February 12, 2025
Wednesday of the Fifth Week in
Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 331
Reading 1
At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens
--
while as yet there was no field shrub on earth
and no grass of the field had sprouted,
for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth
and there was no man to till the soil,
but a stream was welling up out of the earth
and was watering all the surface of the ground --
the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground
and blew into his nostrils the breath of life,
and so man became a living being.
Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,
and he placed there the man whom he had formed.
Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow
that were delightful to look at and good for food,
with the tree of life in the middle of the garden
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The LORD God then took the man
and settled him in the garden of Eden,
to cultivate and care for it.
The LORD God gave man this order:
"You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden
except the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
From that tree you shall not eat;
the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die."
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
104:1-2a, 27-28, 29bc-30
R. (1a) O bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
You are clothed with majesty and glory,
robed in light as with a cloak.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
All creatures look to you
to give them food in due time.
When you give it to them, they gather it;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth:
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.”
When he got home away from the crowd
his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them,
“Are even you likewise without understanding?
Do you not realize that everything
that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach
and passes out into the latrine?”
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021225.cfm
Commentary on
Genesis 2:4-9,15-17
We have a very different creation story today. This section
is chiefly concerned with the creation of Man, the human person. It is much
older than the narrative from which we read yesterday (Gen 1:1—2:4) and comes
from the ‘Yahwistic Source’ rather than the ‘Priestly Source’. It is not, as is
sometimes said, a second creation narrative. Rather it focuses on the creation
of Man as distinct from the creation of the world, and is only complete with
the separate creation of Woman and the appearance of the first human couple.
Here God is depicted as creating Man before the rest of his
creatures, which are made for Man’s sake. It is not realistic, but this is not
history and it is certainly not science. The meaning is to show the priority of
Man in the order of things on this earth.
In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the
heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no vegetation of
the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the
earth, and there was no one to till the ground, but a stream would rise from
the earth and water the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed man
from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living being [literally a living “soul”].
The picture is of God working like a potter moulding the
human body out of the clay of the earth. In the Hebrew there is a play on the
words adam (‘man’) coming from adama (‘the
ground’).
In this version of creation, humanity does not—as in
yesterday’s reading—appear at the end of a long process of creation when all
the lesser creatures were brought into being first, but comes into existence at
the very beginning before anything else, even before the plants necessary for
his survival.
Only then did the Lord God plant a garden in the east, in
Eden (note: the garden is not named Eden, but is in Eden). In
this garden, he put the Man. In the garden he also placed every kind of plant
that was pleasant to look at, and provided fruit that was good to eat. As well,
there was the “tree of life” (a symbol of the immortality which the Man was
intended to enjoy) and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”.
The name “Eden” is used here as the name of a region in
southern Mesopotamia (southern Iraq today), but does not actually correspond to
any known site. The term comes from a Sumerian word eden, meaning
‘fertile plain’. A similar-sounding word in Hebrew means ‘delight’, so Eden is
understood as a ‘garden of delight’. Through the Greek translation of the
Hebrew, we get the word ‘Paradise’ which literally means a ‘pleasure park’.
The man’s responsibility was to cultivate the garden and
look after it. The man was also told that he was free to eat nearly all and any
of the plants in the garden (including, apparently, fruit from the “tree of
life”). The overall impression given is that life was easy and exceedingly
pleasant.
But there was one special exception. The man was not to eat
the fruit from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Otherwise he would
be doomed to death. Eating the fruit, as we shall see, did not bring about
instant death. After eating the fruit, they survived, but death would come as
the end of a miserable existence of toil and sorrow. Sin, by separating us from
God, can only lead to death.
The Man was master of his world, but with this one
exception, it was made clear that God was master of the Man and that this
relationship would be acknowledged by the Man’s obedience to this command of
the Lord God.
