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Commentary on Mark 1:40-45

Today’s healing story does not actually belong to that ‘day in the life of Jesus’ on which we reflected over the past two days.

Lepers were among the most piteous of people in scriptural times. Although little was understood of the origin of the sickness, it was clearly known to be contagious, and therefore greatly feared. The only solution was to isolate the victim and not allow him or her to approach people. So, apart from the appalling physical disintegration of body and limbs, there was the social ostracism, the contempt, and the fearfulness of others which the victim suffered.

What was probably even more tragic was that many who were branded as lepers were likely suffering from some other ailment, which may not have been contagious at all—such as ulcers, cancer or other skin diseases (and perhaps some of them even psychosomatic). The signs for diagnosis are given in chapter 13 of the Book of Leviticus and, by our standards today, are rather primitive indeed. The room for a wrong diagnosis was huge. It was a question of being safe rather than sorry.

The leper in the story indicates his great faith and trust in Jesus, a necessary and sufficient condition for healing in the Gospel. He says:

If you are willing, you can make me clean.

He knows this because he has undoubtedly seen or heard about what others have experienced.

Jesus is filled with a deep sense of compassion for the man’s plight. Highlighting the emotions of Jesus is a characteristic of Mark’s Gospel and is seldom found in Matthew. What Jesus feels is compassion, not just pity. In pity we feel sorry for the person, but in compassion, we enter into the feelings of the other; we empathise with their experience. And, in doing so, Jesus does the unthinkable—he reaches out to touch the leper. This must have been a healing act in itself. The leper was by definition untouchable. Jesus says to him:

I am willing. Be made clean!

But that is not the end of the story because the man has still to be reintegrated into the community—this is the second part of the healing process. He is told to go to the priests to make the customary offering of thanksgiving. They will examine him and then pronounce him fit to reenter society.

He is also told not to say anything to anyone about it. Jesus wanted no sensationalism. But how could the man refrain from telling everybody about his wonderful experience of coming in contact with the whole-making power of Jesus? He becomes an ardent evangeliser, a spreader of good news—something we are all called to be.

What is the outcome of our experience of knowing Jesus? Why do we not have the enthusiasm of this man? It is worth noting that the experience was the result of his first having been the victim of a terrible cross. It is often in our crosses that grace appears.

Once again, Jesus goes out into the desert to avoid the enthusiastic crowds. Jesus was not interested in having ‘fans’, only genuine followers. He would not be ready until his full identity was recognised. That would only happen as he hung dying on the cross (see Mark 15:39).

Before we leave this story, we should ask who are the lepers in our society today? Sadly, there are many marginalized groups—undocumented immigrants, those who are homeless, individuals struggling with addiction to drugs, alcohol, pornography or other harmful substances or activities; indeed, we have many lepers among us. Let us examine our attitudes today and revise them as necessary.

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Commentary on Hebrews 3:7-14

As we have seen, one of the reasons for the writing of this Letter was to forestall the difficulties that some of its target audience, a community of Jewish Christians, were having in accepting Jesus Christ as Messiah and Lord. Today’s reading is a warning not to fall into the unbelief of which the Israelites were guilty in the past. A large part of the reading is taken up with a quotation from Psalm 95 (v 8-11), which is also the Responsorial Psalm for today’s Mass.

The author calls for a firm faith in Jesus. He bases his warning on the experience of Israel during the Exodus. In the Old Testament, the prophets (especially Isaiah) used the Exodus as a symbol of the return of Israel from their exile in Babylon. In the New Testament, the redemptive work of Jesus is seen as a new exodus. Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem for his suffering, death and resurrection is described as a “going up” (Luke 18:31, Matt 20:18, Mark 10:32). Relatedly, his followers are called to “go out” from a life of slavery to sin and unbelief.

So the author quotes from Psalm 95, which deals with a time during the long Exodus journey through the desert where the people were guilty of hardness of heart and refusing to trust in God’s care for them, even “though they had seen my works for forty years”. The story is told in Exodus 17 and in another form in Numbers 20. The incident took place at Massah and Meribah. ‘Massah’ means ‘place of testing’ and ‘Meribah’ means ‘place of quarreling or rebellion’.

