1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30 / Mark 7:1-13
Solomon
prays to God: “Listen to my prayer!”
Henry
Nouwen is an authority on the spiritual life. He makes this surprising
statement in his book Prayer
and Hope: “[The person] who prays with hope might ask for
everything . . . like nice weather and advancement. This concreteness is a sign
of authenticity. . . . “All those concrete requests are merely . . . ways of
saying that we must trust in the fullness of God’s goodness. . . . Whenever we
pray with hope we put our lives in the hands of God.”
Today’s
reading reminds us not to hesitate to place before God all our concrete needs. How
concretely and specifically do we speak to God about the affairs of our life? Jesus
said to his disciples, “Ask, and you will receive; seek,
and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9
****
The Catechism of
the Catholic Church teaches that "The Church is both visible and
spiritual, a hierarchical society and the Mystical Body of Christ. She is one,
yet formed of two components, human and divine. That is her mystery, which only
faith can accept." (#779) Yes, the Church is human as well as divine. Yet
at times, the flawed humanness of the Church has also blurred the divine aspect
of the Church. In other words, if the Church fails to be like Jesus Christ her
Lord, then she has failed in being essentially what she was created to be.
In the 1st
reading, king Solomon marvelled and praised God for coming down from the
highest heavens to dwell in the humble Temple he had built. Yet his prayer is
nothing less than a plea - Listen to the prayer and entreaty of your servant,
Lord my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer your servant makes to you
today. Day and night let your eyes watch over this house, over this place of
which you have said, "My name shall be there".
Yes, it is so easy
for people to lose the sense of the divine presence in the house of God and
when that happens, the presence of evil starts to grow in the hearts of the
people who can be right there in the house of God.
That was why king Solomon pleaded that God watches over the
Temple which is a sign of His presence among His people.
Similarly in the gospel, Jesus admonished Pharisees and
scribes for putting aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.
So it is like doing something religious but with an ulterior
human motive and vested interest.
When that happens in the Church, then we have failed. We
have showed a sinful human side of the Church and suppressed the divine aspect.
We need to plead to God as one, holy, catholic and
apostolic Church: Listen to the prayer and entreaty of your servants, Lord my
God; listen to the cry and to the prayer your servants make to You today. Day
and night let Your eyes watch over this house, over this place of which You
have said, "My name shall be there".
****
Tuesday of 5th Week:
Liturgy
THE TEMPLE IS FOR
PEOPLE
Introduction
At the dedication of the
Temple of Jerusalem, King Solomon prayed to the Lord. He asked God to be always
present in the temple for the sake of the covenant; thus, he would be available
to people expressing their needs. After a period of initial fervor, the
teaching of the Pharisees began to imply that people were to be sacrificed for
the sake of the Temple, that religious traditions (made by people and
juridical) were more important than God’s laws, which are supposed to be
interior to people and express a personal relationship. Jesus takes them to
much task for it. For the Temple of the Lord is there for people, not people
for the Temple.
Opening Prayer
Father, God of the
ever-new covenant, you have tied us to yourself with leading strings of lasting
love; the words you speak to us are spirit and life. Open our hearts to your
words, that they may touch us in the deepest of ourselves. May they move us to
serve you not in a slavish way, but as your sons and daughters who love you and
whom you have set free through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Commentary
“How lovely is your
dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!” Solomon stands in awesome wonder before God
in today’s first reading. How could it be that the God whom the heavens cannot
contain should dwell in a house built by human hands. This suggests how closely
God abides with us. Hate crimes sometimes take the form of burning churches.