The whole world is God’s gift to us, but we need to remember
that we have to enjoy it responsibly and not do it harm. Also, we need always
to conform our living to that vision of life that we have received from God
through Jesus Christ and his Word. For us, Jesus and his Way is truly a tree of
Life:
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)
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Commentary on Mark
7:14-23
After defending himself against the accusations of some
Pharisees and Scribes about his not observing the traditions of the elders,
Jesus now turns to the people. He enunciates what for him are the main
principles:
- Nothing
that goes into the body from outside can make a person ritually or
religiously unclean.
- What
makes a person unclean is the filth that comes from inside their mind and
spoken through their mouth or expressed in action.
This was a major issue in the earliest days of the Church
and was dealt with by the Council of Jerusalem. The story is told in the Acts
of the Apostles (chap 15).
The first Christians were all Jews who continued to observe
Jewish customs. But when non-Jews began to be accepted into the Christian
communities, should they also be obliged to follow these laws and customs? It
became clear that, from a religious point of view, no food could be called
unclean. This helped to break down the barriers between Jew and Gentile. It has
been pointed out that, immediately after this, Jesus entered gentile territory,
something he did not often do in his own ministry (see tomorrow’s commentary).
Even Jesus’ disciples seemed shocked by Jesus’ teaching
(probably reflecting the reactions of some of the early Jewish Christians).
Jesus repeats what he says in the light of the Kingdom he was proclaiming:
He said to them, “So, are you also without understanding?
Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?”
(Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a
person that defiles.”
Real uncleanness is in the ‘heart’—i.e. in one’s mind. Real
uncleanness comes from within ourselves in the form of:
…sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, avarice,
wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil
things come from within, and they defile a person.
As Christians, we do not normally worry about clean and
unclean foods on religious grounds, but we can sometimes judge people’s
religious commitment by their observance or non-observance of purely external
things—a nun not wearing a habit, a person not taking holy water on going into
the church, or someone taking Communion in the hand versus by mouth.
We may have gotten rid of the problem of unclean foods, but
there are many other ways by which we focus on trivial externals while ignoring
the real evils, the places where real love is absent—in ourselves.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/
Wednesday, February
12, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father,
watch over your family and keep us safe in your care, for
all our hope is in you. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Gospel Reading -
Mark 7: 14-23
Jesus called the people to him again and said, 'Listen to
me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into someone from outside can
make that person unclean; it is the things that come out of someone that make
that person unclean. Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!' When he
had gone into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him
about the parable. He said to them, 'Even you -- don't you understand? Can't
you see that nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person
unclean, because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach and passes
into the sewer?' (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.) And he went on, 'It is
what comes out of someone that makes that person unclean. For it is from
within, from the heart, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft,
murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride,
folly. All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.'
Reflection
The Gospel today is the continuation of the themes on which
we meditated yesterday. Jesus helps the people and the disciples to understand
better the significance of purity before God. For centuries, the Jews, in order
not to contract impurity, observed many norms and customs bound to food, to
drink,
to the dress, to hygiene of the body, to contact with
persons of other races and religions, etc. (Mk 7: 3-4), for them it was
forbidden to have contact with pagans and to eat with them. In the years 70s the time of Mark, some converted
Jews said: “Now that we are Christians we have to abandon these ancient customs
which separate us from converted pagans!” But others thought that they had to
continue with the
observance of these laws of purity (cf. Col 2: 16, 20-22). The attitude of
Jesus, described in today’s Gospel, helps us to overcome this problem.
• Mark 7: 14-16: Jesus opens a new way to try to
get people closer to God. He says to the crowds: “Nothing that goes into
someone from outside can make that person unclean; it is the things that come
out of someone that make that person unclean” (Mk 7: 15). Jesus overturns
things: what is impure does not come from outside to the inside, as the Doctors
of the law taught, but what comes from inside to the outside. Thus, nobody ever
needed to ask himself if this or that food is pure or impure. Jesus places what
is pure and impure on another level, not on the level of ethical behavior. He opens a new way to reach
God, and in this way realizes the most profound design of the people.
