February 4, 2010
Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Keep the mandate of the LORD, your God, following his ways and observing his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees as they are written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in whatever you do, wherever you turn, and the LORD may fulfill the promise he made on my behalf. 1 Kings 2:3-4
"Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them." So they went off and preached repentance. Mark 6:10-12
Piety
Healing Prayer
Blessed are You, God of All Creation,
who has made our bodies in wisdom.
It is You who created openings and arteries,
glands and organs, bone and blood,
marvelous in structure, intricate in design.
Should one part be blocked or fail to function
it is difficult for us to praise You properly,
difficult for us to serve Your people with humility.
Wondrous Fashioner and Sustainer of life,
Source of our health and our strength,
bring complete healing to all of our wounds.
You who blessed our ancestors and who
gave healing power to Jesus, send your angels
to accompany Rose, Debra, Marty and all who are
sick. Let the healing river flow over and
through them. Let the leaves from the Tree
of Life—the tree with medicine for the healing
of nations—fall gently upon them.
May the occasion of their healing
be an opportunity for all of us to be healed,
so that we might more properly praise You.
In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
by Rose Marie Berger (February 2010). Please reprint freely.
Study
Jesus gives his disciples two warnings as they set out on their missions. The Lord tells them to be on guard for two kinds of people: for those who do not welcome them and for those who do not listen to them.
As we have studied over the past few weeks in our weekday readings from St. Mark and in our Sunday Gospels from St. Luke, Jesus knows all about such rejection at home and acceptance from strangers.
We have heard him give a special blessing to those who listen to him. Those who welcome him and listen to him obtain a special place in the family of the God’s children. But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and (my) brothers?" And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. (For) whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." Mark 3:33-35
Whoever does the will of God must be a person who welcomes the disciples and listens to the message that they have to offer. In fact, those who do these things may end up replacing other siblings who treat Jesus as a stranger in his own land and among his own people.
In fact, Jesus is not asking people to adhere to anything stronger than the same message that King David left for Solomon and his people. Keep the mandate of the LORD, your God, following his ways and observing his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees.
The message may be as old as Moses but that does not make it any easier to follow.
Action
Imagine how hard it was for the disciples to accept the mission Jesus is sending them to fulfill. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick –no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.
No suitcase. No toothbrush. No lunch. No money for the journey. Such preparations (or lack of preparations) for a journey requires complete trust in the message Jesus has for them. If they can live this out, then they will be more prepared to share the same message with others. If not, they will be just like the other hypocrites whom Jesus encounters.
Who is bringing the word of God to you today? What is your reaction? Do you welcome this stranger among you? Do you “shoot the messenger” if s/he tells you something that makes you uncomfortable?
If this preacher is encouraging you to change, do you listen to what s/he has to say? Or do you prefer to stay in your comfort zone?