This is seen as particularly sacrilegious, because in every church God comes
close to his people. As Christians we believe that God dwells in Jesus in a
totally unique way. God is also believed to be present in his word, and
therefore we surround the scriptures with special reverence. Christ is also
present in the form of bread and wine, not only symbolically but really. This
is the great sacrament of God’s love. But it does not end there. Christ truly
lives in the baptized believer. With Paul we can say, “And it is no longer I
who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). As Christians we respect each
other as human beings but also as living temples of God, vessels of Christ. These
are primary considerations of our faith. Unfortunately, like the people in
today’s Gospel, we are preoccupied with secondary issues. Yet when all is said
and done, this alone is necessary: to know God, and to know Jesus Christ, who
was sent by God.
Points to Ponder
Reverence for a church
God’s presence in his
Word
The Eucharist: Christ’s
presence Christ living in the Christian
Intercessions
– For the Church, that it
may not replace the Gospel with rites and laws of human invention, but bring to
people the freedom, the gentleness and the light of Christ, we pray:
– For those who are upset
by the changes in the Church, that they may learn to appreciate the attempts of
God’s people to understand and live our faith in a contemporary way that
remains true to the Gospel, we pray:
– For us who share in the
Lord’s table, that we may learn from Jesus that love is the heart of the law
and that true love knows how to serve, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God, we bring
before you our readiness to respond to your love. Strengthen us with the body
and blood of your Son Jesus Christ, that with him, we may be dedicated to you with
our whole mind and heart, and that we may be capable of communicating your love
and justice to all those around us. Grant this through Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, your Son
has shared himself with us in this Eucharistic celebration. Give us his Spirit
of strength, we pray you, that we may also share in his attitude of openness to
your will and to the needs of people. May we thus, fulfill more than the law and
serve you as your sons and daughters, in whom you recognize Jesus Christ, your
Son and our Lord for ever.
Blessing
As grateful children of
God, let us put our hearts in seeking in the commandments not our will but the
will of God, so that we do not ask what God orders us to do but simply how we
can respond to his love and show that love to the people around us. May God
bless you all: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
***
Saint Paul Miki and Companions
Feast day February 6
When the first missionaries, like St. Francis Xavier, came
to Japan in 1549 they were welcomed. Many Japanese became Christians. When the
leader Hideyoshi took command, he feared that Christians would take over the
government. In 1587 he banished them and destroyed many of their churches. Some
missionary priests stayed and went into hiding, dressing like Japanese in order
to minister to the Christians.
More than 3,000 Christians were martyred in Japan. On
December 8, 1596, Hideyoshi arrested and condemned to death the friars of
Miako. Among them were three Japanese Jesuits, six Franciscans (four of them
Spanish), and seventeen Japanese laymen. Charged with attempting to harm the
government, they were sentenced to crucifixion. Some of these men were very
young: Louis was 10; Anthony, 13; Thomas, was 16; and Gabriel, was 19. The best known
is Paul Miki, who was a Japanese of a noble family, a Jesuit brother, and a
brilliant preacher.
The twenty-six men were tortured and then forced to walk
more than 300 miles from Miako to Nagasaki through snow ice and freezing
streams. Along the way, they preached to the people who had come out to see
them. They sang psalms of praise and joy. They prayed the rosary and told the
people that such a martyrdom was an occasion of rejoicing, not of sadness.
Finally, on February 5, they reached Nagasaki, where twenty-six crosses awaited
them on a hill now called the Holy Mountain. It is said that the Christians ran
to their crosses, singing. Soldiers bound them to the crosses with iron bands
at their wrists, ankles, and throats. Then they thrust them through with
lances. Many people came to watch the cruel deaths. Hideyoshi and his soldiers
had hoped the example would frighten other Christians. Instead, it gave them
the courage to profess their faith as the martyrs had.
In 1858, Japan again permitted Christianity in Japan.
Missionaries found thousands of Christians still in Japan. For two hundred
years they had carried on the faith in secret.
Paul Miki was born in Japan and educated by the Jesuits. He
would have been the very first Japanese priest if he had escaped arrest, for he
had already completed his studies for the priesthood. From his cross he forgave
his persecutors and told the people to ask Christ to show them how to be truly
happy.
