draw in our early elementary years; they are stick figures, representations of what we perceive around us.  Our understanding of the Lord and our relationship to him is at the same level of detail, very sketchy.
 
Like the person who drops out of school at a very young age, many of us never really grow beyond those early stick figures.  If we do not really study the Lord and his Word, we may never grow beyond stick figures, “like trees and walking."  Our goal is to work constantly to understand the will of Christ, and in doing so, see everything distinctly, understanding what Christ wants of us.  That process is almost always a gradual one.  Even if today we think: “Ah, I understand what the Lord wants of me,” tomorrow, that perception may change.  Ours is an on- going conversion process, one that will take our entire lives.
 
Today we pray for sight.  We ask God in Christ to give us the ability to see all things distinctly through the lens of faith, and so draw closer to him and his will for us.
 
Pax

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[1] The picture used is “Noah's Ark Cycle: 5. Noah's Sacrifice of Thanksgiving” by  Kaspar Memberger the Elder, 1588.
[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] See NAB footnote on Mark 8:22-26
[5] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA. pp. 79-80.