The Word today, Lent4B24

March 11 - March 16, 2024

Monday 11 March

St Angus, bishop and abbot

Isaiah 65:17-21 Exultant optimism is perhaps not the mood of the times, but, it is the mood of this passage from Isaiah. One line anticipates the Gospel: no more will be found the infant living a few days only. Even the exaggerations are delightful.

John 4:43-54 John’s Gospel tells this familiar story with an intriguing twist: the parent is first called a “court official,” then a “man” and only towards the end, “the father.” Roles can dictate who we are!

Tuesday 12 March

Ezekiel 47:1-9,12 “Awash with life” might be a good description of Ezekiel’s “vision” of the Temple. Exuberance is everywhere: And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal. The Gospel takes up the water image in a remarkable vision of healing.

John 5:1-3,5-16 As you listen to this story, you might bear in mind the corresponding one about about the man born blind in John 9. Under that pressure, the man born blind becomes stronger; in this Gospel, the man crumbles and betrays Jesus. What does being under pressure for the faith do to me?

Wednesday 13 March

John 5 rehearses no fewer than five arguments in the case for Jesus being the Messiah. The outline is: The miracle: 5:1-9 The Dispute: 5:10-47 The investigation: 5:10-15 The attack: 5:16-19 The five witnesses: 5:17-47 The witnesses are (1) God in 5:16-30; (2) John the Baptist in 5:31-35; (3) Jesus’ deeds in 5:36-38; (4) the Scriptures in 5:39-40; (5) Moses in 5:45-47. As in all the discourses of this Gospel, we are not hearing the actual words of the historical Jesus. Instead, after decades of reflection, we hear the deep spirituality of the great evangelist.

Isaiah 49:8-15 The opening and closing lines of this reading are simply wonderful. Written when the people were still in Exile, these verses offered a great vision of hope and return. They can encourage us today as well.

John 5:17-30 Part of the background to the opening verses is a contemporary Jewish discussion about whether God could really have ceased from creating, as it apparently says in Gen 2:2. Note an anticipation of the raising of Lazarus, who will “hear his voice and live.”

Thursday 14 March

Exodus 32:7-14 In this disconcerting story, God is furious that the people have so quickly abandoned him. Moses reminds God of who God is and so God relents, thanks be to God.

John 5:31-47 This compact reading can upset us today because of the robust comments of Jesus. In reality, we are eavesdropping on the later conversation between Christians and Jews. The evangelist parades before us three of his wife “witnesses”: Jesus’ own deeds, the Scriptures and, finally, Moses himself.

Friday 15 March

Wisdom 2:1,12-22 There is a contemporary ring to this reading from the book of Wisdom: the godless resent the faith of the believers. Such resentment foreshadows the reaction to Jesus.

John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Jesus certainly disconcerted those who met him, as we hear in this reading. Who is he really? Where is he from? Who sent him?

Saturday 16 March

Jeremiah 11:18-20 Jeremiah, always in difficulty because of his calling, places his full and total trust in God. The psalm captures it well: Lord God, I take refuge in you.

John 7:40-52 Again, there is a contemporary ring about the range of opinions and the discord triggered by the person and presence of Jesus. What do I believe? What difference does it make?

References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2024x, March 10). Fourth Sunday of Lent. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031024-YearB.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings/

The Word today, Lent3B24

March 04 - March 09, 2024

Monday 04 March

St Casimir

2 Kings 5:1-15 A very lively, realistic story prepares us for the Gospel reading. There are comic elements: the disappointment of Naaman and the utterly sensible advice of his servants.

Luke 4:24-30 Our reading is really the second part of an integrated scene in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus preaches in Nazareth and is initially well received. What we really have here is a symbolic tableau, giving us the whole Gospel story of Jesus in a nutshell. The last elusive line points to Easter.

Tuesday 05 March

St Kieran, bishop

Daniel 3:25, 34-43 The context for this wonderful prayer can help a great deal. The book of Daniel was written during a time of brutal persecution under the Syrian ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Under the guise of the time of the earlier Babylonians, the book of Daniel really reflects this later, highly dangerous situation. The three main characters have been thrown into the fiery furnace and one of them, Azariah, prays this great prayer.

Matthew 18:21-35 Our first reading was a prayer for mercy from God. The Gospel is also about mercy, but in another perspective. Mercy is given to a great debtor, who begs precisely for mercy. But he in his turn refuses mercy to a fellow servant, who begged him. It is all a comment on the words we pray everyday: forgive us out trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Wednesday 06 March

Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9 Our reading reflects on God’s grace to Israel and on the consequent responsibility of the Israelites to live lives consistent with that grace. It was true long ago in Judaism; it is true today in our Christian proclamation.

Matthew 5:17-19 Matthew can disconcert with his quite conservative attitudes. It is important to remember that the Law (the Torah) meant three things at the time: the Pentateuch, the moral law and the ritual. The moral law is, if anything, sharpened.

