Ø The first Reading and the Gospel speak of forgiveness. Jesus forgives the sins of the paralytic and restores him back to life in its fullness.
Ø Paul says to the community of Corinth that Jesus is the Yes, the Amen of God.
THE SECOND ISAIAH OR DEUTERO-ISAIAH
Ø It is the second part of the book of Isaiah, chapters 40, 1-55, 13, is called the book of Consolation.
Ø Until the XVIII century it was believed that Isaiah from Jerusalem was the author of all 66 chapters of the book.
Ø The decision to separate chapters 40-55 from the firsts chapters
o Was historical: the author addresses not anymore the inhabitants of Jerusalem but a community in exile in Babylon.
o The tone is also different: the tone of menace, destruction and punishment of Isaiah from Jerusalem, is transformed here in a tone of great tenderness, hope for a better future, and of great consolation for a people who suffers the consequences of having departed from God. Maybe they did not abandon God, but their ancestor probably. Yahweh does not punish them; they suffer the consequences of the sinful decisions of their ancestors and their own decisions.
Ø The author
o He uses a poetry which makes us think of a serious, fervent, optimistic and sympathetic person.
o His faith in the God of history is so strong, that he believes that the historical events contribute to the redemption of Israel.
o The author discovers the cosmic dimension of the work of God
§ The mosaic covenant reaches the whole of the human race on mentioning the covenant with Noah and with Abraham.
§ All in his book reaches to the whole creation
§ The reflection done by Israel in their sufferings in the exile has helped the people to trust in Yahweh, in a lager way than when they were in their own country.
Ø The Religious Message of the Book:
o The new exodus
o Yahweh as creator. The author wants to make known the wonderful things that God is going to accomplish, to create, to make anew in a near future, for the people in exile.
o The justice of God, his promises are about to be fulfilled.
o The power of the Word of God, a word not only written by transformed in action, in wonderful events.
o Jerusalem is seen, not so much as a city, but as a community of the faithful people of Yahweh.
FIRST READING ISAIAH 43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25
« The author puts these words in the mouth of God
o Do not look back to the past, what happened long ago
o Because I am doing something new, do you not see it?
o In the desert I open a way, and in the desolated places rivers will flow
o These images bring to our memory the first exodus from Egypt, so full of wonder deeds from God, but now the new exodus from the exile in Babylon is something new, full of wonders
§ In the desert there is a way, it is not anymore a wandering without knowing where to go
§ There are rivers in the desert in place of the thirst experienced during the first exodus.
o God says that he has formed a people for himself to announce his praises, but the people has not seek God, has not called upon him
o And God as a lover, or as a loving mother exclaims
§ “Did you grow weary of me?
§ You burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your crimes.
o And God continues to say
§ However, in spite of all that you do, I am the one who wipes out your sins, your evil.
§ I do not remember anymore your sins. If God does not remember them anymore, it means that they are no more, they have been destroyed forever.
o This section from verse 22 to 25 is like a trial in which God presents his accusation against his people Israel. But his loves absolves its evil doing.
o These verses speak in a beautiful way the reality of the merciful and compassionate love of our God. This love is made manifested in the work of our salvation, our redemption. Jesus, in his compassion, will make visible the salvation from God, when he cures the paralytic.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM: LORD HEAL MY SOUL, FOR I HAVE SINNED AGAINST YOU
The response to psalm 41 presents clearly the trust of the sinner in the loving and compassionate love of our God and father. We are sure that he will forgive us and restore us to life, because of his great love for us. GOSPEL OF MARK 2:1-12
ü Mark continues to put in from of our eyes Jesus proclaiming the Kingdom of his Father. His Father, the God of Israel, whom the Jews call Yahweh and Jesus calls him Abba, Dad.
ü In this second chapter of his gospel Mark presents five discussions of Jesus with his opponents: the scribes, the Pharisees, the disciples of John the Baptist and the Herodians.
ü In the reading for next Sunday we will read one of these controversies when Jesus heals the paralytic man.
ü In his first chapter Mark had said that Jesus could not come to any town or village because of the number of persons who would look for him. Here Mark says that Jesus is in Capernaum the town where he would come back after his missionary journeys.
