6th Week, Thursday, Feb 16th
Genesis 9:1-13 / Mark 8:27-33
God speaks to Noah and his sons; "1 will demand an accounting from you. "
Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle took sick on a plane and was rushed to a hospital when the plane landed. Later, Mantle told a newspaper reporter about a dream he had while in the hospital. "I dreamed I died and went to heaven. St. Peter greeted me. I said, 'I'm Mickey Mantle.' He said, 'Really? Come in, God wants to see you.' "I went in to see God, and he said, 'We can't keep you here because of the way you acted. But do me a favour and sign six dozen baseballs.' "
When the humour of Mantle's dream subsides, the truth emerges. No one will escape God's judgment, and no one will get VIP treatment then.
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What do we fear most about God's judgment? "Do you suppose . . . that you will escape the judgment of God?" Romans 2:3
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God makes a provisional covenant with people. Von Rad calls this the beginning of the patience of God. Life belongs to him too, for people can take the life of animals for their food provided the sign of life, blood, is drained from them, but the life of fellow human beings cannot be taken without punishment.
The Gospel tells us today that Jesus asked his disciples one day who they thought he was, and Peter said: You are the Christ, that is, the promised Savior. But when Jesus told them, he would save people by his suffering and death before his resurrection, Peter protested. He could not accept a suffering Lord. For us too, it is hard to accept pain and contradiction. We grumble and protest: “Why me?” But, we have to learn from Jesus that pain and hardship is part of life, and often the way to life and joy. People who have suffered for others understand what love means.
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The Church has issued several documents to emphasize its teaching on human life. Documents like Humane Vitae and Evangelium Vitae talk about the dignity and sacredness of human life. As a matter of fact, these teachings flow from the Scriptures.
In the 1st reading from Genesis, we hear this dignity and sacredness of human life emphasized once again. God will demand an account of every man's life from his fellow man. And he who shed man's blood shall have his blood shed by man, for in the image of God, the man was made. Those are powerful and authoritative words that do not need further elaboration. But on the other hand, what happens when man sheds God's blood?
What happens when man puts God to death? Jesus prophesied that He will be put to death by man. If God used the same command that He gave to man, then we will be doomed to the deepest and darkest depths. Because by our sins, we shed God's blood and we put Him to death. Yet strangely enough, it was by the shedding of the blood of Jesus that we are saved. Indeed, how strange God's love is for man.
The gospel of the dignity of life and the sacredness of life are one and the same gospel. Yet the gospel of God's unconditional and sacrificial love for man, even to the point of shedding His blood and dying for man, is the good news of our salvation.
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Prayer
Lord our God, to meet hardship and suffering caused by others or for the sake of others is often hard to take. We complain and it shakes our trust. Help us to accept suffering as a part of life and a way to grow and if we do not understand its mystery, help us to bear it for others, as Jesus did, your Son, who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
