2009년 6월 26일 금요일 성 이레네오 주교 순교자 기념일
제1독서
창세기. 17,1.9-10.15-22
1 아브람의 나이가 아흔아홉 살이 되었을 때, 주님께서 아브람에게 나타나 말씀하셨다. “나는 전능한 하느님이다. 너는 내 앞에서 살아가며 흠 없는 이가 되어라.”
9 하느님께서 다시 아브라함에게 말씀하셨다. “너는 내 계약을 지켜야 한다. 너와 네 뒤에 오는 후손들이 대대로 지켜야 한다. 10 너희가 지켜야 하는 계약, 곧 나와 너희 사이에, 그리고 네 뒤에 오는 후손들 사이에 맺어지는 계약은 이것이다. 곧 너희 가운데 모든 남자가 할례를 받는 것이다.”
15 하느님께서 다시 아브라함에게 말씀하셨다. “너의 아내 사라이를 더 이상 사라이라는 이름으로 부르지 마라. 사라가 그의 이름이다. 16 나는 그에게 복을 내리겠다. 그리고 네가 그에게서 아들을 얻게 해 주겠다. 나는 복을 내려 사라가 여러 민족이 되게 하겠다. 여러 나라의 임금들도 그에게서 나올 것이다.”
17 아브라함은 얼굴을 땅에 대고 엎드려 웃으면서 마음속으로 생각하였다. ‘나이 백 살 된 자에게서 아이가 태어난다고? 그리고 아흔 살이 된 사라가 아이를 낳을 수 있단 말인가?’ 18 그러면서 아브라함이 하느님께 “이스마엘이나 당신 앞에서 오래 살기를 바랍니다.” 하고 아뢰자, 19 하느님께서 말씀하셨다.
“아니다. 너의 아내 사라가 너에게 아들을 낳아 줄 것이다. 너는 그 이름을 이사악이라 하여라. 나는 그의 뒤에 오는 후손들을 위하여 그와 나의 계약을 영원한 계약으로 세우겠다. 20 이스마엘을 위한 너의 소원도 들어 주겠다. 나는 그에게 복을 내리고, 그가 자식을 많이 낳아 크게 번성하게 하겠다. 그는 열두 족장을 낳고, 나는 그를 큰 민족으로 만들어 줄 것이다. 21 그러나 나의 이 계약은 내년 이맘때에 사라가 너에게 낳아 줄 이사악과 세우겠다.”
22 하느님께서는 아브라함과 말씀을 마치시고 그를 떠나 올라가셨다.
복음
마태오. 8,1-4
1 예수님께서 산에서 내려오시자 많은 군중이 그분을 따랐다. 2 그때에 어떤 나병 환자가 다가와 예수님께 엎드려 절하며 이렇게 말하였다. “주님! 주님께서는 하고자 하시면 저를 깨끗하게 하실 수 있습니다.” 3 예수님께서 손을 내밀어 그에게 대시며 말씀하셨다. “내가 하고자 하니 깨끗하게 되어라.” 그러자 곧 그의 나병이 깨끗이 나았다.
4 예수님께서는 이렇게 말씀하셨다. “아무에게도 말하지 않도록 조심하여라. 다만 사제에게 가서 네 몸을 보이고 모세가 명령한 예물을 바쳐, 그들에게 증거가 되게 하여라.”
Friday, June 28, 2013 Daily Mass Reading
http://www.evangeli.net/gospel/gospel.html
If you want to, you can make me clean
Today, the Gospel shows us a leper, painfully conscious of his sickness, approaching Jesus and beseeching: «Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean» (Mt 8:2). When we see the Lord so close to us but our head, heart and hands so far away from his project, from their salvation, we should also feel the compulsion to formulate the same leper's expression: «Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean».
But an important question prevails: Can a sin-unconscious society beg forgiveness from our Lord? Can it beseech a purification of any kind? We all know too many people with aching and wounded hearts, their personal drama, however, being they do not always realize the extent of their situation. But, in spite of everything, Jesus is always close to us, to the very end of the age (cf. Mt 28:20), while waiting for the same petition: «Sir, if you want to...». But, our collaboration is, of course, needed. St. Augustine's sentence: «God who created you without you, will not save you without you» has become a classical one. So that we can truly change we must strive to ask our Lord for help.
Some might wonder: why is it so important to realize it, to convert and to wish to change? For the simple reason that, should we not feel like that, we should not be able to positively answer the previous question, where we said a sin-unconscious society will find it very difficult to ask the Lord for help.
This is why, when the moments of repentance and of Sacramental confession arrive, we have to get rid of the past, of all the ulcers infecting our body and our soul. We should not doubt it for a minute: Asking forgiveness is a great moment of Christian initiation, because it is when the bandage over our eyes comes off. But, what if someone does notice his situation but does not want to convert? There is an old proverb that goes: «Long absent, soon forgotten».
