Encourage yourselves daily while it is still "today," so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin. We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.” Hebrews 3:13-14
Be made clean. Mark 1:41
Piety
God, encourage us today when we face so many occasions to sin and so many ways to reject your loving and peaceful ways. Make us clean and warm our hearts to your word so that we might follow it in confidence and faith until the end. Amen.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/011107.shtml
Partners are two or more people who share a common interest. We are partners with Christ. But what does that mean?
Think about all the kinds of partners we encounter in our education and in our life. There are business partnerships and joint ventures (Lewis and Clark, Rogers and Hammerstein, Sears and Roebuck, Hewlett-Packard, and even Ben & Jerry). There are marriage partners/helpmates like your spouse or your parents and grandparents. There are two people sharing an activity like playing bridge or dancing partners (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers come to mind for some of our older readers while Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray resonate with younger generations). There are partners in sports (doubles tennis for example). There are partners in show business (Lucy and Desi, Abbot and Costello, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock). There are even silent partners who put up money for a venture but don’t play a public role.
What marks all of these groups is that both parties have a role to play to achieve the common goal.
Today, God and then Jesus encounter people who don’t make ideal partners. In the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, we hear that God was not pleased because during the Exodus, the Israelites turned to sin and were not good partners. Forty years were a long time. They turned away from their responsibility. Despite that, God did not seek to “dissolve” his partnership with us. He stayed true to the common goal.
St. Mark then shares the story of the leper made clean. In exchange for that act, Jesus asks him to act a certain way (“Show yourself to the priest” but also to “Tell no one.”) We are not told if the leper did present himself in the temple. Maybe he did and maybe he did not. But on the other account, clearly, the leper did not listen according to Mark’s account. Instead, he shared the story far and wide, so much so that Jesus could stay outside the towns and people would turn to him, rather than reject him and turn to sin. Jesus, of course, knew how the leper would react when he was made clean and he did it anyway.
The true partner holds “the beginning of the reality firm until the end.” There is no doubt at the beginning. The leper has faith and knows Jesus can make him clean. That faith is repaid by Jesus’ kind and merciful act. Then we see the leper hold fast to that truth until the very end. The Israelites did not do so in the desert. But when word of Jesus arrived (thanks to the leper), they left their cities and comfort zones and went out to deserted places to encounter Christ.
Action
Are we really in partnership with Jesus? Do we act with trust and faith? Do we hold up our end of this partnership? Or do we act like a silent partner when Jesus needs another pair of hands working on earth or at least a more public advocate for justice?
After our Cursillo experience, most candidates leave the weekend touched and affected in a positive manner. The challenge is to maintain that spark. The Fourth Day is the time when we are tested and refreshed. The supports of Cursillo (Group Reunion, Reunion of Leaders, and Ultreya) are there to help us hold fast to the experience until the very end.
True partnership is not realized when it is new and fresh but when it survives and thrives for years.
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