February 9, 2026
Monday of the Fifth
Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary:
329
Reading I
The elders
of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes,
the princes in the ancestral houses of the children of Israel,
came to King Solomon in Jerusalem,
to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant
from the City of David, which is Zion.
All the people of Israel assembled before King Solomon
during the festival in the month of Ethanim (the seventh month).
When all the elders of Israel had arrived,
the priests took up the ark;
they carried the ark of the LORD
and the meeting tent with all the sacred vessels
that were in the tent.
(The priests and Levites carried them.)
King Solomon and the entire community of Israel
present for the occasion
sacrificed before the ark sheep and oxen
too many to number or count.
The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD
to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary,
the holy of holies of the temple.
The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark,
sheltering the ark and its poles from above.
There was nothing in the ark but the two stone tablets
which Moses had put there at Horeb,
when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel
at their departure from the land of Egypt.
When the priests left the holy place,
the cloud filled the temple of the LORD
so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud,
since the LORD’s glory had filled the temple of the LORD.
Then Solomon said, “The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud;
I have truly built you a princely house,
a dwelling where you may abide forever.”
Responsorial Psalm
R. (8a) Lord,
go up to the place of your rest!
Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah;
we
found it in the fields of Jaar.
Let us enter into his dwelling,
let us
worship at his footstool.
R. Lord, go up to the place
of your rest!
Advance, O LORD, to your resting place,
you and
the ark of your majesty.
May your priests be clothed with justice;
let
your faithful ones shout merrily for joy.
For the sake of David your servant,
reject
not the plea of your anointed.
R. Lord, go up to the place
of your rest!
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
After
making the crossing to the other side of the sea,
Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret
and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country
and began to bring in the sick on mats
to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020926.cfm
Commentary on 1
Kings 8:1-7,9-13
As we begin today’s reading, Solomon has completed the
building of his magnificent Temple as a permanent dwelling place for the Lord.
The building is described in 1 Kings (chapter 6), and we are told it took seven
years, not really very long by the standards of the time for what seems to have
been a very large structure. Many of Europe’s great churches took much longer
to complete.
Chapter 8, from which today’s reading is taken, describes
the dedication of the Temple and the installation there of the Ark of the
Covenant. At the instructions of King Solomon, the elders, leaders and princes
of the people brought the Ark up in solemn procession from the city of David,
also referred to as Zion. As we saw in a previous reading, David had previously
brought the Ark from the House of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem, where it had been temporarily
placed.
During the festival in the month of Ethanim, all the people
of Israel gathered in the presence of Solomon. Ethanim was a month in the
Canaanite calendar which corresponded to the 7th month of the Jewish year. The
feast which took place in this month was that of the Tabernacles (or Tents).
This was 11 months after the completion of the Temple and the 12th year of
Solomon’s reign. This feast was an appropriate time for the transition of God’s
dwelling among formerly nomadic (tent-dwelling) tribes to a permanent abode
among a now settled people.
When all the elders had assembled, the priests then carried
the Ark and the Meeting Tent with all the sacred vessels which were inside. The
Tent of Meeting was where the Ark was kept. It was called the ‘Tent of Meeting’
from the days in the desert when Moses used to ‘meet’ there with Yahweh.
Solomon and all the people were:
…sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not
be counted or numbered.
The Ark was carried by the priests to its place beneath the
wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies in the Temple. These
cherubim are described earlier, in chapter 6:23-28. The passage says in part:
In the inner sanctuary [were] two cherubim
of olivewood, each ten cubits high. Five cubits was the length of one wing of
the cherub and five cubits the length of the other wing of the cherub; it was
ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other…both cherubim had
the same measure and the same form…[Their] height…was ten cubits.
He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house; the wings of the
cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one was touching the one wall and a
wing of the other cherub was touching the other wall; their other wings toward
the center of the house were touching wing to wing. He also overlaid the
cherubim with gold.
(Note: A cubit was about 0.45 metres or 1.5 feet.)
The cherubim had their wings spread protectively over the
Ark, sheltering it and its carrying poles. Inside the Ark were just the two
stone tablets containing the Law, which Moses had received from Yahweh on Mount
Sinai and which Moses had placed there at Horeb.
As soon as the priests had left the Ark in the Holy of
Holies, the place was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could no longer
minister there:
…the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.
It was a clear endorsement of everything that had been done
and a confirmation of his presence, just as a visible manifestation of the
presence of the Lord had descended on the tabernacle at Sinai (see Ex
40:33-35).
Our reading finishes with a brief prayerful poem spoken by
Solomon:
The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.
I have built you an exalted house,
a place for you to dwell forever.
The image of the Lord dwelling in a dense cloud is one often
found in the Scriptures. And we see it in the Gospels during the experience of
the Transfiguration (see Matt 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36).
Solomon’s Temple was later replaced by the massive structure
erected by Herod the Great. Today, except for the fragment of the Wailing Wall,
it is no more, and in its place is an Islamic mosque.
But long before that, as Jesus died and said “It is
finished”, the veil of the Holy of Holies, where the Ark was kept, was torn
open to the common gaze. God was no longer present there. Instead, under the
new covenant, signed in Jesus’ blood, he is now present in his people. The
Temple now is not a building, but the community of disciples. And that is where
we are both to find him and reveal him:
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least
of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 25:40)
As Jesuit priest and scientist Teilhard de Chardin put it so
beautifully, we are living in a “divine milieu”. God is in the very air that we
breathe and in every person and experience that we encounter.
