Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, 11th February 2024

‘Whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God’

The theme of today’s readings is God’s loving compassion and healing. We, too, are called to be loving, as well as pure and holy.

Two of the readings speak of leprosy: a disease that can now be cured, but at the time was seen as a punishment for sin. The belief was that either the leper or one of their family had offended God in some way. The First Reading reveals the requirements imposed on lepers. They were to make themselves physically unattractive, so that people would know they were unclean, and to live apart, outside the city walls. They were thus sentenced to indefinite exile from their community and excluded from worship.

The leper we meet in the Gospel breaks the law because of his faith. He approaches Jesus, pleading to be made clean. We see Jesus’s compassion, mercy, and healing power in curing him. The leper can be readmitted to his community once he has seen the priest, though conversely, Jesus now becomes the outcast.

In the Psalm we hear the joy of the psalmist who, in acknowledging and repenting of his sins, is confident of the Lord’s forgiveness.

The Second Reading calls us to be witnesses to Christ’s teaching in everything we do, whilst always being sensitive to others.

This week, I may like to pray for the courage, humility and faith of the leper in the Gospel, as I bring my own desires and needs to Jesus. I ask for the Spirit’s guidance to be loving and helpful to others at all times.

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Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, 4th February 2024

‘He heals the broken hearted, he binds up all their wounds.’

This Sunday, the readings invite us to look more deeply into the experience of human suffering. It is only through Christ that our pain and despair can and will be transformed. Just like the suffering people in today’s Gospel, we all long for Christ. It is through prayer that our yearning will be fulfilled.

Job (First Reading) expresses total despair at the great losses that he has experienced; he seems overwhelmed by the frailty of life. The suffering in our world today perhaps makes it easy to relate to his sentiments.

The Psalm, however, is like an antidote to the howls of loss that Job exclaims. It speaks of healing for broken hearts and minds; of wounds being bound and tended by our loving God, whose wisdom extends across a universe that he knows and loves intimately.

In the Second Reading, Paul writes of how his own experience of Christ and the Gospel impels him to share the Good News with others. He feels that he is like a slave to the Gospel, and is happy to accept this role.

Today’s Gospel portrays the early days of Jesus’s healing ministry in Galilee. After praying with the community in the synagogue, Jesus responds with compassion to all the sick and suffering people who are brought to him. He begins his days in prayerful solitude and is drawn by a desire to bring his Good News to as many people as possible.

Let us pray for the grace to respond with wisdom and compassion to the suffering and needs of our time. May we centre our lives in prayer and by the grace of God be determined like St Paul to bring the Good News to our broken and hurting world.

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Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (The Sunday of the Word of God), Year B, 21st January 2024

‘Lord, teach me your paths’

Today, as the Roman Catholic Church celebrates this ‘Sunday of the Word of God’, Pope Francis reminds us: Christ Jesus is knocking at our door in the words of sacred scripture. If we hear his voice and open the doors of our mind and hearts, then he will enter our lives and remain ever with us.

In the First Reading, Jonah takes the word of God to the people in Nineveh. They hear it, are inspired to change their evil ways, and God shows them his mercy.

God’s love and forgiveness are at the heart of the Psalm, as we pray for better understanding of the ways in which the Lord invites us to live our lives.

St Paul issues a challenge to the Christian community in Corinth in this week’s Second Reading.  At the centre of this, though, is an encouragement to us to free our minds and hearts from reliance on the things of this world, and to place our hope in the reign of God.

The Gospel speaks of the opening of the hearts and minds of the first apostles as they leave behind everything they know in order to follow Jesus.

This week, perhaps I can give myself the gift of a little extra time with scripture. I pray that the Lord will open my mind and heart, so I can see more clearly where my path with him lies.

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Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, 14th January 2024

‘Come and see’

Today’s readings conclude the feast of Christmas and begin the new season of Ordinary Time.