ü The people fill completely the house, and Jesus is teaching them. Mark does not say that Jesus is healing anyone from their ailments; he is healing their souls, their spirit with his living word.
ü Four friends bring a paralytic friend of them; they want Jesus to cure the man.
ü Something amazing happens, Jesus looks at the man and says to him: your sins are forgiven my son
ü Did Jesus know what tormented the soul of that man? Did Jesus know what that man was keeping for himself? We do not know, but whatever was the reality, Jesus gives to him the most valuable gift: the pardon, compassion, the gentleness of his Father made visible in Him.
ü Here begins the discussion with the scribes
o They cannot rejoice as the simple people do, a sick man has been healed, a person who was suffering is now free from his ailment
o Where others see grace, gift from God, they only see blasphemy. They are so full of themselves because they think they know God through the interpretation they have made of Scripture, that they are unable to discover his presence. They have forgotten that God is not made in our image, but we are made in his image.
o His mind is so full of human interpretations of the Law of Yahweh, that they are incapable to see him when he acts in a different way than that they were use to. It seems that they are not aware that God is completely free, he does not fit into our schemes, laws and plans.
o Their heart is paralyzed like the body of the paralytic man. The difference is that the paralytic gets up and walks, while they remain paralyzed in their knowledge, in themselves.
o They say something which is really true, only God can forgive sins.
o And Jesus to help them to discover that he can forgive sins says to the man “walk”.
ü Let us ask ourselves if sometimes our attitude is similar to that of the scribes. Maybe we have carved an image of God which is very different from the revelation of God made by Jesus.
ü The passage ends saying: WE HAVE NERVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS!
ü Let us ask our Lord, that we may regain, if we have lost it, the ability to be in awe on contemplating the wonders God is doing now in us and around us.
SECOND READING: 2 Co 1:18-22
- Paul has suffered because the Community of Corinth does not believe in his ministry or in the ministry of his companions.
- Paul says to them that when he has said “yes” he meant yes, and when he said “no” he meant no.
- And this because the Son of God who they have announced to them was not yes and no, but He is the YES of God. In Jesus the Son has made real the promises of Yahweh.
- As followers of Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, we say AMEN, for the glory of God.
- Our life must be like the life of our teacher. He is the YES of God to his creation, and the AMEN of creation to its Creator.
- For this the Father has sealed us, to seal means to make something our own possession. We belong to God the Father, who, besides sealing us, has anointed us with his Spirit which he has put into our hearts as the first payment of the fulfillment of the promises, now as the beginning and in the future kingdom in full.
- This is a call to us to trust unconditionally in God who has given us his Spirit in our baptism and in our confirmation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HARRINGTON, DANIEL S.J. “The Gospel According to Mark” in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1988.
LOZANO, Juan Manuel, Escritos María Antonia París, Estudio crítico, “El Misionero Apostólico”. Barcelona 1985.
RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras. Doble Comentario de las lecturas del domingo. Año B. San Pablo, Bogotá,Colombia 2005.
STUHLMUELLER, CARROLL C.P. “Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah” in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1988.
VIÑAS, José María cmf y BERMEJO, Jesús, cmf. “Autobiography” of St. Anthony Mary Claret.
CLARETIAN CORNER
The good missionary must adjust himself to the disposition of the persons with whom he relates and be all for everybody in order to gain them all.
The whole world must be country for the missionary of Christ, because our Divine Redeemer came to redeem all, sending to preach the same Gospel all over the world.
May his modesty shine before good and bad people. This is the virtue that must characterize the missionary of Christ. María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. The Apostolic Missionnary . 2,8;2,10;2,16.
I am of the opinion that these people were cured through the faith and trust with which they came, and that our Lord rewarded their faith with both bodily and spiritual health, for I would also exhort them to make a good confession of all their sins, and they did. Furthermore, I believe that the Lord did all this not because of any merits of mine--I don't have any--but to show the importance of the Word of God that I was preaching. Because these people had been so long accustomed to hearing nothing but evils, blasphemies, and heresies, our Lord God was calling their attention to His Word by means of these bodily healings. And indeed people came in droves, listened fervently to the Word of God, and made general confessions in their own towns, or even in others, because often it was impossible to hear the confessions of the many who wanted to confess. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 181.
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