Monday January 31

 

 

Monday of 4th Week in Ordinary Time

DON BOSCO: MAN OF HIS TIME

 

Introduction

In the beginning of the 19th Century, social concern was almost inexistent and poverty considered an insoluble problem, with children as the great victims. Especially in cities they grew up in alleys and slums and roamed the streets. Turin had thousands of them. Don Bosco took the initiative to care for these neglected children and youth. His sensitive heart and his firm guidance could bring them together to give them shelter and an education. He understood them and made himself accepted by them. He had a hard time to change the mentality of politicians and Church leaders and to spur them to do something about the problem, but he succeeded little by little. In all his difficulties he kept his good cheer.

 

Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
with you and with your Son Jesus
Don Bosco loved the young
and dedicated his life and that of his Congregation
to their education and care.

Dispose your Church and its leaders
and also all parents,
to pay very much attention
to the formation and development of the young,
who are our hope for the future.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

 

Reading 1: 2 Sm 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13

An informant came to David with the report,
“The children of Israel have transferred their loyalty to Absalom.”
At this, David said to all his servants
who were with him in Jerusalem:
“Up! Let us take flight, or none of us will escape from Absalom.
Leave quickly, lest he hurry and overtake us,
then visit disaster upon us and put the city to the sword.”

As David went up the Mount of Olives, he wept without ceasing.
His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot.
All those who were with him also had their heads covered
and were weeping as they went.

As David was approaching Bahurim,
a man named Shimei, the son of Gera
of the same clan as Saul’s family,
was coming out of the place, cursing as he came.
He threw stones at David and at all the king’s officers,
even though all the soldiers, including the royal guard,
were on David’s right and on his left.
Shimei was saying as he cursed:
“Away, away, you murderous and wicked man!
The LORD has requited you for all the bloodshed in the family of Saul,
in whose stead you became king,
and the LORD has given over the kingdom to your son Absalom.
And now you suffer ruin because you are a murderer.”
Abishai, son of Zeruiah, said to the king:
“Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?
Let me go over, please, and lop off his head.”
But the king replied: “What business is it of mine or of yours,
sons of Zeruiah, that he curses?
Suppose the LORD has told him to curse David;
who then will dare to say, ‘Why are you doing this?'”
Then the king said to Abishai and to all his servants:
“If my own son, who came forth from my loins, is seeking my life,
how much more might this Benjaminite do so?
Let him alone and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.
Perhaps the LORD will look upon my affliction
and make it up to me with benefits
for the curses he is uttering this day.”
David and his men continued on the road,
while Shimei kept abreast of them on the hillside,
all the while cursing and throwing stones and dirt as he went.

 

Responsorial Psalm PS 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

(8a) Lord, rise up and save me.
O LORD, how many are my adversaries!
Many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
“There is no salvation for him in God.”
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
But you, O LORD, are my shield;
my glory, you lift up my head!
When I call out to the LORD,
he answers me from his holy mountain.
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side.
R. Lord, rise up and save me.

 

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.

 

Intentions

–          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, ever young,
with bread and wine we celebrate 
how Jesus became one of us
and how he made himself little
to be close to us.
May we also learn from him
to become little and humble
to make ourselves available to children,
to understand and to love them,
and to help them grow up 
to the full adulthood of Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord our God, we tend to come before you 
with our human wisdom: 
self-assured, sophisticated, world wise,
but Jesus made children the privileged symbol
of the truly adult disciple.
Let him give us the openness and receptivity 
of children: humble, authentic,
and open to your love and gifts.
Let him make us mature in Christ Jesus 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:

Pharmakos

In Ancient Athens, the State would choose some men from societal margins and keep them. When a crisis threatened the society, it would cast lots, select one of them, strip him naked, parade him through the streets where everyone assembled to abuse him, and sacrifice him outside the city. He was ‘pharmakos,’ meaning poison and cure. By absorbing the evils of society—which were a legion—he became poison; by his death, he became their cure. (Recognize similar dynamics inpharmacology?) The man among the tombs absorbed the legion of societal evils and the society lived a ‘normal’ life at his expense. Jesus liberating him upset the carefully calibrated societal balance: who would now bear for them their inner demons? To whom can they cast off their own sins and pretend to be virtuous? But Jesus returns the healed man to them, to help them own up their demons and find healing in God’s mercy.

 

Reflection taken from Bible Diary 2022;

written by Fr.Paulson Velyannoor, CMF