The incident arose when the Israelites found themselves in a place where there was no water. They began to complain and abuse Moses for bringing them to such a place where there was only the prospect of dying of hunger and thirst. In complaining against Moses, they were also, in effect, complaining against God. Although angry with the people for their lack of trust, Yahweh tells Moses to strike a rock and water comes out from it. In the version of the story in Numbers, the focus is on Moses himself. He struck the rock not once but twice and this was taken as a lack of faith on his part. He was punished by dying before his people reached the Promised Land.

The readers of this Letter would have been very familiar with this story and with the Psalm; the implication is that, if they continue in their unbelief, a similar fate awaits them.

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness.

The word used, ‘rebellion’, is actually a Greek translation of the place name—‘Meribah’; ‘testing’ translates the Hebrew name for ‘Massah’. As we read, the event took place at Massah and Meribah.

And, because of their behaviour, “They will not enter my rest.” In the original psalm, this referred to Canaan as Israel’s final resting place after their long trek. The ‘rest’, into which Israel was to enter, was only a foreshadowing of that rest to which Christians are called. In tomorrow’s reading, we will see the deeper understanding of that ‘rest’.

In the final sentences, the author turns directly to the Hebrew Christians and warns them against similar forms of unbelief and turning away from the “living” God. To call God “living” means that he reveals himself in his works. Instead, they are to be an encouragement to each other “as long as it is called ‘Today'”, so that none of them may be deceived by the allure of actions which are, in fact, sinful and wrong. “Today” indicates that it is still the day of God’s grace and an opportunity to express our trust in God. It will not last forever. The day of reckoning will come and then it will be too late. God is to be found, loved and served in the now.

In a final lovely remark, the author reminds them that they have become “partners of Christ”, and he begs them to hold on to the strong faith they had at the beginning of their conversion.

The reading touches on three periods: the rebellion of the Israelites against Moses and Yahweh in the desert, the weakening faith of the Jewish Christians to whom the sermon was delivered and, finally, our own experience now. The advice of the reading is as relevant to us Christians today as it was to the Hebrews for whom it was written.

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Commentary on Mark 1:29-39

We continue following a day in the public life of Jesus. It was still the Sabbath and, after the synagogue service, Jesus now goes to the house of his two disciples, Simon and Andrew in Capernaum. Remember that, as it was the Sabbath, people could not go very far or do anything which could be labelled ‘work’.

In the house, Jesus finds Peter’s mother-in-law confined to bed because of a fever. When he is told about it, he immediately goes to see her, takes her by the hand, lifts her up and heals her. Immediately, she gets up and begins to serve them. This is not simply because that is the role of a woman in the home. Rather, it is a way of saying that it is the role of any Christian—man or woman—to serve. Healing is not just to make one well, but to enable one to become again an active, serving member of the community.

In the evening, once the Sabbath was over, people were free to move around. So large numbers come seeking out Jesus to be healed of their sicknesses and to be freed from the power of evil spirits:

That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed by demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door.

That is, they were at the door of the house where Jesus was. Many times we will see a reference to the ‘house’ where Jesus is. It seems to be a symbol of the place where Jesus is gathered with those who are close to him, a symbol of a Christian community or of the church. When the poor and the sick and ‘un-free’ no longer come to the doors of our community seeking healing and wholeness, we need to reflect on the quality of our Christian witness.

The following morning, Jesus leaves and goes to the hills to be alone and to pray. His disciples find him and say:

Everyone is searching for you.

Although there are many demands being made on him by the people of Capernaum, Jesus:

Jesus may have been the Son of God, but in his humanity could only be in one place at a time. And during those three years of public life, he really only reached a small number of people. To reach the rest, he needed, and still needs our help.

When Jesus returns from his prayer, he does not go back to Capernaum, although there were certainly more people to be healed and helped there. Instead he went on to synagogues all over Galilee, proclaiming his message of the Kingdom, and making it a reality by healing the sick and liberating those controlled by evil forces.

This scene brings up the importance for us of availability. We do need to be available to all those who are in genuine need. At the same time, there is what we might call the ‘poverty of availability’. No matter how generous and self-giving we are, we can only give so much. We need to find a balance between people’s needs and our limited resources. We do not help people by working ourselves to the point of ‘burnout’. We also need ‘quality time’ to be with God, to pray, and to reflect on our priorities. Jesus gives us an excellent example here.

