7th Week, Monday, Feb 20th
Ecclesiasticus 1:1-10 / Mark 9:14-29
Consider the sands of the seashore; Who can number them? In his book Man Does Not Stand Alone, A. Cressy Morrison suggests this experiment. Take ten pennies and mark them #1 to #10. Put them in your pocket and shake them up. Now try to draw them out in sequence from #1 to #10, putting each coin back in your pocket after each draw. Your chances of drawing #1 are one in ten. Your chances of drawing #1 and #2 in succession are one in a hundred. Your chances of drawing #1, #2, and #3 in succession are one in a thousand. The odds continue to mount until your chances of drawing #1 to #10 in succession skyrocket to one in one billion. Morrison concludes that this experiment affirms that the created universe is the product of infinite wisdom.
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How easily do we see God mirrored in creation? "I fear God, yet I am not afraid of him." Thomas Browne
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In Year I, the first reading comes from the wisdom book of Ben Sirach, a high-placed Jewish official of Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC. Whatever wisdom a human person can acquire through education and experience falls far short of true and full wisdom which comes from God, and which often puts human wisdom to shame. Indeed, human wisdom is sometimes folly, and God’s folly, as the wisdom of the cross, is genuine wisdom.
Jesus heals a man who is possessed. He demands faith and trusting prayer, otherwise we are closed to God’s action. Mark describes the healing of the possessed boy in terms of a raising up, like the cure of the mother-in-law of Peter or the raising up of the daughter of Jairus. By his touch Jesus heals and restores life.
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The relationship between a master and a disciple is like that between a father and a son. The master imparts all he knows to the disciple and the disciple assimilates all he can from the master. Yet, just as there are times when the son thinks he knows better than the father, the disciple will also be tempted to think that he is better than the master. Things only become clear, maybe even painfully clear, when the truth is shown in the challenges of life.
In today's gospel, we hear scorching words from Jesus to His disciples: How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? A man had brought his son to his disciples to be delivered of an unclean spirit of dumbness but they were unable to. To make matters more embarrassing, His disciples ended up arguing with some scribes. So instead of healing, the disciples got engaged in arguing. Hence when Jesus arrived and asked why they were arguing, they didn't respond, maybe because they knew they had detracted and lost focus on what Jesus would have done. Later when they had gone indoors, His disciples asked Him privately as to why they were unable to cast that unclean spirit out. The answer Jesus gave would certainly make the disciples, as well as us, do some serious thinking. Jesus said: This is the kind that can only be driven out by prayer. Indeed, without prayer, the disciple can never be like the master. But with prayer, the disciple will gain the wisdom of the master.
As the 1st reading puts it: All wisdom is from the Lord ... and He conveyed her to those who love Him. If we are serious about learning from Jesus our Master, then we need to be serious in prayer.
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Opening Prayer
Compassionate God, through your Son, Jesus Christ, you raised the sick to full life by healing them. Take us by the hand too, touch us and restore us to fuller humanity. Touch our minds, so that we may become wiser and look at the world and people with our own compassionate eyes. Touch our hearts, so that we may love and serve people more. We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
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Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto
Feast day February 20
The children were Lucia dos Santos, who was 10 years old, and her cousins Francisco Marto (9) and his sister Jacinta (7). These children lived in Portugal, in a small village near Fatima. The shining woman told them not to be afraid and that she was from heaven. She told them she would return on the 13th day of each month for 6 months, and she asked them to meet her at this place, Cova da Iria.
Many people including Lucia’s family did not believe the children. People laughed, ridiculed, harassed, threatened them and put them in jail for two days. But nothing could change the truth.
During the summer, on the 13th day of each month, the Blessed Mother Mary appeared to the children. More and more people accompanied to the Cova. Each time Mary told them to pray the Rosary for peace in the world and to sacrifice for sinners. On October 13, the last day of the apparition, more than 70,000 were waiting. This time the Lady of the Rosary asked them to build a chapel on the rocky hillside. The entire crowd saw a remarkable sight. The sun seemed to dance in the sky. It was spinning like a top and shooting off brilliant colors of the rainbow. Suddenly the sun dropped treacherously close to the earth. People dropped to their knees, and the sun just as quickly returned to its play in the sky.
You might think that if the Blessed Mother of God appears to you and speaks to you, you are a saint. But that is not necessarily true. What is true is that Mary chose to come to children who the year before had been visited by the Angel of Peace, children who had listened to the angel’s message and prayed the prayer the angel taught them. They responded to Mary in the same way and prayed the Rosary and offered sacrifices for sinners and for the conversion of the world. They were children who wanted to please God.
Francisco and Jacinta died within a short time, as the Lady had said they would. They were beatified on May 13, 2000. At that time Lucia dos Santos was a Carmelite nun in Portugal. Sister Lucia died on February 13, 2005, at age 97. Pope Francis canonized Francisco and Jacinta during a May 13, 2017 Mass in Fatima.
