March 1, 2025
Saturday of the
Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 346
Reading 1
Sirach
17:1-15
God from the earth created man,
and in his own image he made him.
He makes man return to earth again,
and endows him with a strength of his own.
Limited days of life he gives him,
with power over all things else on earth.
He puts the fear of him in all flesh,
and gives him rule over beasts and birds.
He created for them counsel, and a tongue and eyes and ears,
and an inventive heart,
and filled them with the discipline of understanding.
He created in them knowledge of the spirit;
With wisdom he fills their heart;
good and evil he shows them.
He put the fear of himself upon their hearts,
and showed them his mighty works,
That they might glory in the wonder of his deeds
and praise his holy name.
He has set before them knowledge,
a law of life as their inheritance;
An everlasting covenant he has made with them,
his justice and his judgments he has revealed to them.
His majestic glory their eyes beheld,
his glorious voice their ears heard.
He says to them, "Avoid all evil";
each of them he gives precepts about his fellow men.
Their ways are ever known to him,
they cannot be hidden from his eyes.
Over every nation he places a ruler,
but God's own portion is Israel.
All their actions are clear as the sun to him,
his eyes are ever upon their ways.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
103:13-14, 15-16, 17-18
R. (see 17) The Lord's kindness is everlasting
to those who fear him.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him,
For he knows how we are formed;
he remembers that we are dust.
R. The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
Man's days are like those of grass;
like a flower of the field he blooms;
The wind sweeps over him and he is gone,
and his place knows him no more.
R. The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
But the kindness of the LORD is from eternity
to eternity toward those who fear him,
And his justice toward children's children
among those who keep his covenant.
R. The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
Alleluia
Matthew
11:25
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mark
10:13-16
People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch
them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
"Let the children come to me; do not prevent them,
for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it."
Then he embraced the children and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030125.cfm
Commentary on Sirach
17:1-15
Today Sirach speaks of the relationship between the Creator
and the human beings he has made. It is part of a poem in praise of the Lord
for the creation of humankind. The author is following the order of Genesis and
has already spoken of the creation of stars, plants and animals.
He combines in one the two accounts of the creation of
humankind (Gen 1:26-27; 2:7) and interprets the image of God in humans under
the headings of authority, strength, and dominion, thus developing a hierarchy
of power: God, humans, living beings.
Humans were created by God from the earth, and will at the
end return to earth. The First Man had been created a living thing from the
earth and at the end is buried and returns to where he came from.
Human life on earth is temporary, but privileged:
He gave them a fixed number of days
but granted them authority over everything on the earth.
He endowed them with strength like his own
and made them in his own image.
God shared his ability to know and love and to have his
vision of creation.
Because of this, we were put in charge over all beasts and
flying things and:
He [the Lord] put the fear of them in all
living beings…
This is a generally true statement, but there are exceptions
where the human is the one who fears.
God shaped humans giving them:
Discretion and tongue and eyes,
ears and a mind for thinking…
He filled them with knowledge and understanding
and showed them good and evil.
He put the fear of him into their hearts
to show them the majesty of his works.
The Israelites believed that the heart was the seat of
reason rather than the seat of the emotions, as it is for us. The list of
faculties for perception is similar to that common to the Stoic tradition. The
‘five faculties’ were sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste.
The human was also filled with knowledge and understanding
and given a sense of good and evil. In this way, God’s light was planted in
human thinking so that we could appreciate, as other creatures cannot, the
magnificence of God’s creation.
God also taught us as well:
He bestowed knowledge upon them
and allotted to them the law of life.
This refers to the Law of Moses, which is included in the
endowments that God “allotted” to mankind. The gifts of Creation and of Mount
Sinai are here telescoped into one act of God.
And we were given another gift:
Their eyes saw his glorious majesty,
and their ears heard the glory of his voice.
This is a reference to the Israelites’ experience at Mount
Sinai.
For us, of course, there is the further teaching that we
have received through the Incarnate Son of God a new and “eternal covenant”:
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)
Our response to all these gifts will be to:
…praise his holy name,
to proclaim the grandeur of his works.
A very important part of our prayer is to praise and thank
the Lord for the beauty and gift of his creation.
At Mount Sinai also, God told his people to beware of all
wrongdoing and:
…he gave commandment to each of them concerning the
neighbor.
He did this through the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic Law.
And they needed—as we do—to be aware that:
Their ways are always before him;
they will not be hidden from his eyes.
Let each one of us reflect that we too are part of this
creation. We have been given these gifts to develop so that we can continue to
grow ever more in the likeness of our God. That is the sole purpose of our
existence and we forget it at our peril.
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Commentary on Mark
10:13-16
The Gospel begins with the line:
People were bringing children to [Jesus] in
order that he might touch them…
It is so sad that this act of ‘touching’ has lost any
connotation of innocence in our present day. A compassionate and healing
touch is something for which children, the sick and, at times all of us have a
great need.
His disciples felt that Jesus, who may have been in the
process of teaching, was being bothered by these mothers and tried to drive
them away. More than once we have seen the officiousness of the disciples
who were taking to themselves an authority that not been given them. They
still had to learn the lesson that authority serves rather than controls and
manipulates. It is a lesson that those in authority in our Church today need
also to remember. And it reflects to some extent the low place that
children had in adult society, to be neither seen nor heard.
Mark, who likes to record the feelings of Jesus, says that
he was quite “indignant” at his disciples’ behaviour, saying:
Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is
to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
“Children” here can be taken in a wider sense to include all
those who approach Jesus with a completely open, unprejudiced mind—and also
those who have a low status in our society. Such people are often more
ready to hear the message of the Kingdom and to take an active part in it.
So Jesus says:
Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of
God as a little child will never enter it.
