January 27, 2021 Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
2021년 1월 27일 연중 3주 수요일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
제1독서
히브리서. 10,11-18
11 모든 사제는 날마다 서서 같은 제물을 거듭 바치며 직무를 수행하지만,
그러한 것들은 결코 죄를 없애지 못합니다.
12 그러나 그리스도께서는 죄를 없애시려고 한 번 제물을 바치시고 나서,
영구히 하느님의 오른쪽에 앉으셨습니다.
13 이제 그분께서는 당신의 원수들이
당신의 발판이 될 때까지 기다리고 계십니다.
14 한 번의 예물로, 거룩해지는 이들을 영구히 완전하게 해 주신 것입니다.
15 성령께서도 우리에게 증언해 주시니, 먼저 이렇게 말씀하셨습니다.
16 “그 시대가 지난 뒤에 내가 그들과 맺어 줄 계약은 이러하다.
─ 주님께서 말씀하신다. ─
나는 그들의 마음에 내 법을 넣어 주고 그들의 생각에 그 법을 새겨 주리라.”
17 그리고 이렇게 덧붙이셨습니다.
“나는 그들의 죄와 그들의 불의를 더 이상 기억하지 않으리라.”
18 이러한 것들이 용서된 곳에는 더 이상 죄 때문에 바치는 예물이 필요 없습니다.
복음
마르코. 4,1-20
그때에 1 예수님께서 호숫가에서 가르치기 시작하셨다.
너무 많은 군중이 모여들어,
그분께서는 호수에 있는 배에 올라앉으시고
군중은 모두 호숫가 뭍에 그대로 있었다.
2 예수님께서 그들에게 많은 것을 비유로 가르치셨다.
그렇게 가르치시면서 말씀하셨다.
3 “자, 들어 보아라. 씨 뿌리는 사람이 씨를 뿌리러 나갔다.
4 그가 씨를 뿌리는데, 어떤 것은 길에 떨어져 새들이 와서 먹어 버렸다.
5 어떤 것은 흙이 많지 않은 돌밭에 떨어졌다.
흙이 깊지 않아 싹은 곧 돋아났지만,
6 해가 솟아오르자 타고 말았다. 뿌리가 없어서 말라 버린 것이다.
7 또 어떤 것은 가시덤불 속에 떨어졌는데,
가시덤불이 자라면서 숨을 막아 버려 열매를 맺지 못하였다.
8 그러나 어떤 것들은 좋은 땅에 떨어져, 싹이 나고 자라서 열매를 맺었다.
그리하여 어떤 것은 서른 배,
어떤 것은 예순 배, 어떤 것은 백 배의 열매를 맺었다.”
9 예수님께서는 이어서 말씀하셨다. “들을 귀 있는 사람은 들어라.”
10 예수님께서 혼자 계실 때,
그분 둘레에 있던 이들이 열두 제자와 함께 와서 비유들의 뜻을 물었다.
11 예수님께서 그들에게 대답하셨다.
“너희에게는 하느님 나라의 신비가 주어졌지만,
저 바깥 사람들에게는 모든 것이 그저 비유로만 다가간다.
12 ‘보고 또 보아도 알아보지 못하고
듣고 또 들어도 깨닫지 못하여
저들이 돌아와 용서받는 일이 없게 하려는 것이다.’”
13 예수님께서 또 그들에게 말씀하셨다.
“너희는 이 비유를 알아듣지 못하겠느냐?
그러면서 어떻게 모든 비유를 깨달을 수 있겠느냐?
14 씨 뿌리는 사람은 실상 말씀을 뿌리는 것이다.
15 말씀이 길에 뿌려지는 것은 이러한 사람들을 두고 하는 말이다.
그들이 말씀을 들으면 곧바로 사탄이 와서
그들 안에 뿌려진 말씀을 앗아 가 버린다.
16 그리고 말씀이 돌밭에 뿌려지는 것은 이러한 사람들이다.
그들은 말씀을 들으면 곧 기쁘게 받는다.
17 그러나 그들에게 뿌리가 없어서 오래가지 못한다.
그래서 말씀 때문에 환난이나 박해가 일어나면 곧 걸려 넘어지고 만다.
