March 4, 2025
Tuesday of the
Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 348
Reading 1
To keep the law is a great oblation,
and he who observes the
commandments sacrifices a peace offering.
In works of charity one offers fine flour,
and when he gives alms he presents his sacrifice of praise.
To refrain from evil pleases the LORD,
and to avoid injustice is an atonement.
Appear not before the LORD empty-handed,
for all that you offer is in fulfillment of the precepts.
The just one's offering enriches the altar
and rises as a sweet odor before the Most High.
The just one's sacrifice is most pleasing,
nor will it ever be forgotten.
In a generous spirit pay homage to the LORD,
be not sparing of freewill gifts.
With each contribution show a cheerful countenance,
and pay your tithes in a spirit of joy.
Give to the Most High as he has given to you,
generously, according to your means.
For the LORD is one who always repays,
and he will give back to you sevenfold.
But offer no bribes, these he does not accept!
Trust not in sacrifice of the fruits of extortion.
For he is a God of justice,
who knows no favorites.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power
of God.
"Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
"Hear, my people, and I will speak;
Israel, I will testify against you;
God, your God, am I.
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always."
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
"Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
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.
Alleluia
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
Peter began to say to Jesus,
'We have given up everything and followed you."
Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030425.cfm
Commentary on Sirach
35:2-15
Today’s reading from the book of Sirach has a message which
is relevant for all Christians. It teaches that there should never be a
division between our worship in church and the way we lead our daily lives.
Each one is meant to reinforce the other.
The author, Ben Sirach, is both a firm supporter of
liturgical worship, and at the same time emphasises the observance of the Law,
especially in matters of justice and charity. He brings them together in this
reading. To live a deeply moral life is in itself a form of worship. But formal
worship is also important for him.
He begins by saying that:
…one who heeds the commandments makes an offering of
well-being.
Following the teaching of Jesus, we Christians believe that,
to extend true love and service to brothers and sisters, especially those in
need, is to worship God really present in each one.
As examples, Sirach says:
…one who returns a kindness offers choice flour, and one
who gives alms sacrifices a thank offering.
To abstain from moral wrongdoing is to make an act pleasing
to God, and to give up sinful ways is the equivalent of making atonement (the
Day of Atonement was the greatest day in the liturgical calendar of the Jews).
We are told:
Do not appear before the Lord empty-handed, for all that
you offer is in fulfillment of the commandment.
To “appear before the Lord” means to approach the Temple
with offerings. And to come empty-handed here does not mean coming without
sacrificial offerings, but without a record of good behaviour and acts of
kindness and help to those in need.
Jesus’ teaches that, if we recall that someone has been hurt
by us in some way, we need to work to bring them healing and reconciliation,
and do so before we go to make our sacrificial offering. There is an intimate
relationship between what is offered in the Temple and the kind of person who
is making the offering.
The offering of the righteous enriches the altar,
and its pleasing odor rises before the Most High.
The offering of fruits or animals becomes greatly enhanced
when the one offering is someone living a life truly in harmony with God’s will
as given to us in the teaching of Jesus.
The sacrifice of the righteous is acceptable,
and it will never be forgotten.
It is the lifestyle of the one offering which gives the
offering its real value before God.
As Christians, we need to take this reading to heart. We
sometimes describe a daily communicant as a ‘good’ Catholic. But we also do not
see what we call the ‘Sunday’ Catholic as an ideal. ‘Going to Mass’ must be
much more than the mere observance of a commandment.
On the one hand, the way of life offered to us in the Gospel
must be the basis for our everyday living and influence all our words, actions
and relationships. Our Sunday worship, if properly celebrated, is intimately
connected with our living a Gospel-centred life. And a Gospel-centred life will
have a lot to bring to the celebration of the Eucharist. Perhaps it is in this
that we find one of the inherent weaknesses of our Christian life in these
times.
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Commentary on Mark
10:28-31
Having overcome their initial shock at what Jesus had to say
about the danger of wealth as a serious obstacle to being a follower of Jesus
or of being a member of the Kingdom, his disciples begin to take stock of their
own actual situation. Clearly they cannot even be remotely numbered among the
wealthy. Is there something to be said in favour of their relative poverty?
Worried, the ever-irrepressible Peter exclaims:
Look, we have left everything and followed you.