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
The story of Peter in chains is an exciting one—the kind I liked to read in a children's’ illustrated Bible* when I was a kid—good pictures, excitement, angels appearing, Peter sneaking away—an Indiana Jones kind of story. It’s got an evil monarch, a good guy, a magical occurrence, and an escape.
I think there are two lessons here: First, God is there for us, to lead us out of whatever captivity we’re in (or have made for ourselves). Second: Many times when we wish for escape--from bills, irksome people, events not to our liking, stress, you name it--it’s not always as easy as it seems to happen to Peter; angels don’t seem to magically appear, at least not the way it seems in the reading. But we do have angels among us, the everyday kind of angels. They are the nice guy who lets us go ahead at the gas station, the spouse who gives us an unexpected hug, the polite teenager at the grocery store, the administrative assistant who goes the extra mile, the student who tells you that you made a difference, or even the cat or dog who climbs into our lap on a tough day. The are the angels that help us escape from the little captivities we find ourselves in and show us the every-moment goodness of the life we’re given. We need to tune in to these angels, and accept them for the gifts they are.
(*My aunt and uncle gave me “The Bible in Pictures” when I was little, and I loved the pictures—especially Daniel in the lions’ den, David and Goliath, and the Jesus conversing with the rabbis.)
http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/
"Lord, you can make me clean"
: What might hold us back from approaching the Lord Jesus with expectant faith and confidence that he can change us and make us holy – perhaps fear, pride, and the risk of losing one's reputation or friends? Jesus did something which was both remarkable and unthinkable at the same time. He approached the unapproachables – he touched the untouchables. Lepers were outcasts of society. Their physical condition was terrible as they slowly lost the use of their limbs and withered away with open sores over their entire bodies. They were not only shunned but regarded as “already dead” even by their relatives. The Jewish law forbade anyone from touching or approaching a leper, lest ritual defilement occur.
The leper who came to Jesus did something quite remarkable. He approached Jesus confidently and humbly, expecting that Jesus could and would heal him. Normally a leper would be stoned or at least warded off if he tried to come near a rabbi. Jesus not only grants the man his request, but he demonstrates the personal love, compassion, and tenderness of God in his physical touch. The medical knowledge of his day would have regarded such contact as grave risk for incurring infection. Jesus met the man’s misery with compassion and tender kindness. He communicated the love and mercy of God in a sign that spoke more eloquently than words. He touched the man and made him clean – not only physically but spiritually as well.
Some twelve centuries later, a man named Francis (1181-1226 AD) met a leper on the road as he journeyed towards Assisi. A contemporary of Francis wrote, “Though the leper caused him no small disgust and horror, he nonetheless, got off the horse and prepared to kiss the leper. But when the leper put out his hand as though to receive something, he received money along with a kiss” (from the Life of St. Francis by Thomas of Celano). Francis did what seemed humanly impossible because he was filled with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit inflames our hearts with the fire of Christ's love that we may reach out to others with compassionate care and kindness, especially to those who have been rejected, mistreated, and left utterly alone. Do you allow the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with the love and compassion of Christ for others?
“May the power of your love, Lord Christ, fiery and sweet as honey, so absorb our hearts as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven. Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, as you died for love of our love." (Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226 AD)
Psalm137:1-6
1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
4 How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!
http://www.daily-meditations.org/index2.html
http://goodnews.ie/calendar.php
There is some kind of polarity here: between public and private, between manifestation and concealment: “Great crowds followed him,” but he said, “Do not tell anyone.”
Talk (and especially gossipy talk) creates a crowd. Talk is itself a kind of crowd – a crowd of words. Talk is endless, like the sand on the seashore. Like the sand, it drifts and blows here and there. Living today is like walking in a sandstorm of words (and here am I adding more!).
But Jesus told the healed leper to tell no one about his healing. In another passage he took a deaf man “aside in private, away from the crowd” (Mk 7:33). This tells us that sometimes it is necessary to stand in from the storm. Sometimes it is necessary to be alone and think one’s own thoughts. He himself frequently went away by himself to pray: Lk 4:42; 5:16; 6:12; Mk 1:35; etc. And there are moments when he tells others to keep silent about him: Mk 1:44; 8:30; Lk 9:21, and today's passage. And read the wonderful passage, Mt 6, in which everything is divided, so to speak, into two columns, headed "in secret" and "to be seen by others" (see the reading for June 19). Why not meditate on this today: the silence of Jesus?
The ancient world was terrified of leprosy, and in its terror it probably mistook many less harmful skin diseases for it. By Jewish law the sufferer was isolated totally from society: “The leper...shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, ‘Unclean, unclean’. He shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp” (Lev. 13:45f). No leper would ever have approached an orthodox rabbi, but the leper in this story approached Jesus confidently for help. This was exceptional, but even more exceptional was what followed: “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him....” That touch healed him – healed his disease, yes, but healed also his feeling that he not only had a disease but was a disease; it healed his isolation, his loneliness, his despair, his belief that he was cursed by God.... This is the God revealed by Jesus, a “Father of Mercies.”
http://www.presentationministries.com/