JANUARY 18, 2016 : MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 311

Reading 11 SM 15:16-23

Samuel said to Saul:
“Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
Saul replied, “Speak!”
Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem,
are you not leader of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king of Israel and sent you on a mission, saying,
‘Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction.
Fight against them until you have exterminated them.’
Why then have you disobeyed the LORD?
You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD.”
Saul answered Samuel: “I did indeed obey the LORD
and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me.
I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen,
the best of what had been banned,
to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal.”
But Samuel said:
“Does the LORD so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the command of the LORD?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission than the fat of rams.
For a sin like divination is rebellion,
and presumption is the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the command of the LORD,
he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”

Responsorial PsalmPS 50:8-9, 16BC-17, 21 AND 23

R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

Responsorial PsalmHEB 4:12

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelMK 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

www.usccb.org

Meditation: "Fasting or feasting?"

Which comes first, fasting or feasting? The disciples of John the Baptist were upset with Jesus' disciples because they did not fast. Fasting was one of the three most important religious duties, along with prayer and almsgiving. Jesus gave a simple explanation. There's a time for fasting and a time for feasting (or celebrating). To walk as a disciple with Jesus is to experience a whole new joy of relationship akin to the joy of the wedding party in celebrating with the groom and bride their wedding bliss. But there also comes a time when the Lord's disciples must bear the cross of affliction and purification. For the disciple there is both a time for rejoicing in the Lord's presence and celebrating his goodness and a time for seeking the Lord with humility and fasting and for mourning over sin. Do you take joy in the Lord's presence with you and do you express sorrow and contrition for your sins?

Jesus goes on to warn his disciples about the problem of the "closed mind" that refuses to learn new things. Jesus used an image familiar to his audience - new and old wine skins. In Jesus' times, wine was stored in wine skins, not bottles. New wine poured into skins was still fermenting. The gases exerted gave pressure. New wine skins were elastic enough to take the pressure, but old wine skins easily burst because they were hard. What did Jesus mean by this comparison? Are we to reject the old in place of the new? Just as there is a right place and a right time for fasting and for feasting, so there is a right place for the old as well as the new. 

Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old (Matthew 13:52). How impoverished we would be if we only had the Old Testament or the New Testament, rather than both. The Lord gives us wisdom so we can make the best use of both the old and the new. He doesn't want us to hold rigidly to the past and to be resistant to the new work of his Holy Spirit in our lives. He wants our minds and hearts to be like new wine skins - open and ready to receive the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Are you eager to grow in the knowledge and understanding of God's word and plan for your life?

"Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit, that I may grow in the knowledge of your great love and truth. Help me to seek you earnestly in prayer and fasting that I may turn away from sin and wilfulness and conform my life more fully to your will. May I always find joy in knowing, loving, and serving you."

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The presence of the Bridegroom, by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.

"From the time that the incarnation of our Savior was first promised to the patriarchs, it was always awaited by many upright souls with tears and mourning - until he came. From that time when, after his resurrection, he ascended to heaven, all the hope of the saints hangs upon his return. It was at the time when he was keeping company with humanity that his presence was to be celebrated. Then it would have been unfitting to weep and mourn. For like the bride, she had him with her bodily whom she loved spiritually. Therefore the bridegroom is Christ, the bride is the church, and the friends of the bridegroom (Matthew 9:15, Luke 5:34) and of the marriage are each and every one of his faithful companions. The time of his marriage is that time when, through the mystery of the incarnation, he is joining the holy church to himself (Revelation 19:7). Thus it was not by chance, but for the sake of a certain mystical meaning that he came to a marriage ceremony on earth in the customary fleshly way (John 2:1-12), since he descended from heaven to earth in order to wed the church to himself in spiritual love. His nuptial chamber was the womb of his virgin mother. There God was conjoined with human nature. From there he came forth like a bridegroom to join the church to himself." (excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.14) 

www.dailyscripture.net

MONDAY, JANUARY 18, MARK 2:18-22
Weekday
(1 Samuel 15:16-23; Psalm 50)

KEY VERSE: "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?" (v 19).
TO KNOW: The people demanded to know why Jesus' disciples did not fast as was the custom of the Pharisees and the disciples of John. Jesus described his relationship with his followers using the biblical metaphor of marriage (Is 54: 5-7). At a wedding feast, guests were relieved of all obligations that might diminish their joy, including fasting. Jesus was the long-awaited bridegroom whose arrival inaugurated a new era. While Jesus was in their midst, his followers must not mourn; they must celebrate. Jesus said it was impossible to mix the new ways with the old. It was as futile as trying to patch an old garment with new fabric, or putting fresh wine into old worn-out flasks. The time of patchwork faith was over. Just as new fermenting wine could not be contained in aged and unyielding wineskins, the old order could not hold the new life that Jesus brought.
TO LOVE: Do I resist the changes God wants of me?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, I long to celebrate with you at the eternal wedding banquet. 

