Monday January 18  

Second Week In Ordinary Time

 

OLD AND NEW

 

Introduction

      This very well-known passage of Hebrews evokes the central place in our faith of the passion and glorification of Christ. Jewish priests had to offer first sacrifices for their own sins. Christ replaced the “I will not serve” with the service of obedience to the will of the Father.

      You know from experience that change is always a problem to us. It calls us away from the security of our ingrained habits and our certainties and it forces us to go unfamiliar ways. That is why, as if by nature, we resist change. It is an inherent law of Christianity to be always open to renewal and conversion. The trouble is that the old and the new are usually intolerant of one another.

 

Opening Prayer

Unchanging and ever-new God,
you want us to be your pilgrim people
on the march with Jesus, your Son,
toward a new future of justice and love.
Do not allow us to be suffocated in being contented
with old habits and sluggish ways.
Help us to accept the pain
of leaving the familiar behind us
and open us to the challenge of the Gospel
to become more like your Son
who guides our faltering steps,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Reading 1: Heb 5:1-10

Brothers and sisters:
Every high priest is taken from among men
and made their representative before God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,
for he himself is beset by weakness
and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself
as well as for the people.
No one takes this honor upon himself
but only when called by God,
just as Aaron was.
In the same way,
it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest,
but rather the one who said to him:
You are my Son:
this day I have begotten you;
just as he says in another place,
You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
In the days when he was in the Flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4 

(4b) You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
till I make your enemies your footstool.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from Zion:
“Rule in the midst of your enemies.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
“Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD has sworn, and he will not repent:
“You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.

 

Alleluia: Heb 4:12

Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: Mk 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

 

Intercessions:

–         For the Church, that the People of God and its leaders may follow the promptings of the creative Spirit, to speak to the people of today in the language of today, the ever-new message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we pray:

–         For artists, poets and inventors, that they may reveal to us the splendor of creation and the riches of life beyond its apparent drabness, we pray:

–         For our communities, that we may not be afraid of authentic change and draw from Christ the courage to start the renewal of the world and of the Church with the renewal of ourselves, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord, our God,
with bread and wine, we celebrate
the covenant you renew with us
in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Make us indeed your new faithful people
bound to you in an everlasting union of love.
Renew our hearts;
make us your new wine of hope and joy,
that we may rebuild this earth today
and march forward with your Son
toward a new heaven,
where you will be our God for ever.

 

Prayer after Communion

God of hope,
you have given us Jesus, your Son,
as our companion on the road
for understanding the old familiar things
with a new and young heart
and for renewing ourselves and the world.
Let him prod us on
when we try to compromise
by merely patching up the old here and there;
let him curb our impatience
when we try to rush people
beyond their capacity for growth.
Lead us ever forward through our trusted guide,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Blessing

Yes, it is not easy to change ourselves, our Church, our world. But life is growth. We have to grow up to the size and the stature of Christ. We have to become mature Christians in mature communities, with the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

 

Reflection:

For the Jewish religion, fasting was one of the three most important religious duties, along with prayer and almsgiving. In today’s gospel, the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees have a problem: Jesus does not endorse the practice of fasting. Jesus has a simple explanation. There’s a time for fasting and a time for feasting (or celebrating).

Remember, the Gospel of Mark begins with saying, “the Good News of Jesus Christ”. The whole gospel speaks of a celebration, because Jesus, the Christ, is among us and speaks to us, and makes our lives happy. There is no time for despair and crying. To be a disciple of Jesus is to experience a whole new joy of relationship similar to the joy of celebrating a wedding party with the groom and bride.

Despite the regrets and moments of pains and sufferings, with the Word of God in hand, we can see things differently. God is with us, and he will not give up on his children. Jesus goes on to warn his disciples about the problem of the “closed mind” that refuses to learn new things. Jesus used an image familiar to his audience — new and old wineskins.

How do we understand today the examples of the patch on the cloth and the new wine in new wineskins? Now who would repair old clothes and use them with patches? Few people repair clothes anymore. When a cloth is torn, we would rather go for a new one.

In today’s terms We should be talking about “not adding new memory cards to old computers”, or “not installing applications that consume a lot of memory in old cell phones. In any case, the message is clear: the Good News of Jesus invites us be joyous people, people of celebration: because God is near. His mercy and forgiveness is available for everyone. God is not someone to be afraid of. He doesn’t want us to hold rigidly to the past and to be resistant to the new work of his Holy Spirit in our lives. He wants our minds and hearts to be like new wine skins — open and ready to receive the new wine of the Holy Spirit.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins. “Remain in my love and you will bear fruit in abundance” (cf. Jn 15: 5-9) , these words of Jesus to his disciples are the motto of this year. Let’s pray that we can one day celebrate the Eucharist together, as true brothers and sisters of Christ, sharing his body and blood.

“Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we may grow in the knowledge of your great love and truth. May we always find joy in knowing, loving, and serving you.”