Monday February 15

 SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

DEMANDING SIGNS FROM HEAVEN

 

Introduction

      Sin, even murder, shows its ugly head right after the loss of paradise. Or does the story express the conflict between two cultures, the sedentary life based on the land (Cain) and the nomadic life of the shepherd Abel? Yet for his punishment Cain becomes himself a fugitive nomad.

      In the gospel, the Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign that his authority came from heaven. But we too look often for signs and reassurances. Are the words of Jesus not assurance enough? Does not faith consist in trusting him? Our sign is the life and the message of Jesus.

 

Opening Prayer

Lord God,
forgive us that in our weak faith,
we ask sometimes for signs and wonders.
We know that you are our Father,
but it is not always easy for us
to recognize your loving presence.
Give us eyes of faith to see the sign
that you are with us in Jesus and his message.
We say so reluctantly, for it is painful:
purify our trust in you and in Jesus,
that we may become more mature Christians,
who love you through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Reading 1: Gen 4:1-15, 25

The man had relations with his wife Eve,
and she conceived and bore Cain, saying,
“I have produced a man with the help of the LORD.”
Next she bore his brother Abel.
Abel became a keeper of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the soil.
In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD
from the fruit of the soil,
while Abel, for his part,
brought one of the best firstlings of his flock.
The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
but on Cain and his offering he did not.
Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.
So the LORD said to Cain:
“Why are you so resentful and crestfallen.
If you do well, you can hold up your head;
but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door:
his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.”
When they were in the field,
Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the LORD asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
He answered, “I do not know.
Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The LORD then said:  “What have you done!
Listen: your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil!
Therefore you shall be banned from the soil
that opened its mouth to receive
your brother’s blood from your hand.
If you till the soil, it shall no longer give you its produce.
You shall become a restless wanderer on the earth.”
Cain said to the LORD:  “My punishment is too great to bear.
Since you have now banished me from the soil,
and I must avoid your presence
and become a restless wanderer on the earth,
anyone may kill me at sight.”
“Not so!” the LORD said to him.
“If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged sevenfold.”
So the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest anyone should kill him at sight.

Adam again had relations with his wife,
and she gave birth to a son whom she called Seth.
“God has granted me more offspring in place of Abel,” she said,
“because Cain slew him.”

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 50:1 and 8, 16bc-17, 20-21

(14a)  Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.”
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
“You sit speaking against your brother;
against your mother’s son you spread rumors.
When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.”
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

 

Alleluia: Jn 14:6

Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: Mk 8:11-13

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus,
seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.
He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,
“Why does this generation seek a sign?
Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
Then he left them, got into the boat again,
and went off to the other shore.

 

Intercessions:

–         For people who have to face trials, that they may grow as persons and Christians through this testing of their faith, we pray:

–         For those who doubt their faith or who hesitate to commit themselves the way their faith demands, that the Lord may give them insight and strength, we pray:

–         For all of us, that the Lord may increase our faith and make it spontaneous and rich, without our needing special signs, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

God, our Father,
when contradicted and rejected,
your Son Jesus did not waver.
He accepted life with its sufferings
to bring us forgiveness and joy.
Do not allow us to be tossed about
by the waves of our doubts and fears,
but accept in this bread and wine
our will to be faithful to you and each other
in trials as well as in joys.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord our God, loving Father,
we know that unseen but ever-present,
you stand by our side in days of trial.
Help us also not to abandon
our brothers and sisters in need
but to strengthen their trust in you,
that together we may go forward
toward the joy that you promise us
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Blessing

The sign given us by Jesus is Jesus himself, God is showing himself in Jesus, in his inspiring word of life, in the tenderness of his healing, in his acceptance of all people, including outcasts and the poor. May God open your eyes and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

In Us and all around us 

The season of Lent is just a couple of days away. Then we will reflect on the temptation of Jesus in the desert. The devil would ask Jesus to turn the stones into bread, so that he could satisfy his hunger or to Jump down from the pinnacle of the temple to make a spectacular show of his might so that people would instantly believe him. If our understanding of the temptation of Jesus as just those three temptations in the desert, we are mistaken.

The forty days in the desert is a representation of the entire time, the Lord spent in this world, where temptation was a constant reality. The confrontation with the pharisees in today’s gospel is just one of such instances. As in the temptation story, here the Pharisees take up the role of the devil and ask for a sign from heaven. Jesus does not care to given an answer to the devil in the desert, and that is what is manifested here in his response to the Pharisees. “No sign will be given to this generation!”

In the previous chapters of the Gospel of Mark, he has narrated numerous miracles of Jesus – the healing of Peter’s mother in-law, and then the multitudes, the leper, the deaf and dump, the blind, feeding the multitudes – miracles were aplenty. But the pharisees failed to see them. Are we searching for spectacular signs in the sky or in our neighbourhood so that our faith could be strengthened? In fact, the mighty hand of God is at work with in us and all around us, and yet we fail to see them.