18 말씀이 가시덤불 속에 뿌려지는 것은 또 다른 사람들이다.
이들은 말씀을 듣기는 하지만,
19 세상 걱정과 재물의 유혹과 그 밖의 여러 가지 욕심이 들어가,
그 말씀의 숨을 막아 버려 열매를 맺지 못한다.
20 그러나 말씀이 좋은 땅에 뿌려진 것은 이러한 사람들이다.
그들은 말씀을 듣고 받아들여, 어떤 이는 서른 배,
어떤 이는 예순 배, 어떤 이는 백 배의 열매를 맺는다.”
January 27, 2021
Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass
Reading 1
Heb 10:11-18
Every priest stands daily at his ministry,
offering frequently those same sacrifices
that can never take away sins.
But this one offered one sacrifice for sins,
and took his seat forever at the right hand of God;
now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool.
For by one offering he has made perfect forever
those who are being consecrated.
The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying:
This is the covenant I will establish with them
after those days, says the Lord:
“I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them upon their minds,”
he also says:
Their sins and their evildoing
I will remember no more.
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4
R. (4b) You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
till I make your enemies your footstool.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from Zion:
“Rule in the midst of your enemies.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
“Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD has sworn, and he will not repent:
“You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
Gospel
Mk 4:1-20
On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A very large crowd gathered around him
so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
and in the course of his instruction he said to them,
“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it
and it produced no grain.
And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
And when he was alone,
those present along with the Twelve
questioned him about the parables.
He answered them,
“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that
they may look and see but not perceive,
and hear and listen but not understand,
in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”
Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?
Then how will you understand any of the parables?
The sower sows the word.
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once
and takes away the word sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who,
when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.
But they have no roots; they last only for a time.
Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.
Those sown among thorns are another sort.
They are the people who hear the word,
but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches,
and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word,
and it bears no fruit.
But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it
and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
The author of the letter to the Hebrews, i.e., the Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem, who, most likely, had directly experienced the rituals of the beautiful second temple. When we read the phrase "every priest stands at his ministry offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins," we may picture the highest-ranking priests, surrounded by clouds of smoke from burning animal sacrifices and incense. Animals bleated, bellowed, or cooed while lower-ranking priests attended to functions such as singing, removing ashes of the sacrifices, and caring for the menorahs. Their collective hope, and that of the people standing in the outer portions of the temple, was to please God, and to attain forgiveness for sins. No matter how long the fires burned, and the fragrance of the incense rose, the author tells us, "those same sacrifices can never take away sins." Jesus, by offering himself, "has made perfect forever those who are consecrated." The Holy Spirit assures us and pledges a covenant: ''Their sins and their evil doing I will remember no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer [a need for] offering for sin." Jesus, the Son of God, the Perfect Offering, has gained for us, through his painful sacrifice of himself on the cross, what all of the previous sacrifices could not. .. our redemption, once and for all.
When we read the Responsorial Psalm, we repeat the name Melchizadek several times. We may subliminally associate him with the Canon of the Mass, or with one of his appellations: King of Peace, High Priest of God Most High, or King of Salem (Jerusalem). We may associate him with High Priests of the People of Israel. He lived, however, in the time before the establishment of the levitic Priesthood or the Temple. He did believe that the God of Abraham was the true God. Melchizadek, as the Priest-King, blessed Abraham after a battle. The bread and wine that he used in the ceremony may have foreshadowed the eucharistic form used in the Mass. He was, in some ways, a prototype of the Messiah. When we read the words, "you are a priest forever in the line of Melchizadek," in Psalm 110, we are reminded that we Christians are a priestly-kingly people. Jesus, as Messiah, High Priest, and King, is above all, the Son of God. The model, in the millennia before Christ, may have been based on the order of Melchizadeck, but Jesus Christ, the eternal and perfect High Priest, is the fulfillment of our identity as the body of Christ; a priestly and royal people of God.
