Day: January 23, 2013

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Wednesday, 23 January 2013 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

In today’s readings, Jesus. as our High Priest and Lord, has come for us to heal us from our afflictions, especially the afflictions of our soul. In the first reading, He is associated with Melchizedek, a mysterious figure who greeted Abraham and blessed him after his victory in rescuing his nephew, Lot, who was abducted by a group of kings during their raid.
Who is this Melchizedek indeed? These few days in the readings we have heard many things about him, and particularly in this Letter to the Hebrews, he is frequently mentioned. This is because Melchizedek was a High Priest, and it is indeed possible that He belongs to God, and just like Jesus, or even Jesus Himself, as He was a High Priest of God, without known mother and father, and no genealogy, just like our Lord Jesus, born before all ages, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the union of the Holy Trinity.

It is emphasized today that the priestly authority ascribed to Melchizedek is divine in nature, from God Himself, and not bound by any human laws and restrictions. Therefore, Jesus Christ too, as our High Priest, also has His authority from the Father Himself, authority to heal, and authority to forgive sins, and these authority too He passed to our priests today, through the Apostles. The priests receive their authority from God, not limited by human laws and obstacles, since in God alone all authority resides.

Yet, there are many who blindly follow the rules, and become blinded by that, and instead of aiding the mission of the ones chosen by God, especially Christ Himself, they tried to hinder their mission by all means necessary. In the Gospel, the Pharisees purposely waited to see if Jesus would heal the paralytic and thus commit ‘sin’ in their eyes by breaking the law, instead of extending a helping hand themselves. Truly, the Psalm today represents the very thoughts that Jesus have, how sad He is that these supposedly learned priests and scribes of the people of Israel had attacked the cause of the Lord, out of jealousy and hatred, despite the Lord’s wish to extend His love to all, even to those who hate Him.

Yet, Jesus made clear His reason and His perfection of the Law, by saying that it is truly rightful to do what is good even on Sabbath, as when one is about to do things pleasing to God, the laws of the Sabbath should not be a barrier, as the law actually was made to condition the people of Israel to always keep a time for God, to commemorate His holy day, but if all of us are already doing this in our hearts, keeping the Lord close to us at all times, there is no longer need to adhere very strictly to the rules of the Sabbath, and why we no longer follow the Jewish law on Sabbath today, but we still honour the Lord on Sunday, His Holy Day, through our active participation at the Holy Mass and receiving the Eucharist.

Let us pray therefore, that our faith in God will be strengthened, that our resolve to do what is good for the sake of others, and for the sake of those who suffer around us be ever strengthened too. That we will not stay silent, whenever there are those who persecute others, and will not stay dormant, when our brothers and sisters require our help, no matter how small and insignificant that is.

Let us also pray for our priests, that they will stay faithful to their calling, forever priests in the order of Melchizedek, that the Lord will give them His authority through them to forgive us from our sins, and to heal us from our spiritual afflictions, and to feed us with the spiritual food of love, and the Word of God. Amen.

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Wednesday, 23 January 2013 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Mark 3 : 1-6

Again Jesus entered the synagogue. A man, who had a paralyzed hand, was there, and some people watched Jesus : would He heal the man on the Sabbath? If He did, they could accuse Him.

Jesus said to the man with the paralyzed hand, “Stand here in the centre.” Then He asked them, “What does the Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm? To save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

Then Jesus looked around at them with anger and deep sadness, because they had closed their minds. And He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was healed.
As soon as the Pharisees left, they met with Herod’s supporters, looking for a way to destroy Jesus.

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Wednesday, 23 January 2013 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 109, 1-4

Break your silence, o God whom I praise, now that the wicked and deceitful hurl their false accusations at me.

They assail me with words of hatred; they attack me for no valid cause.

They return my friendship with slander, and yet I pray for them.

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Change : Inclusion of the Psalm

Since I realised that the Psalm is very much part of the Scripture and that it is also definitely worthy reflecting on, I will include the Psalm in the daily readings from now on.

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Wednesday, 23 January 2013 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Hebrews 7 : 1-3,15-17

Scripture says that Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, came out to meet Abraham who returned from defeating the kings. He blessed Abraham and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.

Let us not that the name Melchizedek means King of Justice, and that King of Salem means King of Peace. There is no mention of father, mother, or genealogy; nothing is said about the beginning or the end of his life. In this he is the figure of the Son of God, the priest who remains forever.

