20190117 ONLY JESUS CAN
TRANSFORM OUR HEARTS AND HEAL OUR SINFUL
17 JANUARY,
2019, Thursday, 1st Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
White.
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First reading
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Hebrews 3:7-14 ©
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Keep encouraging one another
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The Holy Spirit says: If only you
would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts, as happened in the
Rebellion, on the Day of Temptation in the wilderness, when your ancestors
challenged me and tested me, though they had seen what I could do for forty
years. That was why I was angry with that generation and said: How unreliable
these people who refuse to grasp my ways! And so, in anger, I swore that not
one would reach the place of rest I had for them. Take care, brothers,
that there is not in any one of your community a wicked mind, so unbelieving as
to turn away from the living God. Every day, as long as this ‘today’ lasts,
keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by
the lure of sin, because we shall remain co-heirs with Christ only if we keep a
grasp on our first confidence right to the end.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 94(95):6-11 ©
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O that today you would
listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God
who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his
pasture,
the flock that is led by his
hand.
O that today you would
listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you would listen to his
voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at
Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in
the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they
saw my work.
O that today you would
listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
For forty years I was wearied of these
people
and I said: “Their hearts are
astray,
these people do not know my
ways.”
Then I took an oath in my anger:
“Never shall they enter my
rest.”’
O that today you would
listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps118:88
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Because of your love give me life,
and I will do your will.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.Mt4:23
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the
kingdom
and cured all kinds of sickness among the
people.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 1:40-45 ©
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The leprosy left the man at once, and he
was cured
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A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his
knees: ‘If you want to’ he said ‘you can cure me.’ Feeling sorry for him, Jesus
stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be
cured!’ And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured. Jesus immediately
sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go
and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing
prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’ The man went away, but then
started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus
could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places
where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.
ONLY JESUS CAN
TRANSFORM OUR HEARTS AND HEAL OUR SINFUL CONDITION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ HEB 3:7-14; MK 1:40-45 ]
In the first reading, we read what the
Holy Spirit says: “If only you would listen to him today; do not harden
your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, on the Day of Temptation in the
wilderness.”
Indeed, we know very well that if
we want to find peace and rest, we need to listen to the voice of the Lord, as
the responsorial psalm tells us. If not, the words of God spoken to the
Israelites would also apply to us, “That was why I was angry with that
generation and said: How unreliable these people who refuse to grasp my
ways! And so, in anger, I swore that not one would reach the place of
rest I had for them.” Without a doubt, we will suffer the same fate and hurt
ourselves by failing to listen to the voice of the Lord, testing us in spite of
the fact that like the Israelites, we had seen what the Lord has done for us
all these years.
In the light of today’s readings, many
of us would have made some New Year resolutions regarding our lifestyle.
But perhaps, many of these resolutions would have been
broken already. We could become discouraged in our fight over sin and
our weaknesses. If ordinary resolutions like waking up early, eating less
or working out more could not be kept by us, how much less still can we keep
resolutions in being faithful to our prayer life or freeing ourselves from some
sinful habits!
But lest we become discouraged and give up
in total despair, today, the gospel is very consoling for those of us who have
tried and failed. The gospel tells us that it is not by our
strength that we can, in the final analysis, overcome our sins. We
can only conquer our sins through the healing grace of Jesus. Why?
Because, in the first place, many of our sins are deeply rooted in us, in our
mind and unconscious. Many of us commit repetitive sins and we lack
control over them e.g. anger, lust, greed and impatience. Our healing must
begin from the root. How then can we be healed from the core of our
being?
We must come to Jesus. In the gospel, we have the leper
who is a symbol of what sin could do to a person. He was totally infested
with sin. He was cut off from everyone. Yet, the leper in his
sinfulness did not fall into despair. He knew he needed help. At
the same time, he knew that by himself alone, there was no way he could be
healed. So he approached Jesus for he knew that only Jesus could restore
him to wholeness. That he took that step to ask Jesus for help was
already an act of grace. For we know that lepers were outcasts.
They were forbidden to go near to people. They were as good as dead and
ostracized. In fact, it would be a crime to go near to people, much more
if that person were a rabbi. Yet he went to Jesus with confidence,
saying, “if you want to, you can cure me”.
Similarly, Jesus showed Himself to
be truly the mercy and compassion of God in wanting to heal us.
Just as it was prohibited for the leper to approach Jesus, it would equally be
against Jewish law for Jesus to go near or touch a leper. Not only would
He be contaminated ritually but because leprosy was so contagious a disease, Jesus
could be infected as well. Yet, we are told that Jesus “feeling sorry for
him” stretched His hand to touch him and said, “Of course I want to! Be cured!”
Yes, we must come to Jesus for healing. We can be confident of finding mercy
and healing from Jesus. We are told that “the leprosy left him at once
and he was cured.” Again, the first reading exhorts us, “Take care,
brothers that there is not in anyone of your community a wicked mind, so
unbelieving as to turn way from the living God.”
At the same time, we must not
behave like lepers, cut off from the Christian community of faith.
The author of Hebrews invites us that “everyday, as long as this ‘today” lasts,
keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of
sin.” Yes, we must stay with the community of faith lest we sin because
of our weakness. Through the faith of the Christian community, we will be
able to encourage each other in our spiritual battle against sin. In this
way, “we shall remain co-heirs with Christ only if we keep a grasp on our first
confidence right to the end.”
Then, like the leper, we will also
announce to others how Jesus healed us. For when we encounter the
mercy of God, we cannot but proclaim to the world the healing grace of God.
Faith is never something that we can keep to ourselves. But having been
healed ourselves, we will help the rest of the world to be reconciled with God
and be healed. All of us are lepers in some ways and need to be restored
to wholeness.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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