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Commentary on Hebrews 2:14-18

The readings from Hebrews continue to emphasise the reality of the Incarnation and Christ’s total solidarity with peoples everywhere. Jesus shares with us the same “blood and flesh”. In this way, as one of us, he could offer his life and death to set us free from the power of death, namely the Devil. It is the power of evil which brings real death to people, a death that separates us forever from the love of God. By his own physical death and resurrection, Jesus liberated us from the fear of that death from which there is no escape. That death comes when, through our self-distancing from God, we are caught in a world without life or love.

The Son, in his humanity, did not identify with the angels:

For it is clear that he did not come to help angels but the descendants of Abraham.

Rather, he took his descent from Abraham as did all his fellow-Jews (and remember that this letter was being written for Christians who were Jews):

Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest…to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.

There is one area, of course, in which he is unlike us—Jesus was totally free of doing evil or wrong in any form. It was precisely because of this that, while in every other respect one of us, he could be our intercessory priest and effectively plead with the Father on our behalf. It was only as one of us, though without sin, that he could offer a priestly sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation for all our sin.

And are we surprised at the next sentence?

Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

When did Jesus become subject to temptation? We know that, after his baptism, he was tempted by the Evil One in the desert, although these temptations seem to be rather symbols of real testings later on. For instance, after the feeding of the 5,000, the people wanted to make Jesus king, when the whole world would have been at this feet. He fled to the hills to pray to his Father.

At other times, he was challenged to perform signs and miracles so that people would believe in him (corresponding to jumping down from the top of the Temple and not being hurt). And, most of all, during his Passion, Jesus was sorely tempted when he was overcome with such fear that he sweated blood and begged his Father that he not have to endure this Passion. There is even the hint of threatening despair as he hangs on the Cross and cries out:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
(Mark 15:33; Matt 27:46)

But this is immediately followed by words of total acceptance of the Father’s will:

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:46)

Because of these experiences, which Jesus could only have had because he totally shared our human condition, he could empathise with the pain and sufferings which we also have to undergo. He continues to empathise with us and, even in our greatest pain, he is not far away, and his love is not far away.

Again, the author of the letter is writing this to show his readers that a suffering and dying Messiah, far from being a contradiction, is the stunning manifestation of the extent of God’s love for us, and that Jesus was indeed the Son of the Father. Finally, it is precisely because of his humanity that he both suffered as we do, but also could be the effective intercessor on our behalf.

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Commentary on Mark 1:21-28

Today’s passage is the first part of a day in the life of Jesus in which he carries out the main activities of his mission—teaching and healing. He goes to Capernaum, the centre of much of his work, on a Sabbath day and like every observant Jew, goes to the synagogue. And, like any Jew who wishes to do so, he addresses the congregation.

He begins to teach the people. Much of Jesus’ work will consist of teaching and communicating his message and his vision of life. People are deeply impressed because, unlike the scribes, he speaks with authority. The scribes could only interpret or give the meaning of the Scripture. Jesus spoke in his own right. Jesus speaks in the best tradition of the great prophets. But there is more. Jesus’ authority is empowering and liberating; it is not oppressive or subjugating. He will say in John’s Gospel:

…you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. (John 8:32)

Right there in the synagogue was a man possessed by an “unclean” spirit. It was called ‘unclean’ because of its basic resistance to the holiness of God. This was a world where many unexplained symptoms in people were attributed to evil powers and were often believed to be the punishment for sinful behaviour. The spirit resented the presence of Jesus and said:

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

It was believed that, by giving a hostile spirit its exact name, one could have power over him. But Jesus silences the evil spirit and tells it to come out of the man, who experiences a kind of fit and cries out.

Again the people are amazed at the power and authority of this man Jesus. He has new teaching and can give orders to evil spirits. The question is being asked: “Just who is this man?” This question is the underlying theme of the first half of Mark’s Gospel.

It for us to submit ourselves to the same empowering authority of Jesus, to listen to his teaching by steeping ourselves in his Gospel message and experiencing his healing and liberation in our lives.

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Commentary on Hebrews 2:5-12

Today we continue the discussion about the nature of Jesus. It seems clear that those to whom the sermon is addressed are having problems squaring the humanity and the suffering of Jesus with his position as Sovereign Lord and Son of God.

