Friday January 28

Friday of 3rd Week of Ordinary Time

THOMAS AQUINAS, Church doctor

We  today St. Thomas Aquinas, who was one of the greatest theologians in the Church’s history, yet his life was marked by simplicity. He succeeded in making a harmonious synthesis between the philosophy of Aristotle and the theological thought of the Bible and of St. Augustine. Prayer and contemplation were the sources of his theology. In his time he was considered by many a dangerous innovator and suffered much contradiction. Let us ask today for his understanding of the faith, his wisdom and his spirit of prayer.

First Reading: 2 S 11:1-4, 5-10, 13-17

When that time of year came around again, the anniversary of the Ammonite aggression, David dispatched Joab and his fighting men of Israel in full force to destroy the Ammonites for good. They laid siege to Rabbah, but David stayed in Jerusalem.

One late afternoon, David got up from taking his nap and was strolling on the roof of the palace. From his vantage point on the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was stunningly beautiful. David sent to ask about her, and was told, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite?” David sent his agents to get her. After she arrived, he went to bed with her. (This occurred during the time of “purification” following her period.) Then she returned home. Before long she realized she was pregnant.

Later she sent word to David: “I’m pregnant.”

One late afternoon, David got up from taking his nap and was strolling on the roof of the palace. From his vantage point on the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was stunningly beautiful. David sent to ask about her, and was told, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite?” David sent his agents to get her. After she arrived, he went to bed with her. (This occurred during the time of “purification” following her period.) Then she returned home. Before long she realized she was pregnant.

Later she sent word to David: “I’m pregnant.”

David then got in touch with Joab: “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” Joab sent him.

When he arrived, David asked him for news from the front—how things were going with Joab and the troops and with the fighting. Then he said to Uriah, “Go home. Have a refreshing bath and a good night’s rest.”

After Uriah left the palace, an informant of the king was sent after him. But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance, along with the king’s servants.

 David was told that Uriah had not gone home. He asked Uriah, “Didn’t you just come off a hard trip? So why didn’t you go home?”

“All right,” said David, “have it your way. Stay for the day and I’ll send you back tomorrow.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem the rest of the day.

The next day David invited him to eat and drink with him, and David got him drunk. But in the evening Uriah again went out and slept with his master’s servants. He didn’t go home.

 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front lines where the fighting is the fiercest. Then pull back and leave him exposed so that he’s sure to be killed.”

 So Joab, holding the city under siege, put Uriah in a place where he knew there were fierce enemy fighters. When the city’s defenders came out to fight Joab, some of David’s soldiers were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.

Gospel: Mark 4:26-34

Then Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows—he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain is fully formed, he reaps—harvest time!

 “How can we picture God’s kingdom? What kind of story can we use? It’s like a pine nut. When it lands on the ground it is quite small as seeds go, yet once it is planted it grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches. Eagles nest in it.”

With many stories like these, he presented his message to them, fitting the stories to their experience and maturity. He was never without a story when he spoke. When he was alone with his disciples, he went over everything, sorting out the tangles, untying the knots.

Prayer

Lord our God,
we thank you for St. Thomas,
a great saint and a wise thinker.
Grant us the wisdom
to reflect on the word of the good news,
that it may deepen our insight in our faith
and make our love for you grow.
Give also to the Church of our time
great prophets and theologians
who make us see what the faith means
to the people of our day.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection:

God manifests himself in the littleness…

Today the liturgy honours the memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, “the Angelic Doctor,” for both his innocence and his brilliance. He is also remembered in the Catholic Church for his mystical graces and his profound devotion to the Eucharist.

In the Gospel today, as a gifted teacher, Jesus transforms complex concepts into a lesson we can easily understand. In the Gospels we do not find a time when Jesus teaches some hard-to-grasp theories or dogmas. Parables were his unique style of preaching. In the gospel today, Jesus uses the parable of the mustard seed to help his listeners visualise the kingdom of heaven.

He seldom gave explanations for his teachings, instead used parables that were self-explanatory. The word ‘explanation’ comes from ‘planus’, a Latin word that means ‘flat’. To explain is to flatten out. Jesus did not do a lot of explaining; he did not flatten out the meaning of our existence; instead, he gave it a new dimension.

In today’s reading he says the Kingdom of God comes in ways too subtle to detect or control. Thank God there are things that are not subjected to human will and control!
When you pick up your bible today, use the word “presence” in place of “Kingdom”. Then read it again. “The presence of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.”

The seeds of awareness of God are innate in us, in everyone. But those seeds will not suddenly leap into the air, bypassing all stages of growth. Instead, they will lie in the dampened earth, lost and forgotten, seemingly dead. But the miracle of life is happening there where no one can see and no one can understand or explain. Then the most vulnerable part appears just above the ground. It has no defences; it doesn’t find itself in a glasshouse; it is exposed to everything that could happen to it.

That’s life. Only love could take such risks. In this parable Jesus says that the presence of God is like that. God appears slowly, humbly, tenderly and so tiny…. Our part is to wait, to listen, to have the humility of the earth, and to have faith and hope and love.

Video available on Youtube: God manifests himself in the littleness…