20200210
THE
DWELLING PLACE OF GOD
10 February,
2020, Monday, 5th Week of Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
These are the readings for the feria
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First reading
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1
Kings 8:1-7,9-13 ©
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The Ark of the Covenant is
brought into the Temple
Solomon called
the elders of Israel together in Jerusalem to bring the ark of the covenant of
the Lord up from the Citadel of David, which is Zion. All the men of Israel
assembled round King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, at the time of the feast
(that is, the seventh month), and the priests took up the ark and the Tent of
Meeting with all the sacred vessels that were in it. In the presence of the
ark, King Solomon and all Israel sacrificed sheep and oxen, countless,
innumerable. The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its
place, in the Debir of the Temple, that is, in the Holy of Holies, under the
cherubs’ wings. For there where the ark was placed the cherubs spread out their
wings and sheltered the ark and its shafts. There was nothing in the ark except
the two stone tablets Moses had placed in it at Horeb, the tablets of the
covenant which the Lord had made with the Israelites when they came out of the
land of Egypt; they are still there today.
Now
when the priests came out of the sanctuary, the cloud filled the Temple of the
Lord, and because of the cloud the priests could no longer perform their
duties: the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s Temple.
Then
Solomon said:
‘The
Lord has chosen to dwell in the thick cloud.
Yes,
I have built you a dwelling,
a
place for you to live in for ever.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
131(132):6-10 ©
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Go
up, Lord, to the place of your rest!
At
Ephrata we heard of the ark;
we
found it in the plains of Yearim.
‘Let
us go to the place of his dwelling;
let
us go to kneel at his footstool.’
Go
up, Lord, to the place of your rest!
Go
up, Lord, to the place of your rest,
you
and the ark of your strength.
Your
priests shall be clothed with holiness;
your
faithful shall ring out their joy.
For
the sake of David your servant
do
not reject your anointed.
Go
up, Lord, to the place of your rest!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn8:12
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
I am
the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone
who follows me will have the light of life.
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
6:53-56 ©
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All those who touched him
were cured
Having made the
crossing, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up. No
sooner had they stepped out of the boat than people recognised him, and started
hurrying all through the countryside and brought the sick on stretchers to
wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, to village, or town, or farm,
they laid down the sick in the open spaces, begging him to let them touch even
the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched him were cured.
THE DWELLING
PLACE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1KGS 8:1-7,9-13; PS 132:6-10; MK 6:53-56 ]
In the first reading, we
have the great celebration of the completion of the Temple built by Solomon,
fulfilling the wish of his father, King David. It was David’s idea to build a Temple for
the Lord because he felt it was not right that he was living in a palace whilst
the Lord was housed in a tent. But the Lord was not interested to
dwell in a Temple because as He told David, “Are you the one to build me a
house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up
the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a
tent and a tabernacle.” (2 Sm 7:5-7) Indeed, God wanted to live
among His people, in their midst, in their daily life.
However, God was
merciful and sought to accommodate Himself to the needs of His people. Having a Temple to honour Him and
to remember His presence among the people is not necessarily a bad thing. A
Temple can help people to congregate and worship together. It reminds the
people of God’s presence and His love. That is why, normally, a Temple or
a church is constructed using the best materials and ornaments to beautify it
since it is an honour to God. Those who come to worship will then sense
the sacredness and awesomeness of God. This was how all the old basilicas
in Europe were built. Even though the people were poor, they gave from
the little they have to build basilicas to give glory to God. Unlike in
our time, they put God above everything else, even their own comfort.
Yet there are downsides
and temptations as well when it comes to having a temple or a church. It can
lead to a separation of God from His people. One begins to think that God only dwells
in a temple or a church. And so in daily life, we live as if God is not
present in what we do and where we are. We only think of God on Sundays
and perhaps on some days. But other than that, we live our lives as if
God is not present. This results in a dichotomy between life and
faith. We are only believers when we are in church. But outside of
church, we behave like pagans and like the rest of the world. Indeed,
this is what is happening in the world today. In a secular world, God is
supposed to be absent. He is only spoken and made present when we are at
home or in our churches. But in the world, God is not to be
mentioned. He is out of our daily life.
This was why the Lord
was not excited or keen to have a Temple built in honour of Him. He had always been with the people
in their journeys, from Abraham to Jacob and Isaac, from Palestine to Egypt and
back to Palestine. He was a God of the Exodus. Indeed, this trait
of God consistently manifested Himself again and again in the history of
Israel. When they sought to domesticate God in the Temple so that the people
could live their worldly and sinful life, God allowed the Babylonians to
destroy the Temple that Solomon built. After the exile when the Temple
was rebuilt, the people again fell into sin, failing to live a life according
to the commandments, and rendering lip service and external worship. Again, God
allowed the Temple to be destroyed by the Romans. Since then, the Jews
have been without a Temple.