The author replies by emphasising the dignity of human beings in our world:

God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels.

Rather, he ‘subjected’ the world to ‘men’ (humans)—to one Man. The author quotes from Psalm 8 (4-5):

What are humans [Greek, anthropos] that you are mindful of them or mortals [Greek, huios anthropou] that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet. (see note.)

The psalm contrasts God’s greatness with man’s relative insignificance, but also stresses the superiority of humanity to the rest of creation, over which we were given stewardship.

Originally, the “son of man” was simply a way of speaking of humans in general but, in this context, there is clearly a reference to the Son of Man—Jesus Christ. Some believe the term, frequently used in the Gospel, comes from this psalm.

Although the human is put on a lower level than the angels, it is to humanity that governance of our world has been entrusted, “subjecting all things under their feet”. God left nothing outside humanity’s control. However:

As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them…

Some translations use “him” instead of “them”, but ‘him’ here seems ambiguous—it can refer to humanity in general, or to Jesus in glory.

The first Christians, despised and persecuted, were still waiting for the coming of God’s reign on earth. Although Christ has already entered his glory, his reign on earth has to continue until he has conquered all his enemies; then we will share in his full and final triumph.

But the Son, who in his incarnation was—with the rest of humanity—made lower than the angels, is now crowned in supreme glory and honour precisely because of his sufferings and death. It was through his undergoing this experience that salvation came to the rest of humanity, because:

…by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Christ was glorified because he suffered. His triumph seals the redeeming value of his death and guarantees unending life for us.

The all-powerful God, who is the source of all that exists, has brought many of his children to glory. He did this by making his incarnate Son, the “pioneer” of our salvation, perfect through his suffering. What seemed to the Hebrews to be a stumbling block in their acceptance of Jesus is in fact what makes him their Lord. By dying and fulfilling the will of God, Christ becomes the one perfect Saviour, responsible for the entry of human beings into the glory of God.

And it is this which brings Jesus and ourselves united together under one Father, so that Jesus, though our supreme Lord, is “not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters”. In support, the author quotes from Psalm 22:

I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. (Ps 22:22)

What the author says here is something we have long become accustomed to accepting, and yet it is indeed a deep mystery—namely, that the glory of God and our salvation should be brought about, not just by God’s Son becoming one of us, but that he should go through such terrible pain and humiliation. The enormity of this mystery is that Jesus:

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)

This is proof of Jesus’ love—and hence his Father’s—love for us. So often, we see suffering as a punishment from God, but as is so clear in this text, very often it is in fact a source of grace. It was this the Hebrews (to whom the Letter was sent) found difficult to grasp.

With faith, we know that it was fitting for God to make Jesus “perfect through sufferings”, i.e. consecrated by obedient suffering. Because he is perfected as high priest, Jesus is then able to consecrate his people. If Jesus is able to help human beings, it is because he has become one of us; we are his “brothers and sisters”.

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Note: The pronouns are all actually masculine in the original Greek, but the word for ‘man’—anthropos—is  equivalent to the Latin homo. Both of these words indicate a human person, man or woman. And so  in the Nicene Creed we say of the Incarnation that Jesus ‘homo factus est’ (literally, ‘was made  human’). The Latin word for a male is vir (and for a woman, mulier). The Creed is then saying that Jesus shared his humanity with both men and women.

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Commentary on Mark 1:14-20

We now begin our readings from Mark’s Gospel and we will be following him for the next several weeks. Today’s reading follows immediately on the short accounts of Jesus’ baptism and temptations in the desert that Mark gives. It is the beginning of his public ministry. The reading consists of two main parts—a summary of Jesus’ teaching and the first response to it.

As the passage opens, we are told that John has been arrested (the reason for his arrest will be given later). The word for ‘arrest’ is literally ‘handed over’, a key word which will be used later of Jesus himself, his disciples, and indeed of many others down the centuries. The term is also used in our Eucharist when the celebrant at the consecration says:

This is my Body which will be given up for you.

Our translation of ‘given up’ represents the Latin word tradetur, which literally means ‘handed over’. Jesus is daily handed over to us, or rather, he hands himself over to us and expects us to do the same for our brothers and sisters.

Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming the Gospel, the Good News, of God. It is summed up in the words:

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.

It is a deceptively simple statement which, in fact, is rich in meaning. One can say that the whole of the Gospel message is contained in those two sentences.

The following words require comment:

The time is fulfilled
In the Scriptures, “time” is translated using the Greek word kairos. Specifically, kairos refers to a moment when something is ripe to happen, a serendipitous moment. And that exactly describes the appearance of Jesus, an appearance which the whole of the Old Covenant has been preparing for and leading up to.

The Kingdom of God is at hand
The whole of Jesus’ message centres round the idea of the ‘Kingdom of God’. It was the coming of that Kingdom which he proclaimed; it was the core of his teaching. Because of Matthew’s use of the term ‘Kingdom of heaven’, there is a possibility that we think of the ‘Kingdom’ as only belonging to the life after death. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The word ‘Kingdom’ translates the Greek word basileia, an abstract noun which is better rendered as ‘kingship’ or ‘reign’. Kingdom here does not refer to a place. It points to the ruling power of God, a power based above all on love. Wherever the love of God prevails in our world we can say that the Kingdom is there. Love essentially involves other people, so the Kingdom is not a place or an action, but a complex of harmonious and interacting relationships. Jesus came to call every single person to belong to such a world.

We need to emphasise that the Kingdom and the Church, or the Kingdom and Christianity, do not coincide. The role of the Church is to be a sacrament of the Kingdom. It fulfils that role with varying degrees of success. There are Kingdom people everywhere, that is, people who base their lives on love and justice, on peace and freedom, who are not Christians at all—but they are Kingdom people, because their lives reflect the spirit of God. Mere membership in a Christian group does not guarantee one is a Kingdom person.

Repent
Here we have the basic steps needed to become fully a Kingdom person. First, we need to repent. This is the most common translation of the Greek verb for the noun metanoia. It is not a very happy rendering. ‘Repent’, for most people means being sorry for something done in the past. That is not excluded here; rather metanoia looks much more to the future. Metanoia really means a radical change in one’s thinking, in this case, about the meaning and purpose of life, and how that life is to be lived. Jesus is calling here for a radical conversion, and for us to take to heart his vision of life.

Believe in the good news
And how is that metanoia to be achieved? It will come about by our believing in the “good news”, i.e. the Gospel. For many Christians, ‘belief’ means the total acceptance of the teachings of Christ as interpreted for us by the Church. But something more is asked of us here. We are asked not just to believe, but to believe in. It is one thing to believe something is true, but that belief may not affect our lives very much. In calling on us to believe in the message that the Gospel brings, we are being asked for a total investment of ourselves, and not just the accepting of doctrines as true. We are being called on to live our lives and pattern them on the model of Jesus himself. Again, we will see what that entails as we go through the Gospel in coming weeks.

The second part of the reading gives us a dramatic example of some people who did just what Jesus was asking. As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, who were fishermen, casting their nets into the sea. They were doing their daily work. Jesus said to them:

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.

There and then, they dropped their nets, their whole means of livelihood, and went after Jesus. A little further on Jesus saw two sons of Zebedee, James and John, who were mending their nets. These two Jesus also called. They promptly left their father in the boat with his hired men and followed Jesus. Later Jesus will say:

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)

Here we have that metanoia, that radical change of life, taking place. They follow Jesus with total trust. As they go off, they have no idea where they are going or what it will entail. They believe in Jesus, putting all their trust in him. They were to meet many trials and tribulations on the way, but they never regretted the step they took. Only by following their example will we too have the same experience. The only guarantee we have is that those who did take Jesus’ call seriously, and lived it to the fullest, know that they made the right choice.

Finally, we might say that this story is to be read as a kind of parable. We say this because we know that later on, the disciples will still be in contact with their families and those boats will appear several times in the Gospel story. What is being emphasised here is the total commitment to the Way and vision of Jesus, which is symbolised by the total abandoning of the boats and family members.

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Commentary on Hebrews 1:1-6

Today we begin reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. Although grouped with the Pauline letters, it was clearly not written by Paul. The style is very different, and it has the best Greek in the New Testament. The identity of the author can only be a matter of speculation. It is written more as a sermon than a letter, but does seem to have been sent to a distant congregation, possibly in Rome. It seems to have been written some time after 65 AD and perhaps around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.  