• Mark 7:
17-23: In the house, the disciples asked for an explanation. The disciples
did not understand well what Jesus wanted to say with that affirmation. When
they reached the house, they ask for an explanation. The question of the
disciples surprises Jesus. He thought
that they had understood the parable. In the explanation to the disciples, he
goes to the very bottom of the question of impurity. He declares that all food
is pure! That is, no food which from outside
enters the human being can make
him become impure, because it does not go to the heart, but to the stomach and ends
in the septic tank. But what makes one become impure, says
Jesus, is what comes out from within the heart to poison human relationships. And then he
enumerates some: prostitution, murder, adultery, ambition, theft, etc. Thus, in
many ways, by means of the word, of the life together, of living close by;
Jesus helps persons to attain purity in another way. By means of the word he
purified the lepers (Mk 1: 40-44), cast out unclean spirits (Mk 1: 26, 39; 3:
15, 22, etc), and overcame death which was the source of all impurity. But
thanks to Jesus who touches her, the woman excluded and considered impure is cured (Mk 5: 25-34). Without fear
of being contaminated, Jesus eats together with persons who were considered
impure (Mk 2: 15-17). The laws of purity at the time of Jesus. The people of
that time were concerned very much about purity. The laws and the norms of
purity indicated the necessary conditions to be able to place oneself before
God and to feel well in his presence. One could not get before God just in any
way, because God is holy.
The Law said: “Be
holy because I am holy!” (Lv 19: 2). One who was not pure could not get close
to God to receive the blessings promised to Abraham. The laws of what was pure
and impure (Lv 11 to 16) were written after the time of slavery in Babylonia,
toward the year 800 after the Exodus, but had its origin in the ancient
mentality and customs of the people of the Bible. A religious and mystical
vision of the world led people to appreciate things, the persons and the animals,
beginning from the category of purity (Gn 7: 2; Dt 14: 13-21; Nm 12: 10-15; Dt
24: 8-9).
In the context of
the Persian domination, the V and IV centuries before Christ, before the
difficulties to reconstruct the Temple of Jerusalem and for the survival of the
clergy, the priests who governed the people of the Bible increased the laws
relative to poverty and obliged the people to offer sacrifices
of purification
for sin. Thus after child birth (Lv 12: 1- 8), menstruation (Lv 15: 19-24) the
cure of a hemorrhage (Lv 15: 25-30), women had to offer sacrifices to recover
purity. Lepers (Lv 13) or people who had contact with impure things or animals
(Lv 5: 1-13) they also had to offer sacrifices. Part of this offering remained for
the priests (Lv 5: 13).
At the time of
Jesus, to touch a leper, to eat with a tax collector or publican, to eat
without washing the hands, and so many other activities, etc. everything rendered
the person impure, and any contact with this person contaminated the others.
For this reason, it was necessary to avoid “impure” persons. People lived with
fear, always threatened by so many impure things which threatened life. They
were obliged to live without trust, not trusting anything or anybody. Now, all
of a sudden, everything changes! Through faith in Jesus, it was possible to
have purity and to feel well before God without being it necessary to observe all
those laws and those norms of the “Ancient Tradition.” It was liberation! The Good
News announced by Jesus took away all fear from the people, and they no
longer had to be
all the time in a defensive situation, and he gives them back the desire to
live, and the joy of being children of God, without the fear of being happy!
Personal Questions
• In your life, are there any traditions which you
consider sacred and others which you do not? Which ones? Why?
• In the name of the Tradition of the Ancients, the Pharisees
forgot the Commandment of Jesus. Does this also happen today? Where and when? Does
it also happen in my life?
Concluding Prayer
The upright have
Yahweh for their Savior, their refuge in times of trouble;
Yahweh helps them
and rescues them, he will rescue them from the wicked,
and save them
because they take refuge in him. (Ps 37: 39-40)
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