In the First Reading we hear the Lord’s dramatic call of Samuel, and how Samuel fails to hear and discern it properly at first. 

The young Samuel might well have grown up praying with words like those in today’s Psalm. We can easily imagine him, in the Temple, offering a prayer of commitment to follow the Lord’s will.

In the Second Reading, St Paul, writing to the Church at Corinth, reminds the people that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. All that they have and all that they are is gift, a gift purchased at great price.

The Gospel continues the story of Jesus’s Baptism. John the Baptist, having recognised Jesus as the Lamb of God, points two of his own followers to Jesus.

The scripture texts of today’s liturgy depict stories of call and response. During the coming week, let’s ponder God’s call in our own lives, and reflect both on the level of our attentiveness and on the depth of our response.

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Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, 5th September 2021

Say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage, do not be afraid. Look, your God is coming to save you!’

God’s word is always calling out to us anew, inviting us to ways of seeing more keenly and hearing more deeply. What are today’s readings bringing to my attention?

Isaiah, in the First Reading, offers a theme as he calls us to see what needs to be seen, to hear properly, to move lithely and with purpose, and to speak honestly and with joy. 

The Psalm, also, speaks of profound attentiveness as it invites us to notice the Lord’s priorities – the oppressed and needy come before all else. I might ask how this sits with today’s culture and with my own daily life-choices?

In both Second Reading and Gospel, we are left in no doubt about those whom God chooses. Through today’s word, the Lord is making an appeal to me – to notice, to be moved and to imitate.

Let’s pray, this week, that we ourselves might be opened to the wonders of the Lord and also to his challenges as we try to resist being closed to the plight of those whom God raises to first place.

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Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, 29th August 2021

‘You must do what the word tells you’

Our readings this week encourage us to pay attention to the ways in which the word of God truly influences how we live our lives.  Although we all too often fail to live up to the example set for us, we are none the less assured of an abundance of gifts, because of God’s infinite love for each and everyone.

In the First Reading, Moses explains to the people that it is by obeying the laws given to them in the commandments that they will have life in the land, as promised to them by the Lord. 

The importance of actively living our faith is further emphasised in the Second Reading. Here the author exhorts Jewish Christians not just to listen to the word, but to do what the word tells them, by caring for those in need, and living good and honest lives.  

In the Gospel, Jesus describes the lip-service of the Pharisees, who, as foretold in the words of Isaiah, offer ‘worthless worship’. Their adherence to human traditions and values takes their hearts far from God.

This week, we may want to spend some time reflecting, with the Lord’s help, how closely our own lives reflect the ideals described in the Psalm, which speaks of the just dwelling in the presence of the Lord. We can then ask with confidence that the Lord will show us the path that will draw us ever closer to his presence.

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Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, 22nd August 2021

‘You have the message of eternal life, and we believe!’

This Sunday, the readings invite us to consider honestly the depth of our love for the Lord. The same challenging questions once put to the Israelites by Joshua, and later to the disciples by Jesus, are being asked of us today.

The tribes of Israel are gathered at Shechem. They answer Joshua’s challenge by declaring why they intend to serve the Lord. (First Reading)

The Second Reading is full of social codes and expectations that would have been well understood by those to whom they were addressed. In essence, these words are a discourse on the deep love that Christ has for the Church, a love so strong that it is compared to an intimate, loving relationship between husband and wife.

The full mystery of this love has been revealed over the last few Sundays, and again today, in the conclusion to Jesus’s teaching on the Living Bread of Life (Gospel). For many of Jesus’s followers, this proves too challenging. Turning to the Twelve, Jesus asks if they want to leave too. But Peter speaks for them all, and perhaps for the whole Christian community, in saying: ‘Lord who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life.’

Once again we hear the invitation in the Psalm to ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’.

This week, we pray especially that our spiritual life may nourish us and all those around us, and that we may embody a loving commitment to follow the Lord at all times.