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY (U.S.A.)

"Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last"
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was born on January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia. He entered the Christian ministry and was ordained in 1948 at the age of nineteen. From 1960 until his death in 1968, he was co-pastor with his father at Ebeneezer Baptist Church, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Vice President of the national Sunday School and Baptist Teaching Union Congress of the National Baptist Convention. He was a member of several learned societies including the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. King was a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement. He was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization responsible for the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was arrested thirty times for his participation in civil rights activities. Dr. King was shot to death while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." - Martin Luther King Jr.

JANUARY 18-25, WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

A world observance since 1894, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an important expression of ecumenical activity at the local level. It strengthens the cause of ecumenism by gathering ordinary Christians of different churches for common action. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is marked worldwide with prayer services, Bible studies and other activities, which bring the Christian community together. The week is celebrated each January, usually between the 18th and 25th. Rev. Paul Watson, founder of the Franciscan Society of the Atonement at Graymoor in Garrison, NY, proposed these dates in 1908, to cover the days between the feasts of St. Peter and of St. Paul. Each year, a scripture verse is selected to set the theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The relationship between baptism and proclamation, and the calling shared by all the baptized to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord was inspired by two verses from the First Letter of St Peter 2:9.

www.togetherwithgodsword.com

Monday 18 January, 2016

Mon 18th..1 Samuel 15:16-23. To the upright I will show the saving power of God—Ps 49(50):8-9, 16-17, 21, 23. Mark 2:18-22.


Readings

We know that God always loves us.

This love is not conditional on what we give up or the penance we impose on ourselves. At times it might be tempting to think that I can gain extra favour through sacrifice and offering, but as 1 Samuel shows, this thinking is mistaken.

As the Psalm says, if I go the right way, I will know the saving power of God. In other words, when I conduct myself in harmony with God, I am fulfilled. Sacrifice is superfluous. And, if I am living a full life in Christ, the Gospel suggests that this sacrifice is also incongruous: Jesus asks why wedding guests would fast if the groom is present.

Further, Jesus says that new wine in old wineskins tears the skins; new skins are required for the new wine. I am reminded that the love of God cannot be contained in old structures and strictures. Each day offers new ways of experiencing God’s love and following God’s ways of loving.

www.pray.com.au

MINUTE MEDITATIONS 

Encountering Christ

As Catholics, we believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Pope Francis, like so many people before him, has a firm commitment to spending time in prayer before the Eucharist. This might seem odd or awkward if we’re not familiar with it. But if you give it a fair trial, you might discover some amazing graces that flow from this time-honored practice.

— from Pope Francis and our Call to Joy

January 18
St. Charles of Sezze
(1613-1670)

Charles thought that God was calling him to be a missionary in India, but he never got there. God had something better for this 17th-century successor to Brother Juniper.

Born in Sezze, southeast of Rome, Charles was inspired by the lives of Salvator Horta and Paschal Baylon to become a Franciscan; he did that in 1635. Charles tells us in his autobiography, "Our Lord put in my heart a determination to become a lay brother with a great desire to be poor and to beg alms for his love."

Charles served as cook, porter, sacristan, gardener and beggar at various friaries in Italy. In some ways, he was "an accident waiting to happen." He once started a huge fire in the kitchen when the oil in which he was frying onions burst into flames.

One story shows how thoroughly Charles adopted the spirit of St. Francis. The superior ordered Charles — then porter — to give food only to traveling friars who came to the door. Charles obeyed this direction; simultaneously the alms to the friars decreased. Charles convinced the superior the two facts were related. When the friars resumed giving goods to all who asked at the door, alms to the friars increased also.

At the direction of his confessor Charles wrote his autobiography, The Grandeurs of the Mercies of God. He also wrote several other spiritual books. He made good use of his various spiritual directors throughout the years; they helped him discern which of Charles’ ideas or ambitions were from God. Charles himself was sought out for spiritual advice. The dying Pope Clement IX called Charles to his bedside for a blessing.