In the gospel today,
again, we see Jesus who is the Emmanuel, “God with us” walking and living not
in the Temple at Jerusalem or in the synagogue but amongst His people. We read in Mark chapter 4 onwards that
Jesus was with the disciples in the boat when they were combatting a
storm. Then He healed a Gerasene Demoniac. Later on, He restored
Jairus’ daughter back to life and at the same time, healed a woman with
hemorrhage for twelve years. Then He sent his Twelve apostles to do
the same as well. Finally, He fed the 5000 thousand with five loaves and two
fish. And in today’s gospel, the healing ministry of Jesus reached far
and wide. “Having made the crossing, Jesus and His disciples came to land
at Genessaret and tied up. No sooner had they stepped out of the boat than
people recognised him, and started hurrying all through the countryside and
brought the sick on stretchers to wherever they heard he was.”
Truly, in Jesus, we can
see that God is in our midst. God is not one who is far away hidden in
the temple but He is with us. He
comes to share in our life. “This was to fulfill what had been spoken
through the prophet Isaiah, ‘He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.'” (Mt 8:17) When He raised the son of the
Widow of Naim back to life, the people exclaimed that God had visited His
people. (Lk 7:16)
Indeed, so compassionate is our Lord that He just healed “wherever He went, to
village, or town, or farm, they laid down the sick in the open spaces, begging
to let them touch even the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched
him were cured.” The people were desperate. All they wanted
was to be healed. In those days, when one was sick, unable to walk or to
see or hear or worst still, suffering from skin disease like leprosy, it meant
that they had no source of living, but just to beg and ask for food. There was
no cure for all these illnesses in those days. Hence, we can understand
the desperation of those who were sick. They might appear to be
superstitious in just wanting to touch Jesus or even the fringe of His
cloak. What was important was that they had faith in Jesus even though
they had not yet listened to Him.
What is admirable about
Jesus is that He did not lay down any conditions before He healed. All that is
required is faith. He
would tell us what to do after He has healed us. We can then follow Him
and be His witnesses. He would come to us in a personal way to touch
us. This is so different from some of us. We lay down conditions in
order to help people. We put barriers for people to be healed.
Often, people just want to be touched by God through the laying on of
hands. But often we delimit the grace and power of God, claiming that it
is not necessary since they have received the Eucharist. We fail to
put ourselves in the shoes of those who are sick and in desperate need to be
touched by God. What they seek is the healing touch of God through us,
our healing hands, our prayers and our words.
That is why it is
important that we become the healing hands of God. We are called to be His living
presence in the midst of our people. We too are called to be His signs of
love. In our life, we are called to touch people with our words of
encouragement, mercy and compassion. We are called to reach out to those
who are suffering and in pain. We must seek to relieve their
suffering and even if we cannot remove their physical pain, we can heal their
hearts and strengthen their will through words of encouragement. We
are called to give hope to people around us. That is why we help people
to touch God in and through us.
But to be able to
radiate God’s presence, we must first be connected with the Lord. We must receive strength from Him
because on our own, we cannot be His mediator of grace. We read in Luke’s
gospel that it was only after spending the night in prayer at the mountain that
upon coming down, power came out of Him as the people touched him. And He
healed all of them. (Lk 6:12, 18,19) If the Lord needs to draw strength
from His Father, more so, we need to draw strength from the Lord. Unless
we are filled with His love and His Spirit, we cannot become channels of grace.
This is where the
Eucharist becomes important for us. Receiving the Eucharist cannot be
simply another superstitious action on our part. Rather, the Eucharist is the
presence of our Lord, in His flesh and blood and in His word. By
receiving the Eucharist, we are joined to Him and His Church. This is
where we find strength in Him and in our community, the mystical body of
Christ. Through our reception of the Eucharist and through spending time
in prayer, contemplating on the Word of God, sharing faith with our fellow
Catholics, we are then imbued with His love and life. So in truth the
church is still an important means of gathering believers together to
worship. But we do that only so that when we depart, we will bring
the love of Christ to wherever we are, in our homes, in our offices and in our
service to the community. “Let us go to the place of his dwelling” so
that we can become His dwelling place in society wherever we are. We must
not leave God imprisoned in the Temple again!
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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