Indeed they had. At the beginning of Mark’s Gospel we are
told that, on Jesus’ invitation, they had abandoned their whole livelihood and
become followers of Jesus. It was a bold step when they really had no idea
where it would lead them.
Jesus replied:
Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and
for the sake of the good news who will not receive a hundredfold now in this
age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with
persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will
be last, and the last will be first.
This sounds like a pie-in-the-sky promise, but has it been
fulfilled? In fact, it has been—and many times over. By leaving a world where
each one scrambles for a piece of the cake and where some get a huge piece and
others only get crumbs, the Christian who truly has the spirit of the Gospel
enters a community where everyone takes care of everyone else, and where each
one’s needs are taken care of by a sharing of the community’s resources.
This is how, by leaving one’s home and family and giving
away one’s material goods, one enters a new family in which there are far more
mothers, brothers and sisters; where one home is replaced by many homes
offering their warmth and hospitality—in essence, offering a home away from
home.
This is a reality which, unfortunately, has not been
realised among many Christians—those who choose to live their daily lives in
the rat race for acquisition characteristic of our modern capitalist societies.
Their behavior reflects their belief that what they cannot get by their own
efforts they will never come to enjoy.
Yet there are examples. One of the most obvious is religious
life where the words of Jesus are lived out. The question is why should only
religious have this experience of shared love and shared material goods? There
are Christian communities and some charismatic groups where families live in a
communal style sharing all their resources.
But by and large, we have to a great extent failed to
realise that Christianity is not meant to be a religion where individuals, rich
and poor, live individualistic lives and carry out certain ‘religious’ acts to
“save their own souls”. Rather, Christianity essentially consists of creating a
whole new way of living, by which people relate to each other in mutual love
and care.
Jesus says that in his world the first will be last and the
last first. In fact, he is saying that in his world there is no first and no
last. Perhaps this can be illustrated by the following story.
A rich man was concerned about his future salvation, whether
he would ‘go to heaven’ or not. In order to motivate himself, he asked God to
give him a preview of heaven and hell, and God agreed. God said that they would
first pay a visit to hell. When they got there the man was greatly surprised.
He was brought into a sumptuous dining room of a large restaurant all decorated
in red and gold. In the centre was a large round table and on it were the most
exotic and delicious dishes that could be envisioned. Around the table were
seated the diners. They were the most miserable-looking group one could
imagine, all sitting there motionless and in silence just looking at the
beautiful food in front of them. The reason for their glumness was that they
had been given utensils which were three feet long! There was no way they could
get any of the food into their mouths. And they were going to sit there like
that for eternity. That was hell!
God then brought the man to heaven. Again he was amazed.
Because they were in an identical banquet room, with the same kind of table and
the same wonderful food. But everybody was in the highest spirits. The sound of
laughter rang out everywhere. They were really enjoying themselves and the
meal. Was this because they had the normal length utensils? No! Theirs were
also three-feet long, but here everyone was reaching out food to serve people
on the opposite side of the table—that was heaven.
It is a very good illustration of today’s Gospel. When
everyone serves, everyone is served. When everyone gives, everyone gets. It is
a lesson even we Christians seem to find difficult to learn.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1083g/
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Lord,
guide the course of world events and give Your Church the
joy and peace of serving You in freedom.
You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading -
Mark 10: 28-31
Peter began to say to Jesus, "We have given up
everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there
is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for
my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who
will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses
and brothers and sisters and mothers and
children and lands, with persecutions,
and eternal life in the age to come. But
many that are first will be last, and the last will be first."
Reflection
• In yesterday’s
Gospel, Jesus spoke about the conversation among the disciples about material
goods: to get away from things, to sell everything, to give it to the poor and
to follow Jesus. Or rather, like Jesus,
they should live in total gratuity, placing their own life in the hands of God,
serving the brothers and sisters (Mk 10: 17-27). In today’s Gospel, Jesus explains
how this life of gratuity and service of those who abandon everything for Him,
for Jesus and for the Gospel, should be (Mk 10: 28-31).
