18 - 23 JANUARY 2021: HOLY MASS REFLECTIONS
18 JANUARY 2021, HEBREWS 5. 1-10; MARK 2. 18-22
Focus: God is pleased, not so much with external offerings and spiritual activities, but with an obedient heart and a genuine life
External spiritual activities and devotional practices are good and needed. They manifest our love for God and loyalty to Him. They show how much we care for Him and are related to Him. They also help us to grow in our faith and closeness with God. Further, they also inspire, illuminate and strengthen us to change our life for the better, to live a renewed life in tune with our devotion and spirituality. In that way, no one can deny or reduce the importance of the spiritual concerns.
But, many times the problem with many is, there is no correspondence between the spiritual and actual life. One may be very fervent spiritually but indifferent toward others. One may praise and worship God actively, but may be very abusive and blaming toward others. One may be very humble and submissive before God, but arrogant and domineering toward others.
It is a shallow spirituality and a fake devotion. Jesus is always unhappy with such a spirituality. It is this hypocrisy that Jesus reproaches in today’s gospel as well. This is exactly putting a new patch on an old cloth, putting new wine into old wineskins. Without changing the old cloth and wineskins of sin and evil, there is no use of putting on new patches and new wine. Our devotion is not a substitution for dedication. Our spirituality is not a mask for the lack of integrity.
Therefore, what is most important in life and what really counts before God is not mere religious practices or offerings, but obedience to God's will and honesty of living. All our spiritual activities should be directed to abide close to the Lord and to renew life. The presence of the bridegroom is more important than all the other matters of marriage. A thorough renewal of life is more important than mere patch works and temporary adjustments.
Direction: The right and perfect spirituality is not merely a bundle of religious duties, but a humble obedience to God’s will, as Jesus did, though Son of God himself
19 JANUARY 2021, HEBREWS 6. 10-20; MARK 2. 23-28
Focus: There is no greater law and rule in life than the good and happiness of the fellow human being. A law which fails to do good, is no good law
Certainly, laws and rules are needed for the smooth running of any society. They provide order and direction. They check and control against anti-social or selfish tendencies and acts. They guard against indiscipline and irresponsible freedom. A lawless society or person will be chaotic. Thus, every law is meant ultimately for the welfare and progress of human persons. Any law and rule that threatens the dignity and happiness of the person, and subverts and oppresses his life, is not good. Therefore, the value of every rule and regulation should be judged, only on the basis of its usefulness. The true success of a law is not in a meticulous following of it, but in bringing progress and happiness. In simple, a law is good when it does good to the persons, and when it makes good persons. The heart of a rule is the rule of heart. The true efficacy of a rule is the ability to look into the heart, to look at the need of the other. In the words of the first reading, from the letter to the Hebrews, to be truly law-abiding is “not to be sluggish, but to serve others in all love and earnestness”. This is the perfect following of the law: to be steady “imitators of those who inherit the eternal promises, through faith and patience”.
The whole fault of the Pharisees and scribes was failing to see and go beyond the letter to this spirit and purpose of the laws. For them, Sabbath was a law, and that must be followed at any cost, even at the cost of neglect of good. Hence, they criticize Jesus’ disciples for breaking the Sabbath, instead of seeing their hunger.
But, on the contrary, Jesus looks at the heart of the disciples. He sees their deeper simplicity of heart beyond the apparent violation of Sabbath. He sees the need of their hunger beyond the heartless and uncharitable practice of law of the Pharisees. Hence his famous attestation: “Sabbath for man, and not man for Sabbath”.
Direction: Heart is more important than heartless reasoning. Good is more important than dry rule. Loving and helping the other is more important than keeping the law
20 JANUARY 2021, HEBREWS 7. 1-3, 15-17; MARK 3. 1-6, MEMORY, STS SEBASTIAN & FABIAN
Focus: Life is meant to bloom and glow, to blossom and grow, to nourish itself and to flourish in fruits. A withered life is a worthless life!
Gospel of the day presents Jesus healing a man with a withered hand on a Sabbath. The Pharisees and scribes accuse him heavily for violating the Sabbath. They even begin to plot to kill him. Every occasion of preaching and healing turns into an occasion of confrontation and accusation and antagonization.
Now, what is wrong? Certainly Jesus was not wrong, because he was doing no wrong. He did good, did only good and always did good. For him, doing good always and everywhere is the greatest concern. No law, no force can condition it or restrict it. Therefore, the restrictions of the Sabbath law did not matter for him, since healing a withered hand was more beneficial and important. That is why he poses a challenge, with the question, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or kill?”. But the Pharisees and the scribes have no such concern and no such perspective. They were blinded by their own self-righteousness. They were prejudiced against Jesus, because of jealousy and hostility. In fact, these were the real withered people, more than the man with the withered hand. They were withered because for them observing the law of Sabbath is more important than doing good and saving life. That is why the healing of the withered man by Jesus, leads them to plot to kill him. One who does not see God's hand and does not confide in His power, is truly a withered person. But, in contrast, we see in St Sebastian and St Fabian, whose memory we keep today, persons full of vitality and selfless benevolence. Filled with passionate faith and fiery charity, they bear witness to Christ by their life and death as well.