Because of extensive quoting from the Old Testament, the words of this letter are taken as addressed to Jewish Christians. The community addressed may have suffered persecution, and there are signs of a falling away from the Church. Hence, the Letter emphasises strongly the role of Christ as the Way to God, a Way endorsed even by the Old Testament. There is the emphasis on faith and on Christ as the only High Priest.

The Letter opens with a magnificent statement of the role of Christ in the plan of God. In the past, God had spoken to his people in many different ways through the prophets. ‘Prophets’ here means all who spoke in the name of God, and would include some of the patriarchs, such as Abraham, Moses and Joshua, some of the kings, especially David, and other leaders, as well as others considered prophets.

Now “in these last days” God has spoken through his Son. The early Christians believed that the coming of Christ was a precursor of the final days and that all things would soon come to an end. As time passed, this conviction grew weaker, and this can already be seen in later writings of the New Testament.

This Son is the “heir of all things” and, through him, we too become heirs to all God’s promises made to us through Christ. He is in a totally different category from any of his predecessors, being not just a messenger but the very Son of God. Through Him also were all the “worlds” created.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…All things came into being through him. (John 1:1,3)

“Worlds” in the plural here may refer to this world and the world to come or to the many heavenly realms through which Christ ascended (Heb 4:14; 9:24).

The role of Christ is then beautifully described:

He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being…

In these sentences we have the sophia (Greek, ‘wisdom’) and logos (‘word’) metaphors. The wisdom is totally shared between Father and Son, but the Son as Logos is made in some way distinct from the Father.

Jesus as Word is the manifestation, in human form, of our God. Jesus communicates, not just through what he says, but through his actions and his whole being. When we see Jesus and hear Jesus, we see God and we hear God. When Jesus speaks, it is God who speaks; when Jesus acts, it is God who acts. And yet, because of his humanity, in Jesus we see God only, as it were, in a clouded mirror. He is the Way we follow to the fullness of union with God, something not to be experienced fully in this life.

He sustains all things by his powerful word.

He is the Wisdom of God. Jesus’ word is not just something spoken; it is a creative word, a making word. Through the Word all things were made. On a lower level, our words too can be creative—whether it be through speech that galvanises people into action, or through the ‘word’ of a visual artist or a great musician.

When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…

This purification was done through Jesus’ suffering and dying on the Cross. Jesus “emptied” himself as a manifestation of God’s unchanging love for us, even though we were in sin and because we were in sin.

He sits now at the right hand of the Father, sharing fully in his power and glory as Son, and far exceeding the angels in status and dignity. He has a “name” far more excellent than theirs. That name is “Son”, an ‘un-created’ Son who has been with the Father from all eternity:

Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,
so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth… (Phil 2:9-10)

The reading today concludes with a series of scriptural verses. These come mostly from royal psalms and illustrate Jesus’ supreme status as an equal with the Father, far surpassing that of the angels. The once-humiliated and crucified Jesus has been declared God’s Son, and this name shows his superiority to the angels.

The reason for the author’s insistence on that superiority is, among other things, that in some Jewish traditions angels were seen as mediators of the Old Testament (see Acts 7:53; Gal 3:19). Jesus’ superiority to the angels also emphasises the superiority of the New Covenant to the Old because of the heavenly priesthood of Jesus.

Today is an occasion for us to express our deep thanks to God for the gift of Jesus his Son. Because of him, we have a better understanding of how we are to live our lives and how to foster and deepen God’s image in us. We do this by our assimilating our human way of living to that of Jesus who is the Way.

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Commentary on Isaiah 55:1-11; 1 John 5:1-9; Mark 1:7-11

We come today to the end of the Christmas season. And we have the third great ‘epiphany’ or showing of God in the human person of Jesus. The first ‘epiphany’ was at the birth of the child Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem when he was visited by the shepherds representing the poor, the marginalised and the sinful for whom Jesus had specially come. The second ‘epiphany’ was when the ‘wise men’ came from ‘the East’ to worship the newly born Jesus. They represented all those peoples and nations who were being invited to be numbered among God’s own people through the mediation of Jesus as Lord.

