20220207 THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD
07 February, 2022, Monday, Week 5 in Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Kings 8:1-7,9-13 © |
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.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 131(132):6-10 © |
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!
Gospel Acclamation | Jn8:12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
Or: | cf.Mt4:23 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom
and cured all kinds of sickness among the people.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 6:53-56 © |
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; Psalm 132:6-10; Mark 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 of building a Temple for the Lord because he felt it was not right that he was living in a palace and the Lord was housed in a tent. But the Lord was not interested in dwelling 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 had to build basilicas to give glory to God. Unlike the moderns, 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 of 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 has always been with the people in their journeys from Abraham to Jacob and Isaac, from Palestine to Egypt and back to Palestine. He is a God of the Exodus. This trait of God consistently manifested itself 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 again was rebuilt and once again the people fell into sin, not living a life according to the commandments and rendering lip service and external worship, the Temple was once again 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. From Mark chapter 4 onwards, we see Jesus 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 haemorrhage 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. “When Jesus and His disciples came to land at Genessaret …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 far away, hidden in the Temple, but He is with us. He comes to share in our life. “This was to fulfil 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 worse still, suffering from skin diseases 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. Hence, we can understand the desperation of those who were sick. They might seem to be superstitious in just wanting to touch Jesus, even just 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 was admirable about Jesus was that He did not lay down any conditions before He healed. All that was required was faith. After healing them, then He would tell them what to do. They would then follow Him and became His witnesses. Even now, 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 too 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 and upon coming down that 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, we, more so 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 and 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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