Today, the gospel reading is, no doubt, one of the most familiar to most of us. Jesus assumed that most of us know enough about seeds and their needs to understand the parable. Jesus tells us, "if you have ears to hear, use them." He also used a difficult negative phrase that seems to be meant to make us stop and think: "they may ... hear and listen, but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven." Jesus explains the parable fully to the twelve in order to underline the fact that "the mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you." He emphasizes the fact that the apostles had, indeed, fallen on rich soil. They were the ones who heard the word, internalized it, and accepted it. They needed only to prove that they would "bear fruit." It may not be obvious to us in which type of soil we are developing our faith. We are in rapidly changing circumstances. Most of us generally feel that we have developed in rich soil, but it is clear that the vines and thorns are never far away. We can read and hear the word of God more easily than ever before, but "worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things," may choke our efforts to spiritually flourish. We need always to strive to be a positive force; struggle to bear fruit.
If we are prayerful, we are more likely to thrive. The alternative readings for today are for the Memorial of St. Angela Merici, the founder of the Ursiline Order. The beautiful passage from Peter 4:7b-11, is a prayer in itself, and helped me to pray today: "Be serious and sober-minded so that you will be able to pray. Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins ... Whoever serves, let it be with the strength that God supplies, so that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs glory and dominion forever and ever". Let us all say, "Amen."
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
MIRACLE GROW
“But those sown on good soil are the ones who listen to the word, take it to heart, and yield at thirty- and sixty- and a hundredfold.” —Mark 4:20
Jesus tells the crowds about the fruitfulness of good soil and the reasons why soil does not bear fruit. He also gives advice on how to turn unproductive soil into fruitful ground. Jesus can soften the hardest, rockiest ground, as He did with St. Paul. But we are God’s coworkers, and Jesus plans to use us to till the ground and care for it (see Gn 2:15). This includes the care of our own heart and soul.
There is a well-known gardening product called Miracle-Gro. It works. Jesus has His own miracle growth plan. It’s His Eucharistic Body and Blood. It’s frequent Mass, daily if possible. It’s His Church. It’s His Word, the Holy Scriptures. It’s daily prayer. It’s the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It’s Christian Community. All of these are spiritual Miracle-Gro. They all work to make the soil of our heart fruitful. For thirty years, I have been blessed to attend daily Mass and be involved in all of the above. I can gladly witness to the miracle growth power of the Lord’s plan to spread the Word of God.
These miracle growth items work. Are you anxious? Filled with cares and worries? Do you lack roots? Is your heart hard or rocky? God has given you miraculous help. All you need to do is seek His help and receive it. Will we love the Lord enough to humbly receive His help and bear His fruit?
Prayer: Take root in me, Living Word. Prepare my heart for Your home. Open my lips, Lord, to speak forth Your truth. Reap a harvest of faith through me.
Promise: “Their sins and their transgressions I will remember no more.” —Heb 10:17
Praise: St. Angela Merici founded the Company of St. Ursula, a secular institute devoted to equipping and teaching young women to be Christian wives and mothers, teachers, and catechists.
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
Why did Jesus speak to people in parables? Like the rabbis of his time, Jesus used simple word-pictures, called parables, to help people understand who God is and what his kingdom or reign is like. Jesus used images and characters taken from everyday life to create a miniature play or drama to illustrate his message. This was Jesus' most common way of teaching. His stories appealed to the young and old, poor and rich, and to the learned and unlearned as well. Over a third of the Gospels by Matthew, Mark, and Luke contain parables told by Jesus.
Cyril of Alexandria (150-215 AD ), an early church teacher, described the purpose of Jesus' parables:
"Parables are word pictures not of visible things, but rather of things of the mind and the spirit. That which cannot be seen with the eyes of the body, a parable will reveal to the eyes of the mind, informing the subtlety of the intellect by means of things perceivable by the senses, and as it were tangible." (COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 8.5.4)
Parable of the sower
What does the parable about seeds and roots say to us about the kingdom of God? Any farmer will attest to the importance of good soil for supplying nutrients for growth. And how does a plant get the necessary food and water it needs except by its roots? The Scriptures frequently use the image of fruit-bearing plants or trees to convey the principle of spiritual life and death. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit (Jeremiah 17:7-8; see also Psalm 1:3). Jesus' parable of the sower is aimed at the hearers of his word. There are different ways of accepting God's word and they produce different kinds of fruit accordingly. There is the prejudiced hearer who has a shut mind. Such a person is unteachable and blind to what he or she doesn't want to hear. Then there is the shallow hearer. He or she fails to think things out or think them through; they lack depth. They may initially respond with an emotional reaction; but when it wears off their mind wanders to something else.
