Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
“When this takes place, you will complain against the king whom you have chosen, but on that day the LORD will not answer you.” The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel's warning and said, “Not so! There must be a king over us. We too must be like other nations, with a king to rule us and to lead us in warfare and fight our battles.” 1 Samuel 8:18-20
"Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?" Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Mark 2: 7-8
Piety
The best penance that we can offer is change: to stop living by our own hands and to start living by the hand of God. Here is another gem from Hearts on Fire.
Entrusting Myself to the Hands of Jesus
I’ve come to think that the only, the supreme, prayer
we can offer up, during these hours
when the road before us is shrouded in darkness,
is that of our Master on the cross:
‘In manus tuas commedo spiritum meum.”
To the hands that broke and gave life to the bread,
that blessed and caressed, that were pierced;…
to the kindly and mighty hands that reach down
to the very marrow of the soul – that mould and create –
to the hands through which so great a love is transmitted –
it is to these that it is good to surrender our soul,
above all when we suffer or are afraid.
And in doing so there is a great happiness and great merit.
-- Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, SJ
(From Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits, edited by Michael Harter, SJ.
Study
Conflicts and controversy start to follow Jesus everywhere he goes. Why should we be surprised? This behavior has strong roots in the Hebrew Bible so it is nothing new.
The reading from the first book of Samuel gives us a glimpse of one of those conflicts. The people want a king. Samuel warns them what that means – sons will march off to war, daughters will be put to work, crops will be taxed. The picture he paints is not pretty. Despite Samuel’s warning, the people persist in their demand for a king so they can be like the other nations. So, the Lord gives them what they want.
Jesus does the same. As word spreads about his ministry, his healing and the miraculous signs Jesus performed, people can not take “No” for an answer. Their paralytic friend must see Jesus for a cure but the lines of other seekers are just too long. Because they are so eager for a cure, they climb the building and lower the man down from the roof.
The paralytic man moves from being in the hands of his friends who carry him and lower him down through the roof into the hands of Jesus who lifts him up. Seeing such faith, Jesus gives him what he wants. But he also gives him instructions on what to do in his life from this point forward.
In this healing service, the seeds of conflict begin to sprout from the hearts and minds of the Pharisees who watch the scene unfold.
Action
Who will we be like: the friends, the paralytic man, or the Pharisees?
Will we bring our friends to Jesus? Will we turn our lives over to his hands, stopping at nothing to encounter Jesus in our lives? Or will our hearts and minds be places where distrust raises up?
Too often, our wants and needs are at odds with the Lord’s wants and needs and those of the rest of the children of God. Sometimes we think that by cleaning out our closets, that is enough.
Maybe we are not called to cloistered, celibate or exiled living in the desert like St. Anthony, the abbot. However, we are called to make a sincere sacrifice, a widow’s sacrifice, to help our neighbors.
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