7th February 2022. Monday of Week 5 in Ordinary Time

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7th February 2022. Monday of Week 5 in Ordinary Time

Optional Memorial: St Mel, Ardagh & Clonmacnoise

1st Reading: 1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13

A cloud fills the sanctuary, symbolizing the Lord’s awesome presence

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. All the people of Israel assembled to King Solomon at the festival in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests carried the ark. So they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up.

King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. Then the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses had placed there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, when they came out of the land of Egypt. And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

Psalm 131:6-10. R v 8.

Gospel: Mark 6:53-56

Wherever Jesus went, the sick were brought to him for healing

When they had crossed over the lake, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

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All religious ceremonies, whether in the Jerusalem temple or on our church altars must keep contact with the physical world of earth and sky, if they are to be reminders of God’s greatness that passes our understanding. But without regular liturgy we can lose sight of  God’s mysterious presence in our daily living.

But even in God’s good world there are many dark spots, of sickness, disorder, grief and injustice. In today’s reading from Mark we see the healing touch of Jesus at work, bringing hope and consolation to those who were sick. He calls his followers, ourselves, to be like himself, instruments of God to cleanse and revive our good world. Our efforts of kindness and love extend the range of Jesus’ healing touch; our words of forgiveness and encouragement echo the word of God. We go out as instruments of blessing, at the end of each Eucharistic liturgy, to carry on God’s creative work in our real world.

Even the fringe of his cloak

The gospel highlights the great popularity of Jesus among the ordinary people of Galilee. In particular, he attracted the sick and broken, because God’s healing power was so clearly at work through him. People begged him to let him touch even the fringe of his cloak, as the woman had done who was healed of her flow of blood. The Gospel says that people were hurrying to bring the sick to him. The poor and the needy were especially desperate to get to him and to connect with him.

In our own lives too, it is often in our brokenness that we seek out the Lord with the greatest urgency. Something happens to us that brings home to us our vulnerability, our weakness, our inability to manage. In those situations, when we come face to face with our limitations, we can seek out the Lord with a greater energy and an urgency we don’t normally show. It is those experiences, where we come face to face with our frailties, that bring home to us our need of the Lord and our dependence on him. It is often the darker and more painful experiences of life that open us up to the Lord. When Paul was struggling with his “thorn in the flesh,” he heard the risen Lord say to him, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Our various experiences of weakness can be like gateways through which we reach out to the Lord and the Lord comes to us.

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