Morning Followed – The Fourth Day

Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night; and he made the stars.  God set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.  God saw how good it was.  Evening came, and morning followed–the fourth day.  Genesis 1:16-19

Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.  Mark 6:56

Piety

He pardons all thy sins
Prolongs thy feeble breath
He heals thine infirmities
And ransoms thee from death
He clothes thee with his love
Upholds thee with his truth
And like an eagle he renews
The vigor of thy youth

And bless His holy name
Whose grace hath made thee whole
Whose love and kindness crowns
Thy days
Oh bless the lord
Bless the lord my soul
Oh bless the lord my soul! (Stephen Schwartz, Godspell)

Study

“In the beginning…” 

Genesis!  Always we begin again. 

Five weeks into Ordinary Time, more than a week before Lent and we return to start at the very beginning like the Von Trapp family singers.  Usually, Genesis 1:1 is the first reading at the Vigil Mass.  Yet, for the next week and a half - until Ash Wednesday - our first reading on the weekdays will be from the Book of Genesis. This week – in the middle of winter when our friends in Rhode Island and Massachusetts will be getting another 12 to 14 inches of snow and who knows how cold our days and nights will become – begins with the stirring story of creation out of the primordial ooze, the story that will be repeated at the Easter Vigil.

We see how God brings order out of the chaos of creation and how Jesus brings order back into the lives of people who are sick and rush out to touch him and be cured.

Action

How is your “fourth day?”  Orderly?  Chaotic? Curable?  Incurable?  How is God allowing you to touch the tassel on his cloak?  Are you reaching out for it?