Today we celebrate the third great ‘epiphany’ of the Lord in Jesus Christ. The time is much later. Jesus is now an adult, probably about 30 years of age. We are brought to the banks of the River Jordan somewhere north of Jerusalem where John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus, is living out in the desert. The desert in some ways is a place where God can be found, although for Jesus it was also a place of trial and temptation. For the early Fathers in the desert it provided both experiences.

John the Baptist leads a very austere life, dressed in the simplest of clothes and sustaining himself on whatever nourishment he can find in the vicinity. He has made a name for himself as a man of God, and large numbers come out to hear and be influenced by him.

Just prior to today’s Gospel passage we are told that John was:

…proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1:5)

It is important not to misunderstand the meaning of these words. It would be quite wrong to think that people simply had to come for baptism in the river for all their sins to be wiped out. That would be little more than superstition. The baptism itself was a symbolic act which had to be accompanied by an inner change.

The word for ‘repentance’ here is metanoia in Greek. It implies a radical change in the way we look at the meaning and purpose of life and how we live that life ourselves. It calls for much more than is normally connoted by ‘repentance’ which we normally understand as ‘being sorry’ for something we have done. Metanoia is much more than just feeling sorry. It calls for a total reorganisation of one’s attitudes so that such errant or hurting behaviour would simply disappear from one’s life.

And the ‘forgiveness of sins’ is more than God just wiping out the guilt and the threat of punishment that our sins might involve. In a sense, the damage our sins do often lasts for a very long time and cannot be undone. If I have murdered someone, they stay dead no matter how sorry I feel. If I have destroyed a person’s reputation, it may remain destroyed for ever. Hurtful words spoken cannot be called back.

Then, of course, like Jesus, our baptism brings with it a serious obligation to share our faith with others both by word and example. It involves much more than simply ‘saving our souls’ and ‘leading sinless lives’.

We are called to be living witnesses of the Gospel, to be the salt of the earth, to be a city on a hill, a candle radiating light in the surrounding darkness. We are called, in short, to be united with the others in our Christian community in the building up of God’s Kingdom. Sadly, one wonders how often this is the reality, when one sees so many Catholics acting like total strangers to each other at a Sunday parish Eucharist!

All those words of Isaiah from the first reading and applied to Jesus are to be applied to each one of us as well. Our baptism is not simply some past event recorded in some dusty parish register. It is a living reality which is to be constantly deepened and enriched.

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Commentary on Acts 4:23-31

After they had been released by the Jewish leaders following their arrest and interrogation, and had been given strict warnings not to continue what they were doing, Peter and John went back to their community and related all about their experience.  This was possibly the same ‘upper room’ where the Apostles had met before and where the community may have continued to assemble.

The whole community then prayed.  They recalled the words of the psalmist who asks why the Gentiles and the princes of the world conspire against the Lord and his anointed.  Here we see in the unbelieving Romans the ‘Gentiles’, and Herod and Pilate represented by the ‘kings’ and ‘princes’.  They have gathered against the Lord and his anointed.  The word ‘anointed’ in Greek translates as ‘Christ’ (christos).  The Herod in question is Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea from 4 BC to AD 39.  He was the one who executed John the Baptist and before whom Jesus appeared during his trial.  Acts will later describe his rather gruesome death.  Pontius Pilate, of course, was the same Roman procurator who had Jesus crucified.

Yet they recognise that all of this had been foreseen by God. About Jesus’ enemies, Scripture says:

…Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass… (Is 37:26)

It was not that God forced them to act as they did, but that their freely chosen decisions were foreseen by God and would become part of his plan of salvation.

They beg the Lord, as persecution is also extended to them, that God will be with them through:

…signs and wonders…performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

It is good for us too to be aware that, when as individuals or communities, we are true to the living out of our Christian faith, we can expect to face criticism, opposition, abuse and ridicule. Then we must also pray for the Lord’s assurance, protection and guidance. We do not necessarily expect those against us to change their minds, but we ask for the strength to continue being faithful to our convictions and the search for truth and goodness.

Then, suddenly, the place where the community is praying begins to shake and they are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and Jesus. Their prayer for strength and courage has been heard. Jesus had said:

Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. (John 16:23)

It is a mini-Pentecost and enables them to go out and proclaim the Good News with renewed confidence, unafraid of the threats and dangers that await them.