Direction: Every perverted, arrogant and evil-minded heart is the real withering. This is more deplorable than the external withering.
21 JANUARY 2021, HEBREWS 7. 25 – 8.6; MARK 3. 7-12
Focus: God is ever ready to touch us and heal us; He is eager to drive out our evil spirits and put in His Spirit. How much are we ready and willing?
Down through the ages, God continues to intervene in the lives of humanity. The purpose is to liberate them, save them, and to give them renewed dignity and joy. But at the appointed time, He incarnates His divinity in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. He is our unique and supreme High priest. Unlike the other high priests, he no more offers other ordinary sacrifices. Rather he offers his own self. He makes himself one among the sinners, but separated from them. He is the high priest, holy, blameless and unstained. This is the excellent ministry of his expiation for our purification and sanctification. This is concretely seen in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus sets himself on a relentless mission of healing and exorcism. The opposition, the jealousy and the evil of the Pharisees and scribes do not deter him or discourage him. Unconditioned benevolence steers him on a path of immense good. If God is ceaselessly announcing His good news, healing and exorcizing, then why still many continue discomforted and misguided, sick and weak, evil-possessed and evil-driven? See the irony: even the evil spirits acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, but the humans do not. As long as one does not see and accept one’s sickness and evil, as long as one does not feel the need for healing, and as long as one refuses to approach Jesus for his touch, one will not change and become better. God’s grace and power is abundantly available, but the openness and eagerness to respond and cooperate is lacking!
Direction: Not realizing, not accepting, not diagnosing sickness is worse than the sickness itself. What is sad is preferring to be sick, throwing away the remedies of health!
22 JANUARY 2021: HEBREWS 8. 6-13; MARK 3. 13-19
Focus: Our relationship with God is not a matter of contract for a better transaction and profit, but is a covenant, built on fidelity and our integral benefit
“Called and sent” – this in simple is the whole essence of our vocation. We are specially and personally called by the Lord. We are identified and chosen by name. This shows that each one of us is unique and important for God. We are not just anyone among many. We are someone, special and close to the Lord. We are not just numbers or labels. We are persons, with particular names. A name is not a mere label or usage for practical convenience. It stands for a person’s identity and dignity. Therefore, in identifying and choosing his Twelve disciples by name, Jesus gives them their proper identity. They are no more what they were, identified by their lineage or profession. Rather, they are his disciples and apostles. They receive a new identity, a new dignity. They enter into a new realm of life, a new ambience of grace. This is exactly the new covenant that is spoken of in the first reading from the letter to the Hebrews: “I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah… This is the new covenant… I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”. This new covenant is already set in motion in Jesus’ choice of the Twelve. They represent the new Israel. God through Jesus puts His laws into their minds, imprints them on their hearts, and makes them His own. But it does not stop there with them. Their call has a purpose and mission. The call of the Twelve is not only “to be with him” but also “to be sent on his mission”. The mission is nothing but to extend the same new covenant to all others, that is, to make all others the recipients, participants of the new covenant. In other words, their mission is to imprint God’s laws on their hearts and make them God’s own people. This is carried out concretely by the twofold channels of preaching and healing.
Direction: What do you and I belong to? Is it the new covenant of passion and fidelity, or the old covenant of sin and waywardness?
23 JANUARY 2021: HEBREWS 9. 2-3, 11-14; MARK 3. 19-21
Focus: Things may go wrong and may frighten and discourage us. But we never need to lose hope, because we have Jesus, the High priest who always pleads and works on our behalf
In today’s gospel, we have an instance of a very typical human experience. Jesus is considered to be out of his senses! He is mad, possessed, out of his mind! Why? What makes the people think so? The obvious reason is: he is totally committed. He is so selfless. He does not think of himself, of his comfort, of his leisure, of his privacy, of his free space and time. He is not organized, he is not planned, he has no control over his time. He does not spend even a little time at home, with his relatives. He finds no time even to have his meals. He is not so systematic as to display a schedule of his available timings. He does not behave big and great, making the people search and wait for him. He is not like the popular figures who make the people feel his importance and greatness. He does not create a comfort-zone and live in it. He does not put on airs. He is not puffed up. He does not ride on his glory. In short, he is passionate, and fully possessed by the Spirit of God. His only concern was God’s will and doing His mission. To do God’s will is his food and drink. This type of behaving and living is totally out of the way, quite contrary to the normal and ordinary. He was a total contrast to others. He was a question mark, a prick of conscience, a thorn in the flesh, a challenge to many others, who were comfort-seeking, self-confined, calculative and mediocre. Therefore, it is quite natural that he was considered off the mind. In fact, this is the way the good and committed people are often considered by the world. This is the price of commitment. What then is the remedy? The first reading from the letter to the Hebrews gives us the direction: Purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Direction: Our life can become more meaningful and beautiful when we constantly lay ourselves open to the touch of Jesus to purify us from the worldly and lead us on the way of sanctification
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