Charles had a firm sense of God’s providence. Father Severino Gori has said, "By word and example he recalled in all the need of pursuing only that which is eternal" (Leonard Perotti, St. Charles of Sezze: An Autobiography, page 215).

He died at San Francesco a Ripa in Rome and was buried there. Pope John XXIII canonized him in 1959.

Comment:

The drama in the lives of the saints is mostly interior. Charles’ life was spectacular only in his cooperation with God’s grace. He was captivated by God’s majesty and great mercy to all of us.

Quote:

Father Gori says that the autobiography of Charles "stands as a very strong refutation of the opinion, quite common among religious people, that saints are born saints, that they are privileged right from their first appearance on this earth. This is not so. Saints become saints in the usual way, due to the generous fidelity of their correspondence to divine grace. They had to fight just as we do, and more so, against their passions, the world and the devil" (St. Charles of Sezze: An Autobiography, page viii).

www.americancatholic.org

LECTIO DIVINA: MARK 2,18-22

Lectio: 

 Monday, January 18, 2016

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Father of heaven and earth,

hear our prayers,

and show us the way to your peace in the world.

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.

2) Gospel Reading - Mark 2,18-22

John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast, when some people came to him and said to him, 'Why is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?'

Jesus replied, 'Surely the bridegroom's attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then, on that day, they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins too. No! New wine into fresh skins!'

3) Reflection

• The five conflicts between Jesus and the Religious authority. In Mark 2, 1-12 we have seen the first conflict. It was about the forgiveness of sins. In Mark 2, 13-17, the second conflict is on communion around the same table, with sinners. Today’s Gospel presents the third conflict concerning fasting. Tomorrow we have the fourth conflict, concerning the observance of the Sabbath (Mk 2, 13-28). Day after tomorrow, the last conflict concerning the cure on the Sabbath (Mk 3, 1-6). The conflict concerning fasting has a central place. For this reason, the words on sewing a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak and the new wine into fresh skins (Mk 2, 21-22) should be understood in the light which radiates clearly also on the other conflicts, two before and two after.

• Jesus does not insist on the practice of fasting. Fasting is a very ancient practice, practiced by practically all religions. Jesus himself practiced it during forty days (Mt 4, 2). But he does not insist with his disciples so that they do the same thing. He leaves them free. This is why the disciples of John the Baptist and those of the Pharisees, who were obliged to fast, want to know why Jesus does not insist on fasting.

• When the bridegroom is with them they do not have to fast. Jesus responds with a comparison. When the bridegroom is with the friends of the bridegroom, that is, during the wedding feast, they do not need to fast. Jesus considers himself as the bridegroom. The disciples are the friends of the bridegroom During the time in which Jesus is with the disciples, there is the wedding feast. A day will come in which the bridegroom will be absent and then, if they wish they can fast. Jesus refers to his death. He knows and feels that if he wishes to continue on this path of freedom, the religious authority will want to kill him.

• To sew a new piece of cloth on an old cloak, new wine in new skins. These two affirmations of Jesus, which Mark places here, clarify the critical attitude of Jesus before religious authority. One does not sew a piece of new cloth on an old cloak. When the cloak is washed, the new piece of cloth tears the cloak and the tear becomes bigger. Nobody puts new wine in old skins, because the fermentation of the new wine will tear the old skins. New wine in new skins! The religion defended by the authority was like an old cloak, like an old skin. It is not necessary to want to change what is new and brought by Jesus, for old customs. The novelty brought by Jesus cannot be reduced to fit the measure of Judaism. Either one or the other! The wine which Jesus brings tears the old skins. It is necessary to know how to separate things. Jesus is not against what is “old”. What he wants to avoid is that the old imposes itself on the new and, thus he begins to manifest it. It would be the same as reducing the message of the Vatican Council II to the catechism of the time before the Council, as some are wanting to do.

4) Personal questions

• Beginning with the profound experience of God which encouraged him interiorly, Jesus had great freedom concerning the relation ship to the norms and religious practices. And today, do we have this same liberty or do we lack the freedom of the mystics?

• A new piece of cloth on an old cloak, new wine in old skins. Does this exist in my life?

5) Concluding prayer

We have recognised for ourselves,

and put our faith in, the love God has for us. (1Jn 4,16)

www.ocarm.org