Another type of hearer is the person who has many interests or cares, but who lacks the ability to hear or comprehend what is truly important. Such a person is too busy to pray or too preoccupied to study and meditate on God's word.
Then there is the one whose mind is open. Such a person is at all times willing to listen and to learn. He or she is never too proud or too busy to learn. They listen in order to understand. God gives grace to those who hunger for his word that they may understand his will and have the strength to live according to it. Do you hunger for God's word?
Secrets of the kingdom
Why does Jesus say that the secrets of the kingdom of God will be revealed to some while others will not be able to recognize nor understand the kingdom of God (Mark 4:11-12)? Origen (185-254 AD), an early church Bible scholar, comments on why Jesus makes a distinction between those who are ready to hear and understand his message with those who are not ready to hear nor understand:
"Sometimes it does not turn out to be an advantage for one to be healed quickly or superficially, especially if the disease by this means becomes even more shut up in the internal organs where it rages more fiercely. Therefore God, who perceives secret things and who knows all things before they come to be, in his great goodness delays the healing of such persons and defers the remedy to a later time. If I may speak paradoxically, God heals them by not healing them, lest a premature recovery of health should render them incurable. This pertains to those whom our Lord and Savior addressed as 'those outside,' whose hearts and reins he searches out. Jesus covered up the deeper mysteries of the faith in veiled speech to those who were not yet ready to receive his teaching in straightforward terms. The Lord wanted to prevent the unready from being too speedily converted and only cosmetically healed. If the forgiveness of their sins were too easily obtained, they would soon fall again into the same disorder of sin which they imagined could be cured without any difficulty." (ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.7)
The Lord Jesus will give us perceiving eyes and listening ears to understand the message of his kingdom if we approach him with faith and humility and the readiness to be taught. The proud cannot see nor hear the truth of God's kingdom because they trust in their own opinion and perception of what is true or real. They have shut their minds to the supernatural truth of God and his word. Do you approach God's word with trust and humility or with doubtful pride and skepticism?
Lord Jesus, faith in your word is the way to wisdom, and to ponder your divine plan is to grow in the truth. Open my eyes to your deeds, and my ears to the sound of your call, that I may understand your will for my life and live according to it
Psalm 89:1,3-4,26-29
1 I will sing of thy steadfast love, O LORD, for ever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
3 You have said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant:
4 `I will establish your descendants for ever, and build your throne for all generations.'" [Selah]
26 He shall cry to me, `You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.'
27 And I will make him the first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 My steadfast love I will keep for him for ever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.
29 I will establish his line for ever and his throne as the days of the heavens.
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: Why does this generation seek a sign, by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD)
"As the sower fairly and indiscriminately disperses seed broadly over all his field, so does God offer gifts to all,11 making no distinction between rich and poor, wise and foolish, lazy or diligent, brave or cowardly. He addresses everyone, fulfilling his part, although knowing the results beforehand.... Why then, tell me, was so much of the seed lost? Not through the sower, but through the ground that received it-meaning the soul that did not listen.... Even though more seed would be lost than survive, the disciples were not to lose heart. For it is the way of the Lord never to stop sowing the seed, even when he knows beforehand that some of it will not respond. But how can it be reasonable, one asks, to sow among the thorns, or on the rock, or alongside the road? Maybe it is not reasonable insofar as it pertains only to seeds and earth, for the bare rock is not likely to turn into tillable soil, and the roadside will remain roadside and the thorns, thorns. But in the case of free wills and their reasonable instruction, this kind of sowing is praiseworthy. For the rocky soul can in time turn into rich soil. Among souls, the wayside may come no longer to be trampled by all that pass, and may become a fertile field. The thorns may be destroyed and the seed enjoy full growth. For had this not been impossible, this sower would not have sown. And even if no change whatever occurs in the soul, this is no fault of the sower, but of those who are unwilling to be changed. He has done his part." (excerpt from GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW, HOMILY 44.5.1)
More Homilies
January 30, 2019 Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