Thursday 07 March

Sts Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs

Jeremiah 7:23-28 The ministry of Jeremiah encountered tremendous opposition. In fact, his book is divided into two parts, the first devoted to a rehearsal of the collapse of the independent kingdom of Judah. Within that, Jeremiah points out that the very faithlessness of the people was one of the causes of that calamity.

Luke 11:14-23 Just as the prophets encountered opposition, so did the Jesus. In the case of Jesus, the opposition accuses God’s prophet of aligning himself with the forces of evil. Already in Luke’s Gospel, we hear the story of the temptation, wherein Jesus resolutely rejects the devil.

Friday 08 March

St John of God, religious

Hosea 14:2-10 Hosea wrote in the 8th century BC, at a time of immense pressure from Assyria. He can be trenchant but is also a marvellous poet of the love of God. Listen by letting any of the moving metaphors touch our hearts.

Mark 12:28-34 This great passages takes us to the hear to of the preaching of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.

Saturday 09 March

St Frances of Rome, religious

Hosea 5:15-6:6 This is really a sarcastic reading. But, behind the biting sarcasm, is the beating heart of God, reaching out to us again and again.

Luke 18:9-14 The risk for us in reading this parable is that we find ourselves sitting in judgment on the Pharisee—that is, copying him in sitting in judgment on the tax collector. The heart-felt prayer for mercy is at the centre: can I make it my own?

References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2024v, March 3). Third Sunday of lent. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030324.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings/

The Word today, W3B24

January 22 - January 27, 2024

Monday 22 January

St Vincent, deacon and martyr

2 Samuel 5:1-7, 10 This is a key reading for two reasons. David is “elected” as king and secondly he make Jerusalem his capital.

Mark 3:22-30 It can still shock that some of Jesus contemporaries proposed he was doing the work of the evil one. The thinking may have been like this: he is doing powerful deeds, but we do not believe he comes from God. Therefore…!

Tuesday 23 January

2 Samuel 6:12-15, 17-19 The ark represented the presence of God on the move with the people. The settling down, so to speak, of God’s presence in Jerusalem, even without a temple, was indeed a momentous choice.

Mark 3:31-35 Our reading can feel a little unsettling because it sounds like Jesus is dismissing his family, including his mother. However, it is really an affirmation of the essence of discipleship.

Wednesday 24 January

St Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor

2 Samuel 7:4-17 Today we read from one of a few absolutely central texts from the Old Testament. Earlier in the chapter, David made a proposal to build God a house. Through Nathan, God refuses David for the substantial reasons given. Nevertheless, a tremendous promise is made to David and his “house”, a mark of God’s love and faithfulness through time.

Mark 4:1-20 This long reading can be tricky. The original parable is given first, a parable from the lips of Jesus. The later explanation of the parable comes from church tradition, a kind of allegorical reading. The allegory narrows the original meaning of the parable. In between, the question of the disciples is difficult. It seems to be answering a later issue: how was that that most of Jesus’ fellow Jews did not recognise him as the Messiah?

Thursday 25 January

Conversion of St Paul

Acts 22:3-16 The conversion of St Paul had huge consequences for early Christianity. He was a man of terrific energy and physical courage, inspired by a deep desire to do God’s will. His encounter with Jesus placed his great gifts of intellect and spirit at the service of the Christian movement, to its lasting enrichment up to today. He himself tells of his conversion in his own words in Galatians 1.

Mark 16:15-18 Note: this passage comes from one of proposed endings to Mark, none of which comes from the head of the evangelist.

Our reading today is chosen for the very first words which capture something of the ministry of Paul, who went out to the whole known world of his time, that is, the Roman Empire around the eastern Mediterranean.

Friday 26 January

Sts Timothy and Titus

2 Timothy 1:1-8 The tone of encouragement is always needed and today, more than ever, we need the reminder to fan into a flame the gift of God.

Mark 4:26-34 A further few seed parables illuminate the Gospel. The parable of the farmer asleep is especially encouraging: just let things grow. Cf. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. (1Corinthians 3:6)

Saturday 27 January

St Angela Merici, virgin.

2 Samuel 12:1-7, 10-17 Because of David’s adultery with the wife of Uriah and his subsequent murder, the prophet Nathan is sent by God to accuse David of his sins. The prophet begins by tricking the king into righteous anger and then very cleverly catching him out. The electric words are “You are the man.” David wasn’t the first or last person in the world to have been a hypocrite or to have acted inconsistently.

Mark 4:35-41 Already at the hands of Mark, the calming of the storm is to be read symbolically. The later church, under tremendous pressure during the Jewish War, questions the presence and even the concern of Jesus. The final question is one we need to ask again and again.

References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2024j, January 21). Third Sunday in ordinary time. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012124.cfm

-unday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings/