5th Week: Feb 10-15:
Feb 10 Monday: Saint Scholastica, virgin:
The context: Gennesaret was a tract of land four miles long on the western border of the Sea of Galilee, lying between current day Tabgha and ancient Magdala. Known as the “Paradise of Galilee,” the land had rich soil enabling farmers to grow walnuts, dates, olives, figs, and grapes and, thanks to the Sea of Galilee, was a fishing center as well. Today’s Gospel passage describes the reaction of the people of Gennesaret when the healing and preaching miracle-worker, Jesus, unexpectedly landed on their shore. They considered it a golden opportunity to hear his message and to get all their sick people healed by bringing them to Jesus with trusting Faith in his Divine power. They were confident that even touching Jesus’ garment would heal the sick. Actually, they may have been more interested in using the healer to heal their sick people than in hearing Jesus’ preaching. Our innate human tendency is to use others to get something from them. We make use of God when we call Him only when we are in need or when we are sick or when tragedy strikes us. Some of us make use of the Church only to get baptized, married and buried. Often, we make use of our friends to get their company, help, and support. Sometimes even grown-up children make use of their parents’ home for eating and sleeping without returning anything to their parents, who might rightly expect, but do not ask for, a return, from them.
Life message: 1) A healing greater than physical healing is available to us especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Hence, we should have a much deeper desire to seek out Jesus in the confessional than the people of Jesus’ day had for physical healing. 2) Instead of making use of God, let us learn to live in His presence, and recognize His presence in others in the community. 3) When we present our needs before Him, let us do so with expectant Faith and gratitude, and promise Him that, with the help of His grace, we will do His will. 4) Do we also hasten (“scurry”) to Mass, to bring people to Jesus, and to say prayers with our children at night? Do we hasten to see the face of Jesus in our neighbors? Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 11 Tuesday: (Our Lady of Lourdes):
and the World Day of the Sick (introduced by Pope St. John Paul II in 1992): Mk 7:1-13
It was three years and two months after the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Blessed Pope Pius IX (1854) that Mary appeared for the first time on February 11, 1858, to St. Bernadette Soubirous in the grotto at Massabielle, in Lourdes, France. Bernadette, a 14-year-old peasant girl, was the oldest of the six children of Francois Soubirous and Louise Casterot. One day Bernadette went to the rocky area to collect firewood with her sister and a friend. It was when she was left behind by the other two near a big rock that Bernadette heard a loud noise. As she turned to investigate, she caught sight of a very beautiful Lady clothed in white with a rosary hanging on her arm standing in a grotto in the rock wall. The beautiful Lady smiled at her and summoned her to pray the rosary and they prayed together. Bernadette received 18 apparitions of our Lady starting in February and ending in July 1858. (Watch the movie: During the 18th appearance the Holy Virgin gave the young visionary the answer to her pastor’s question, “Who are you?” In the local language Mary said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”During her previous appearances, theBlessed Virgin Mary had instructed Bernadette to tell people to pray and do penance. All must pray especially for the conversion of sinners. Our Lady instructed Bernadette to go and tell her pastor that she wished a chapel to be built on the spot and processions to be made to the grotto. But it wasn’t until four years later, in 1862, that the Bishop of the diocese declared the faithful “justified in believing the reality of the apparition,” and Pope Pius IX authorized him to permit the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes. A basilica was built upon the rock of Massabielle by the parish priest in 1865. It was consecrated, and the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was solemnly crowned. In 1883 the foundation stone of another Church was laid, as the first was no longer large enough. It was built at the foot of the basilica, was consecrated in 1901, and was named the Church of the Rosary. Pope Leo XIII authorized a special office and a Mass, in commemoration of the apparition, and in 1907 Pius X extended the observance of this feast to the entire Church to be observed on 11 February. Since apparitions are private revelation and not public revelation, Catholics are not bound to believe them. However, all recent Popes have visited the Marian shine. Benedict XV, Pius XI and St. John XXIII went there as bishops, Pius XII as papal delegate. Pope Pius XII also issued a Lourdes encyclical in 1958, on the 100th anniversary of the apparitions. Pope St. John Paul II visited Lourdes three times, Pope Benedict XVI completed a visit there on 15 September 2008 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions, and Pope Francis visited Lourdes in 2015.
Life Messages: The 33rd World Day of the Sick, established in 1992 by Pope St. John Paul II, will be observed on February 11, 2025. 1) This day serves the purpose of reminding the members of the Church of the healing ministry of the Church, and reminds us of our Christian obligation to attend to the sick and the suffering around us. 2) This is a day to show our gratitude to the caregivers, the doctors, the nurses, the health care workers, the pastoral ministers and all those who strive to restore the physical and spiritual health of the sick Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/
Intercessory Prayers for the World Day of Prayer for the Sick
Priest: O God, You have always cared for the sick in a special way, wanting your children to be healed in both body and soul. With Pope Francis, we pray in special gratitude for those health care workers who continue to be signs of the merciful hands of God, offering care and comfort even as they perhaps struggle themselves. As we remember now all the ways you have come to heal the sick, we pray together: O God, heal all who are sick in body and soul.
Priest: God said, “I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast.” (Jer. 30:17)
All: O God, heal all who are sick in body and soul.
Priest: The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health. (Psalm 41:3)
All: O God, heal all who are sick in body and soul.
Priest: All who had people sick with various diseases brought them to [Jesus]. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. (Lk 4:40)
All: O God, heal all who are sick in body and soul.
Priest: Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it, and say to them, “The kingdom of God is at hand for you” (Lk 10:8-9).
All: O God, heal all who are sick in body and soul.
Closing Prayer
Priest: Hear our prayer, O God, and heal the many illnesses that afflict us in body, mind and soul. Bring comfort to those who suffer. Bring consolation to those who despair. Bring strength to those of us who walk with the sick. Bring hope to all for whom the path to healing is long or may not end. Let us never forget your special care for the sick, that they may also know they are precious and loved. Amen. L/25
Feb 12 Wednesday: Mk 7:14-23:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage continues Jesus’ explanation to the public of his revolutionary views on the ritual washing of hands before meals. The Law (Ex 30:17ff) had laid down how priests should wash before offering sacrifice. Jewish tradition had extended this to all Jews before every meal in an effort to give meals a religious significance. Ritual purification was a symbol of the moral purity a person should have when approaching God. But the Pharisees had focused on the mere external rite. For Jesus, true religion should not be mere external observances disconnected from the mind and the intentions.
Jesus’ explanation: Jesus shocked the people by his plain statement: ” … there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.” In other words, Jesus made the shocking declaration that all the ritual food laws of the Old Testament about Kosher food were null and void! For Jesus, those laws were intended to teach the people of the Old Covenant the importance of offering acceptable sacrifice and worship to God with a clean conscience and clean mind, with clean thoughts and clean deeds. Hence, the true source of defilement is a person’s heart and mind because “out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.”
Life message: 1) We need to keep our minds filled with love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness if we want to practice the true religion of loving God living in others. Hence, let us ask God to help us cleanse our minds of evil thoughts and desires and free them from jealousy, envy and pride.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 13 Thursday: Mk 7:24-30:
The context: In the Gospel, Jesus demonstrates that salvation is meant for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews by healing the daughter of a Gentile woman as a reward for the mother’s strong Faith. Thus, Jesus shows that God’s mercy and love are available to all who call out to Him in Faith. [This is one of several miracles of healing Jesus performed in Gentile territory: two others are the healing of the
centurion’s servant. (Mt 8:10-12), and the exorcism of the demoniac(s) in the territory of the Gerasenes (Gadarenes), freeing them from Legion (Mt 8:28-34;
Mk 5:1-13; Lk 8:26-39).] These miracles foreshadowed the future preaching of the Gospel to the whole world. Jesus first ignored both the persistent cry of the woman and the impatient demand of his disciples that the woman be sent away. Jesus then tried to awaken true Faith in the heart of this woman by an indirect refusal. We notice that the woman was refused three times by Jesus before he granted her request. Finally, the fourth time, her persistence was rewarded, and her plea was answered. She recognized Jesus as the Messiah (the Son of David) and expressed her need in clear, simple words. She persisted, undismayed by obstacles, and she expressed her request in all humility: “Have mercy on me.” (Navarre Bible commentary). Jesus was completely won over by the depth of her Faith, her confidence and her wit, and responded exuberantly, “Woman, great is your Faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
Life messages: 1) We need to persist in prayer with trustful confidence. Christ himself has told us to keep on asking him for what we need: “Ask and you shall receive.” Asking with fervor and perseverance proves that we have “great Faith.” 2) We must realize, and remember, that we do not always get exactly what we have asked for, but rather what God knows we need and what is really best for us at the most appropriate time. 3) We need to pull down our walls of separation and share in the universality of God’s love. Today’s Gospel reminds us that God’s love and mercy are extended to all who call on him in Faith and trust, no matter who they are. It is therefore fitting that we should pray that the walls which we raise by our pride, intolerance and prejudice may crumble Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 14 Friday; Saint Cyril, monk, and Methodius, bishop; The context: Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus, by healing a deaf and mute man, fulfilled Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy, “The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped”(Is 35:5). The Gospel invites us to become humble instruments of healing in Jesus’ hands by giving a voice to the needy and the marginalized in our society. It also challenges us to let our ears be opened to hear the word of God, and to let our tongues be loosened to convey the Good News of God’s love and salvation to others. Through this miracle story, Mark’s account also reminds us that no one can be a follower of the Lord without reaching out to the helpless (“preferential option for the poor”).
The miracle is described in seven ritual-like steps: (1) Jesus leads the man away from the crowd, (2) puts his fingers into the man’s ears, (3) spits on his own fingers, (4) touches the man’s tongue with the spittle, (5) looks up to Heaven, (6) sighs, (7) and speaks the healing command: “Ephphatha” (“be opened.”). Jesus carried out this elaborate ritual probably because the dumb man could not hear Jesus’ voice nor express his needs. Jesus applied a little saliva to the man’s tongue because people in those days believed that the spittle of holy men had curative properties. The miracle is about the opening of a person’s ears so that he will be able to hear the word of God, and the loosening of his tongue so that he will be able to profess his Faith in Jesus.
Life messages: 1) Jesus desires to give us his healing touch in order to loosen our tongues so that he may speak to the spiritually hungry through us. Jesus invites us to give him our hearts so that, through us, he may touch the lives of people in our day. 2) We must allow Jesus to heal our spiritual deafness and muteness because otherwise we may find it hard to speak to God in prayer and harder still to hear Him speaking to us through the Bible and through the Church. 3) Let us imitate the dumb man in the Gospel by seeking out Jesus, following him away from the crowd, spending more of our time in getting to know him intimately through studying the Holy Scriptures, and experiencing him personally in our lives through prayer. The growing awareness of the healing presence of Jesus in our lives will open our ears and loosen our tongues.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 15 Saturday:
The context: The miraculous feeding described in today’s Gospel took place on a hill near the Sea of Galilee after Jesus’ return from the Decapolis. A large crowd remained with Jesus for three days, participating in his preaching and healing ministry till all the food they had carried with them was gone.
Jesus felt pity for the hungry multitude and instructed his Apostles to feed them with what they had, namely, seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. They brought these to Jesus who said a prayer of thanksgiving over them and instructed them to distribute the bread and fish to the people. After the crowd had eaten their fill, the Apostles filled seven baskets with leftover broken pieces. This passage appears to be a repetition of Mk 6:34-44. But there are two differences: the first account shows the miracle performed for the benefit of Jews, the second for Gentiles. In the first account there are twelve basketfuls of scraps left over, in the second only seven. The language is “Eucharistic”: Jesus “took the loaves and giving thanks he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute.”
Life messages: 1) We need to help Jesus to feed the hungry today. Jesus invites us to give him our hearts so that he may touch the lives of people in our day through us, just as he touched the lives of millions through saintly souls like Francis of Assisi, Fr. Damien, Vincent de Paul and Mother Teresa. Let us feed the spiritually hungry with words and deeds of kindness, mercy, and sharing love. 2) We need to be fed by Jesus so that we may feed others. Jesus continues to feed us in His Church with His own Body and Blood in Holy Communion and with the word of God through the Holy Bible. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