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Commentary on Mark
6:53-56
In last Saturday’s Gospel reading, we saw Jesus and the
Twelve landing at a remote place by the lake shore to spend a day of quietness
and reflection. But as soon as they disembarked, they were met by a huge number
of people for whom Jesus, as their Shepherd, was filled with the deepest
compassion. After teaching them at length, he arranged with his disciples for
the 5,000 people there to be fed.
After this, the disciples were sent off in their boat to
Bethsaida. On the way, they ran into a huge storm. In the middle of it, Jesus
appeared walking on the water. When he got into the boat and commanded the wind
and the waves, there was total calm. In our weekday readings from Mark, these
two scenes are passed over at this point (but we will be reflecting on them at
another time).
Today we have a passage summarising what Jesus was doing for
the people. It indicates the tremendous hunger of the people to be healed and
made whole by Jesus. The people recognise him immediately and go everywhere to
see him, bringing along those in need of healing. Jesus, in turn, was visiting
towns and villages. The sick, strong in their faith, only asked to be allowed
to touch the edges of his outer garment, and everyone who touched him was
healed and made whole.
Let us pray that our influence on others at home, at work,
and elsewhere may have a truly healing effect.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2052g/
Monday,
February 9, 2026
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,
forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel reading - Mark 6: 53-56
After making the crossing to the other side of the
sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As
they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried
about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to
wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he
entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might
touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.
Reflection
The text of today’s Gospel is the final part of the whole
passage of Mark 6: 45-56, which presents three different themes:
a) Jesus
goes to the mountain alone to pray (Mk 6: 45-46);
b) Immediately
after, He walks on the water, goes toward the disciples who are struggling against
the waves of the sea (Mk 6: 47-52); Now,
in today’s Gospel, when they were already on the shore, the people look for
Jesus so that He can cure their sick (Mk 6: 53-56).
Mark 6: 53-56. The search of the
people. At that time, Jesus and His disciples having made the crossing, they
came to land at Gennesaret. When they disembarked, the people recognized Him at
once. The people were numerous. They came from all parts, bringing their sick.
The enthusiasm of the people who look for Jesus, recognize Him, and follow Him
is surprising. What impels people to search for Jesus is not only the desire to
encounter Him, to be with Him, but rather the desire to be cured of their
sicknesses. Hurrying through the countryside, they brought the sick on
stretchers to wherever they heard He went.
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 saved. The Gospel of Matthew comments and enlightens this fact quoting
the figure of the Servant of Yahweh, of whom Isaiah says, “Yet ours were the
sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying.” (Is 53: 4 and Mt
8: 16- 17)
To teach and to cure, to cure and to teach. Right
from the beginning of His apostolic activity, Jesus goes through all the
villages of Galilee, to speak to the people about the imminent coming of the
Kingdom of God (Mk 1: 14-15). There, wherever He finds people to listen to Him,
He speaks and transmits the Good News of God; He accepts the sick, in all
places: in the synagogues during the celebration of the Word on Saturday (Mk 1:
21; 3: 1; 6: 2); in the informal meetings in the houses of friends (Mk 2: 1,
15; 7: 17; 9: 28; 10: 10); walking on the street with the disciples (Mk 2: 23);
along the beach, sitting in a boat (Mk 4: 1); in the desert where He took
refuge and where people looked for Him (Mk 1: 45; 6: 32-34); on the mountain
from where He proclaimed the Beatitudes (Mt 5: 1); in the squares of the
villages and of the cities, where the people took their sick (Mk 6: 55-56); in
the Temple of Jerusalem, on the occasion of pilgrimages, every day without fear
(Mk 14: 49)! To cure and to teach, to teach and to cure, that is what Jesus did
the most (Mk 2: 13; 4: 1-2; 6: 34). This is what He used to do (Mk 10: 1). The
people were amazed (Mk 12: 37; 1: 22, 27; 11: 18) and they looked for Him, as a
crowd. The origin of this great enthusiasm of the people was, on the one hand,
the person of Jesus who called and attracted and, on the other hand, the
abandonment in which people lived, they were like sheep without a shepherd (cf.
Mk 6: 34). In Jesus, everything was revelation of what impelled Him from
within! He not only spoke of God, but He also revealed Him. He communicated
something of what He Himself lived and experienced. He not only announced the
Good News. He Himself was a proof, a living witness of the Kingdom. In Him was
manifested what happens when a human being allows God to reign in His life.
What has value, what is important, is not only the words, but also, and above
all, the witness, the concrete gesture. This is the Good News which attracts!
Personal Questions
The enthusiasm of the
people for Jesus, looking for the sense of life and a solution for their ills.
Where does this exist today? Does in exist in you? Does it exist in others?
What attracts is Jesus’ loving attitude toward the poor and
the abandoned. And I? How do I deal with the people excluded by society?
Concluding Prayer
How countless are Your works, Yahweh, all of them made so
wisely!
The earth is full of Your creatures. Bless Yahweh, my soul.
(Ps 104: 24, 35)
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