Monday February 1

FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

PEOPLE IN NEED

 

Introduction

      The author of Hebrews gives praise to the faith of great men and women of the Old Testament: Kings and other leaders, prophets, martyrs. Even if they did not yet know Christ, they had great faith.

      On his first journey to pagan territory, Jesus cures a possessed man. Biblical scholars generally accept the historical foundation of this strange incident, namely, that Jesus took pity on a sick man and revealed his divine power to the pagans. Much of the rest may be a midrash, a sort of free allegorical theological commentary in rabbinic style. For the Jews had a very low opinion of pagans. They were slaves of demons, living in impure places of death, like tombs, and not much better than pigs. In any case, Jesus is not limited by boundaries and goes to these most alienated people, but they do not accept him. Only the man who is healed shows faith in Jesus.

 

Opening Prayer

Lord, our God,
through your Son, Jesus Christ,
you showed your concerned love
even to the most pitiable of people.
Inspire among us too people who care,
and may our own words and gestures
always reflect the love without boundaries
of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Reading 1: Heb 11:32-40

Brothers and sisters:
What more shall I say?
I have not time to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
of David and Samuel and the prophets,
who by faith conquered kingdoms,
did what was righteous, obtained the promises;
they closed the mouths of lions, put out raging fires,
escaped the devouring sword;
out of weakness they were made powerful, became strong in battle,
and turned back foreign invaders.
Women received back their dead through resurrection.
Some were tortured and would not accept deliverance,
in order to obtain a better resurrection.
Others endured mockery, scourging, even chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword’s point;
they went about in skins of sheep or goats,
needy, afflicted, tormented.
The world was not worthy of them.
They wandered about in deserts and on mountains,
in caves and in crevices in the earth.

Yet all these, though approved because of their faith,
did not receive what had been promised.
God had foreseen something better for us,
so that without us they should not be made perfect.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24

(25) Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
How great is the goodness, O LORD,
which you have in store for those who fear you,
And which, toward those who take refuge in you,
you show in the sight of the children of men.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
You hide them in the shelter of your presence
from the plottings of men;
You screen them within your abode
from the strife of tongues.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Blessed be the LORD whose wondrous mercy
he has shown me in a fortified city.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Once I said in my anguish,
“I am cut off from your sight”;
Yet you heard the sound of my pleading
when I cried out to you.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Love the LORD, all you his faithful ones!
The LORD keeps those who are constant,
but more than requites those who act proudly.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.

 

Alleluia: Lk 7:16

Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has arisen in our midst
and God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: Mk 5:1-20

Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”
(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”)
He asked him, “What is your name?”

He  replied, “Legion is my name.  There are many of us.”
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
“Send us into the swine.  Let us enter them.”
And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened
to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
“Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.

 

Intercessions:

–         For the many in our harsh world who are still suffering from discrimination, treated as outcasts or nowhere welcome, we pray:

–         For all of us, that we may never see compassion as weakness or something to hide, we pray:

–         For gratitude for the gifts we have received from the Lord and for the goodness people have let us experience, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord, our God,
we bring bread and wine before you
to share in the thanksgiving of your Son.
With him we give you praise
for your covenant of love
and we ask you in all humility
always to remember that those around us
belong to you as much or more than we do,
on account of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord our God, you taught us today
that it is better to forgive than to punish,
better to help than to speak words of pity.
Help us to have concern toward our neighbor,
even when it is not appreciated,
the compassionate and uplifting attitude
of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Blessing

To the man he had cured, Jesus said: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.” Let us tell our friends how much the Lord has done for us, and may Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

In Search Of …

The herd of about 2000 swine could not stand the number of evil spirits that had possessed one man of the territory of Gerasenes. When Jesus drove out the legion from this possessed man, they got into the herd of swine but herd opted to die than to be possessed by the legion. The herd of swine prefer death to a life of being possessed.

A person living in sin is under the possession of the evil forces. And he /she is not even aware of how bad his condition is. But Jesus takes the initiative to come in search of this person to set him free. The only thing Jesus could do in this region was to heal the demoniac from the legion, and then he was forced to leave their shores. It appeared as if his only purpose of crossing over the sea was to save this man from the demons. Do we not see here the image of a shepherd who goes in search of his one lost sheep and once he finds it, he returns home?

After the Ascension of Jesus, the disciples travelled to far off places, bringing the message of Jesus, fighting the forces of evil. The reaction of the townsfolks in today’s gospel represents reaction of people to the Message of Jesus. People were furious at their financial loss and cared little about the healing of the possessed man.

Even today, for a lot of people, even among our Catholic friends, it is difficult to choose between financial gains or personal benefits and matters of faith. How often do we make the excuses for failing to take care of our spiritual life because we have something more important to do. We are not any different from the people of Gerasenes.

Saving one lost sheep was good enough for the continuation of the mission. The man who got cured, went around the whole regions of the Ten Cities – the Decapolis – and proclaimed what Jesus had done for him. God has his own ways of reaching his people, because after all, it is his Mission.

If you feel God is calling you for his mission, do not look for excuses!
Do not be disheartened when faced with absence of response or rejection from the people.
Efficacy of the Mission is not measured according to quantity – go in search of the lost sheep, even if only one was lost. There are hundreds of sick people or homeless people around us. Let us show our attention to at least one of them.