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Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, 8th August 2021

‘I am the bread of life’

Today’s readings demonstrate how our Father draws us closer to himself, and – through Jesus Christ – nourishes and sustains us with the living bread of the Eucharist.

The prophet Elijah is convinced he’s a failure, and is fleeing for his life into the wilderness. However, an angel of God rouses him from his depression, and comforts and nourishes him for his long journey to the ‘mountain of God’. (First Reading)

In the Gospel, those hostile to Jesus are complaining against him, confused by and misunderstanding his teachings. But Jesus challenges their criticism directly: he is the one who has come to reveal the Father to them. Jesus teaches that he himself is the true, living bread from heaven; bread that gives life for ever.

The Psalmist thanks God for deliverance from trouble, inviting us to ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’.

St Paul begs the Ephesian community not to sadden the Holy Spirit by their anti-social behaviour towards each other. Instead they are to follow the path shown by Christ, loving each other as Christ loves them. (Second Reading)

Let us pray this week for an openness to the Lord’s tender, nourishing care, especially when we experience times of alienation, self-doubt or despair. We pray to deepen our acknowledgment of our human vulnerability, and our utter dependence on God’s grace and love.

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Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, 18th July 2021

‘You must come away … and rest for a while’

The readings this week offer a welcome invitation to spend more time with our loving Lord who is our shepherd, and in whom we find nourishment, shelter, and peace for our minds and bodies.

In the First Reading, the prophet Jeremiah introduces the image of the Shepherd-King, who gathers, nourishes, and sets us free from fear.

The image of a God who restores, revives, guides, protects, feeds, anoints, and longs for us to dwell in God’s presence forever, is proclaimed in today’s beautifully familiar Psalm.

The Second Reading reinforces the image of a people being gathered in and restored to a peaceful relationship with and through Christ Jesus. Through this relationship we are all united in the Spirit with the Father.

The Gospel scene is a perfect example of the Spirit at work in Jesus, as he compassionately responds to both the needs of his disciples and of his needy flock. Jesus recognises both the need for his beloved followers to be refreshed and restored in the stillness of his presence, and the need to respond with compassion to those who feel lost and are in need of his guidance.

Perhaps we can recognise this same dynamic in the expression of our own faith, as we ourselves need to make time to be still with the Lord, yet are also called to be active participants in his ongoing mission.

Let us pray for each other. May we have the wisdom to spend our time in a sustaining balance of both contemplation and action as we live out our faith, trusting that Jesus the Good Shepherd will be our guide. 

‘Come … rest for a while in his presence …’

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Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time,Year B, 11th July 2021

‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff’

This week’s readings tell of people who receive a mission. It has always been God’s plan from the beginning to choose ordinary people like us to help spread the Good News. Jesus asks us to listen, and really come to know him. All we need do is trust him, and we will be blessed with all we need to follow his way.

Amos, a shepherd, has simply listened and responded with courage and faith to God’s call. He has spoken up for the poor of Bethel. Today, the royal priest tells Amos to mind his own business and leave. (First Reading)

The Psalmist, too, listens to the Lord’s ‘voice … of peace for his people’. He sings praise to God’s promise of faithfulness, mercy, justice and help to all who trust in him.

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians begins with a long prayer of praise and blessing to God. We have always been part of God’s plan: ‘Before the world was made, God chose us.’ Through the gifts of Christ and our faith, we are God’s loved and forgiven sons and daughters. (Second Reading) 

In the Gospel, Jesus sends out the apostles in pairs to support one another, teaching others the message of love and repentance they have seen and learnt from him. They are to carry nothing other than their staff, but to trust in God’s love and rely on the hospitality of others. If they are not welcomed, they are not to make a scene, but simply ‘shake off the dust from under their feet’, then move on.

Let’s pray this week that we show Jesus’s message in our love for those we encounter each day. We ask to be witnesses to the joy of our faith in the way in which we live our lives. 

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