Only those with the openness and simplicity of a child will
be able to enter the Kingdom. These words were, no doubt, addressed to
all-knowing scribes and Pharisees and their like, and also to the disciples.
Jesus then took the children, put his arms around them, laid
his hands on them and blessed them. Jesus knew the importance of physical
touch in communicating with people, in expressing encouragement and affirmation
and in bringing healing.
This passage can be linked, in a way, with the recent one on
scandal (Mark 9:42-50). The disciples, perhaps not deliberately, were
blocking access to Jesus by those who were most open to his teaching. As
people who are responsible for children, either as parents or teachers or in
other roles, we need to be aware of how—by word or action—we can block our
children from being exposed to Jesus’ message of Truth and Love. But we
can also be a block to other people who can be influenced and turned away from
the Way of Christ by our unchristian way of behaving.
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Saturday, March 1, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father, keep before us the wisdom and love You have revealed
in Your Son. Help us to be like Him in word and deed, for He lives and reigns
with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading -
Mark 10: 13-16
People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch
them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant
and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for
the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does
not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Then he
embraced the children and blessed them, placing his hands on them.
Reflection
The Gospel of two days ago indicated the advice of Jesus
concerning the relationship of the adults with little ones and with the
excluded (Mk 9: 41-50). Yesterday’s Gospel indicated the advice on the
relationship between man and woman, husband and wife (Mk 10: 1-12). Today’s
Gospel indicates the advice on the relationship between parents and sons. Jesus
asked for the greatest acceptance for the little ones and the excluded. In the
relationship man-woman, He asked for the greatest equality. Now, with the sons
and their mother, He asks for the greatest tenderness.
• Mark 10: 13-16 - Receive the Kingdom like a child. People
brought little children to Him, for Him to touch them. The disciples wanted to
prevent this. Why? The text does not say it. Perhaps because according to the
ritual norms of the time, the small children with their mothers lived almost
constantly the legal impurity. To touch them meant to become impure! If they
touched Jesus, He would become impure! But Jesus does not feel uncomfortable
with this ritual norm of legal purity. He corrects the disciples and welcomes
the mothers with the children. He touches
them, embraces them saying: “Let the little children come to me, do not stop
them: for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs.” And He
comments: “In truth I tell you, anyone
who does not accept the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter
it.” And then Jesus embraces the
children and blesses them and laid His hands on them. What does this phrase
mean? (a) The children receive everything from their
parents. They cannot merit what they receive but live from
gratuitous love. (b) The parents receive the children as a gift from God and
take care of them with the greatest possible love. The concern of the parents
is not to dominate the children, but to love them, educate them in a way in
which they can grow and be fulfilled! This is the relationship we have with our Father
in Heaven! We must be just like these children.
• A sign of the Kingdom - To welcome the little
ones and the excluded. There are many signs of the acting presence of the
Kingdom in the life and the activity of Jesus. One of these is the way of welcoming,
of accepting the little ones and the children:
• To welcome them and
not scandalize them. One of the hardest words of Jesus was against those
who cause scandal to the little ones, that is, who are the reason so that the
little ones no longer believe in God. For them it is better to have a millstone
hung round their neck and be thrown into the sea (Mk 9: 42; Lk 17: 2; Mt 18:
6).
• To identify oneself with the little ones. Jesus embraces
the little ones and identifies Himself with them. Anyone who receives a child,
“receives Me” (Mk 9: 37). “And as long as you did this to one of the least of
these brothers of mine, you did it to Me.” (Mt 25: 40).
• To become like
children. Jesus asks the disciples to become like children and to accept
the Kingdom as they do. Otherwise, it is not possible to enter into the Kingdom
(Mk 10: 15; Mt 18: 3; Lk 9:4 6-48). He makes the children teachers of adults!
And that is not normal. Generally, we do the contrary.
• To defend the right
that children have to shout and yell. When Jesus, entering into the Temple,
turned over the tables of the money changers, the children were those who shouted
the most: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Mt 21: 15). Criticized by the high
priests and by the Scribes, Jesus
defends them and in defending them He recalls the Scriptures
(Mt 21: 16).
• To be pleasing for
the Kingdom present in little children. Jesus’ joy is great, when He
perceives that the children, the little ones, understand the things of the
Kingdom which He announced to the people.“ “I
bless you, Father!” (Mt 11: 25-26). Jesus recognizes that the little ones
understand the
things of the Kingdom better than the doctors!
• To welcome, accept
and take care. Many are the little children and the young whom Jesus
accepts, takes care of and raises from the death: the daughter of Jairus who
was 12 years old (Mk 5: 41-42), the daughter of the Canaanite woman (Mk 7:
29-30), the son of the widow of Nain (Lk 7: 14-15),
the epileptic boy (Mk 9: 25-26), the son of the Centurion
(Lk 7: 9-10), the son of the public officer (Jn 4: 50), the boy with the five
loaves of bread and two fish (Jn 6: 9).
Personal Questions
• In our society and
in our community, who are the little ones and the excluded? How do we welcome
and accept them?
• What have I learned
in my life from children concerning the Kingdom of God?
• There are so many
ways modern adults are not like children. What can I do to become more
child-like for the Father and in relation to my peers; imitative, obedient,
humble, grateful, innocent? Do I even want to?
• I place myself as
innocent, obedient, humble, and grateful into my world of friends, my business,
recreation and my responsibilities. What happens? How am I perceived by the
world around me? If I continue to be this way, how would this make a better
world?
Concluding Prayer
Yahweh, I am calling, hurry to Me, listen to my voice when I
call to You. May my prayer be like incense in Your presence, my uplifted hands
like the evening sacrifice. (Ps 141: 1-2)
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