Wednesday, Second Week in Ordinary Time
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Second Week in Ordinary Time
USA: Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
Heb 7:1-3, 15-17/Mk 3:1-6 (Lectionary #313)
This is the only time in the Gospels that the word “anger” is applied to Jesus. (In Matthew 18:34, however, a king condemns a servant “in anger” for refusing to forgive a fellow servant). He is angry because the Pharisees refused to answer when he challenged them. They “remained silent.”
The question Jesus asked was, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” The Pharisees didn’t listen to yesterday’s teaching about understanding God’s law as always intending good for people. They were watching to see if Jesus would cure a man on the Sabbath, “hoping to be able to bring an accusation against him.” When Jesus tried to show them what they were doing, their response was stone silence.
This attitude exists in the Church today, as in every day. Every preacher or teacher who goes beyond doctrinal narrowness or moral legalism experiences it. The truth comes under attack by those who are threatened by change. Those who challenge sincerely will dialogue and accept an explanation if it is reasonable and demonstrably true to the teaching of the Church. Others choose to remain both deaf and dumb. They keep their mouths closed against dialogue and their minds closed against truth. They keep death alive in the Church by burying their hearts alive.
The good news is that Jesus invites all of us, “Stretch out your heart,” as he invited the man in the Gospel, “Stretch out your hand.” If we do, we will be healed. For, as St. Paul wrote later, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2). If we are truly disciples — students and learners — of Jesus, he has promised, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32).
The sad truth is, however, that freedom itself is a threat to many people. The reaction of the Pharisees was to “go out and immediately begin to plot how to destroy him.”
The good news is that their plot succeeded —and resulted in the salvation of the world! In the same way, the words of the true prophets who are stoned and silenced today will germinate in the “good soil” of those who have accepted them. Then one day, when enough hearts in the Church are sufficiently regenerated, they will rise and “renew the face of the earth.”
Initiative: Keep stretching out your mind and your heart. Use the time-tested principles of “spiritual discernment” to test your reactions to what you hear.
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