All this, however, becomes clear if this priest after the likeness of Melchizedek has in fact received his mission, not on the basis of any human law, but by the power of an immortal life. Because Scripture says : You are a priest forever in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

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Tuesday, 22 January 2013 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr (Scripture Reflection)

In today’s readings, God shows that He is faithful, and that He will reward all those who believe in Him. We can rest assured that God will protect us, as long as we too remain faithful in Him, and remain in His favour. After all, the Lord has proven His faith to us and His love by sending us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour, by being the High Priest of all mankind, giving up Himself as a worthy sacrifice in place of our innumerable sins. Such indeed, is the extent of God’s love and reliability, as He is reliable as He is loving, the only one we can truly trust, since He stopped at nothing but gave Himself entirely for our sake. Thus, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us anchor ourselves in Christ, and let God be the firm foundation of our faith, and our life. So that, even when troubles come, and even when uncertainties and temptations come, we can be assured that as long as we keep our anchor in Christ, we are in God’s good hands.

God did create rules and set of laws in the past to the Israelites, which He announced to Moses on Mount Horeb, the Holy mountain of God, and the purpose of these rules is none other than to serve as the same anchor to keep all the Israelites anchored in God and His teachings, and not to be led astray by the temptations of the other gods followed by tribes that the Israelites met on their way to the Promised Land, and in the Promised Land itself, to always remain faithful in God. Nevertheless, as was evident in the many parts of the Old Testament, the people of Israel disobeyed the Lord many times and did things in opposition to His commandments and His rules, which include the rule of the Sabbath.

However, the coming of Christ has brought an entire new dimension to the interpretation of these laws and their relations to God’s people, as Christ, being God Himself, has walked amongst His people, and He, the Son of Man, is the Master of the Sabbath, and thus, consequently also the new ‘Anchor’ of the people’s faith, replacing all the old laws and commandments with His new commandment of love, for the Son of God did not come to destroy but to perfect the old commandments and serve as the fulfillment of all the promises and prophecies made by the prophets.

Laws, customs, and regulations should not be seen as so binding and authoritative to the point of enslaving those whom these regulations are supposed to protect into their slaves instead. This is what Jesus meant when He said that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. These rules, laws, and customs are there, because they are there to guide us to the correct path and prevent us from going astray, but not to limit us unnecessarily, especially when nothing that we do are wrong in the eyes of God. We have even seen that in the Book of the Maccabees, the Israelites under the leadership of the Maccabees allowed themselves to fight to defend themselves on the Sabbath against the pagan Greeks, rather than leaving themselves to be killed without defense. And so was David and his followers when they were truly hungry, for food is a basic and essential commodity to humans like us, and also to all creations. God certainly do not wish to deny us this essential commodity and leaving us to die of hunger just by inflexibly obeying the law of the Sabbath.

This is also why, we as Catholics, do not follow the Jewish Laws anymore, including the laws regarding food prohibitions, as what matters to Jesus Christ, the new ‘anchor’ of our faith, which renews the Law into its perfect form, is the purity and sincerity of our hearts and our souls, and not matters that concern our physique, such as food and rituals. Indeed, the Lord Himself said that (Matthew 15 : 11) “What enters into the mouth does not make a person unclean. What defiles a person is what comes out of his mouth.”

Therefore, what matters is the laws that regulate our spirituality, which will ensure our internal spirituality and soul remain pure and unblemished to the Lord, which can be achieved through prayers, and doing good work for the sake of God, and for the sake of all around us. “Ora et Labora” indeed, to pray and to do good works, so that our hearts will be pure and be worthy of God.

We do have rules and regulations in our Church, just as the Jews did, and we too have to obey these rules, as these rules, although are human in nature, can help us greatly in ensuring that all of us can have the optimum condition necessary to sustain our spiritual wellbeing and purity, despite all the temptations and the challenges presented by the world around us.

Therefore, let us all pray that Jesus, as the anchor of our faith and our life, will strengthen us, and will support us in our daily lives and daily encounters with temptations and challenges of the world, that we will be able, with the help of the rules and laws of the Church, maintain our spiritual health and maintain our purity in the eyes of God, focusing on the internal rather than the external dimension of our being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_of_Saragossa

Today we also celebrate the Feast of St. Vincent, who was a Deacon and Martyr in the early Church. Also known as St. Vincent of Saragossa, St. Vincent was imprisoned for his faith in late Roman Empire under Emperor Diocletian, and met his martyrdom at the Emperor’s orders. St. Vincent is another shining example of loyalty to the faith in God, just as shown by St. Agnes, whose feast we celebrated just the day before. These martyrs show us that God rewards those who believed in Him and remain faithful in Him, as stated in the first reading today. As long as we keep our anchor in Christ, and remain strong in our faith in Him, even with all the challenges and persecutions laid by the world against us, like these saints and martyrs, we will eventually prevail and be rewarded with nothing less than life eternal with Christ, forever and ever. Amen.

St. Vincent of Saragossa, Deacon and Martyr, pray for us.