• Mark 10: 28-31: A
hundred times as much, as well as persecutions too. Peter observes: “We have
left everything and followed You.” It
is like saying: “We have done what
the Lord asked of the young rich man. We have abandoned everything, and
we have followed You. Explain to us how
our life should be.” Peter wants Jesus to explain more of the new way of living
in service and gratuity. The response from Jesus is beautiful, profound, and symbolic:
“In truth there is
no one who has
left house, brothers,
sisters, mother, father, children
or land for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times as much,
houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children
and land, with persecutions too, now in the present time and in the
world to come. Many who are first will
be last and the last, first.” The type of life which springs from the gift of everything
is an example of the Kingdom which Jesus wants to establish (a)
to extend the
family and to
create community; it
increases a hundred times the
number of brothers and sisters. (b) It
produces the sharing of goods because all will have a hundred times more houses
and land. Divine Providence incarnates itself and passes through the fraternal organization, where everything
belongs to everyone and there are no longer persons who are in need. They put
into practice the Law of God which asks, “that there be no poor among you” (Dt
15: 4-11). This was what the first Christians did (Acts 2: 42- 45). It is the perfect living out of service
and gratuity. (c) They should not expect any privilege in return, no security,
no type of promotion. Rather, in this life they will have all this, but with persecutions. Because in
this world, organized on ego and the special interests of groups and people, those
who want to live a gratuitous love and the gift of self will be crucified as
Jesus was. (d) They will be persecuted in this world, but in the future world
they will have eternal life, which the rich young man spoke about.
• Jesus is the choice
of the poor. A two-fold slavery characterized the situation of the people of the time of Jesus: the slavery from the politics of Herod supported
by the Roman Empire and maintained by a well-organized system of exploitation
and repression, and
the slavery of
the official religion, maintained by the religious
authority of the time. This is why the
clan, the family, the community, were all being disintegrated, and a great
number of the people were excluded, marginalized, homeless, and having no place
in religion or in society. This is why several movements arose which were
seeking a new way of living in community: the Essene, the Pharisees, and later
on, the Zealots. Inthe community of Jesus there was something new which made it
different from other groups. It was the attitude toward the poor and the
excluded. The communities of the
Pharisees lived separated.
The word “Pharisee” means “separated.”
They lived separated from impure people. Many Pharisees considered people
ignorant and cursed (Jn 7: 49), and in sin (Jo 9: 34). Jesus and His community,
on the contrary, lived together with
these excluded persons who were considered impure: publicans, sinners, prostitutes, and lepers (Mk 2: 16;
1: 41; Lk 7: 37). Jesus recognizes the richness
and the values which the poor possess (Mt 11: 25-26; Lk 21: 1-4). He
proclaims them blessed, because the Kingdom is theirs - it belongs to the poor (Lk 6: 20; Mt 5: 3).
He defines His mission: “to proclaim the Good News to the poor” (Lk 4: 18). He himself lives as a poor person. He possesses nothing
for Himself, not even a rock where to lay His head (Lk 9: 58). And to those who
want to follow Him to share His life, He tells them to choose: God or money!
(Mt 6: 24). He orders that they choose in favor of the poor! (Mk 10: 21). The
poverty which characterized the life of Jesus and the disciples also characterized
the mission. Contrary to other missionaries (Mt 23: 15), the disciples of Jesus could take nothing with them,
neither gold, nor money, nor two tunics, nor purse, nor sandals (Mt 10:9-10).
They had to trust in the hospitality offered to them (Lk 9: 4; 10: 5-6). If they would be accepted by
the people, they should work like
everybody else and live from what they
would receive as wages for their work (Lk 10: 7-8). They should take care of
the sick and those in need (Lk 10: 9; Mt 10: 8). Now they could tell the
people: “The Kingdom of God is very near to you!” (Lk 10: 9).
Personal questions
• In your life, how
do you practice as Peter did: “We have left everything and have followed you”?
• Gratuitous sharing,
service, acceptance to the excluded, are signs of the Kingdom. What do I do to
live this? When do I do it? Can there be more?
• Look inside.
What is the real motivation? Is it from
love, or for gain? Is it a “transaction,”
gaining extra “credits” for the next life? Is pride involved? Are there other
reasons?
• Worldy wisdom
teaches one has to be powerful, a “mover and shaker,” to influence others. How
does one influence others when they have given away everything and in the
world’s eyes are poor? At what point, or in what way, would one’s poverty speak
louder and be more influential?
Concluding Prayer
The whole wide world has seen the saving power of our God.
Acclaim Yahweh, all the earth, burst into shouts of joy! (Ps
98: 3-4)
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