4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
St. John Bosco, priest
Psalter: Week 4 / (White)
Ps 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7
Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
1st Reading: 2 S 24:2, 9-17*
(…) The following day, before David awoke, Yahweh’s word had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, “Go, and give David this message: I offer you three things and I will let one of them befall you according to your own choice.” So Gad went to David and asked him, “Do you want three years of famine in your land? Or do you want to be pursued for three months by your foes while you flee from them? Or do you want three days’ pestilence in your land? Now, think and decide what answer I shall give him who sent me.”
David answered Gad, “I am greatly troubled. Let me fall into the hands of Yahweh whose mercy is abundant; but let me not fall into human hands.”
So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from morning until the appointed time, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan to Beersheba. When the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh would punish no more and said to the angel who was causing destruction among the people, “It is enough, hold back your hand.” The angel of Yahweh was already at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite.
When David saw the angel striking the people, he spoke to Yahweh and said, “I have sinned and acted wickedly, but these are only the sheep; what have they done? Let your hand strike me and my father’s family.”
Gospel: Mk 6:1-6
Leaving that place, Jesus returned to his own country, and his disciples followed him. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and most of those who heard him were astonished. But they said, “How did this come to him? What kind of wisdom has been given to him, that he also performs such miracles? Who is he but the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offense at him.
And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives, and in their own family.” And he could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people, by laying his hands on them. Jesus himself was astounded at their unbelief.
Reflections
LET ME FALL INTO THE HANDS OF YAHWEH
Kierkegaard, a famous philosopher said: “Faith is leap into the dark” and I add: ”Because you are sure to fall into the hands of the living God. When I went to Germany to study, I passed by our Motherhouse which had a boathouse near the Stanberg lake where the Sisters would go when they would swim in the lake. They couldn’t believe I could not swim even if I live in an island. Anyway they taught me to swim. The first thing is to float. The more I tried, the more I sank until at one moment I just stopped trying and let go and lo and behold, I floated. Then I reflected on the spirituality of swimming and that is of: LETTING GO — SURRENDER! Faith is actually letting go, surrendering oneself to God who loves us with an unconditional love. In life, we have to practice letting go and letting God. We will find out that when we have exhausted all human efforts to solve our problem and decide to put them into the heart of God, then a solution comes out of nowhere. And if we have become adept at letting go little by little, at the time of our death, when we really have to let go of everything, it will no longer be hard for us and we prepare ourselves to fall into the hand of our loving God.
Daily Reflection 2018
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
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