Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
“O LORD of hosts, if you look with pity on the misery of your handmaid, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the LORD for as long as he lives; neither wine nor liquor shall he drink, and no razor shall ever touch his head.” 1 Samuel 1:11
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of
“I am not worthy to have you come under my roof” (Matthew 8:8)
Lord Christ,
I wish I could offer you
A reasonably clean
And swept house
To dwell in,
But I can’t.
I can say – and know the meaning of – “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof…”
But you are already there!
Living among the once flourishing idols.
The floor is dirty
and at times the room is airless –
even for me!
I am ashamed of your presence there,
yet you slept in a cave
and on a donkeys back at night
under the desert stars.
So, if I can’t change your accommodations,
let me rejoice all the same
that you are present
I must believe strongly, Lord,
that I can’t question this:
that you are at home
with sinners –
and my greatest sin, Lord Christ,
is that I don’t want to be a sinner!
Nor do I easily accept it – still,
the evidence
is overwhelming.
But hope is like a green shoot
In the midst of an airless, disordered world.
And that hope comes from your Spirit.
I rest in that hope.
-- William Breault, SJ
Hannah gives us an example of persistence in her prayer life. She “poured out her troubles to the Lord” and asked him to think kindly on her. Her obedience despite her unhappiness is an example to us. She doesn’t challenge God for not thinking of her. She just shows her faith in her petition. She has prayed for a son every day of her adult life year-after-year. She walks around in envy of the son which God has granted to her rival Peninnah. She knows that she is unworthy and offers her unworthiness to the Lord.
As the Psalm reminds us today, the Lord puts to death and brings new life. In Hannah, her prayers were answered with new life. In today’s Good News, we see the Lord conquer the evil spirit.
The man with the unclean spirit shows us a different picture of what happens when we encounter the Lord. He taunts Jesus and, in return, Jesus gives him what he does not want. He challenges what Jesus will do for him and then finds out – the hard way. He may not have prayed a day in his life but the one time he encounters Jesus, all bets are off.
At Jesus’ baptism, the voice of God cried out for us declaring that Jesus was his beloved son. By the time of the transfiguration, the God adds, “Listen to him.” If Hannah, despite her misery can still trust in the Lord, can we who claim to be daughters and sons of God do any less? If the evil, unclean spirits obey Jesus, can we who claim to be daughters and sons of God do any less?
How can we clean our houses in this New Year?
There appears to be some agreement between recent protestors in front of the Supreme Court and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Last Friday (January 11), 82 people were arrested in front of the Supreme Court building for calling to an end to the torture and imprisonment of detainees at the Guantanamo Naval Base in
Less than 48 hours later, Admiral Mike Mullen also called for the closure of the prison while touring the facility with a handful of reporters.
The Catholic Church has longstanding opposition to the use of torture. Late last year, Bishop Thomas G. Wenski, Bishop of Orlando and Chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Policy wrote to Congress regarding proposed legislation in HR 2082, the Intelligence Authorization Act, to prohibit torture as an interrogation technique. He urged lawmakers to ensure that the
Join this diverse group of people calling for closure of the prison at
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