Matthew 9:14-15

for today's reading (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/021216.cfm)

Today Jesus is asked why he and his disciples do not fast.  He answers, "Can the wedding guests mourn when the bridegroom is with them?" 

The contrast is striking: Mourning and joyful.  He reminds us that he is the groom.  We are his love.  How can we be sad?  This Lent are we mindful of his immense love?  What sacrifice can we give him that will bring us closer to him?  Is it a sacrifice of prayer?  A few brief moments before the tabernacles between work and lunch?  How do we make him our first priority?  The answer is different for everyone.  Let the Spirit lead you. 

Mark 6:7-13 Called to the Journey Through Humility

For today's readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/020416.cfm)

In today’s Gospel Jesus sends the disciples out two by two with instructions to take nothing with them except a walking stick and the authority over unclean spirits.  It was a faith walk.  We have all been on them to some degree.  Where they were welcomed, they could stay.  Where they were not welcomed, they should move on and “shake the dirt from their feet” meaning they should leave everything, even ill sentiments behind.  They went and preached repentance, drove out demons, anointed, and cured the sick.

Jesus is the eternal Word of God that came and lived among us.  He is the fullness of God’s Revelation to us.  Our faith is the free affirmative response to God’s calling to us.   Grace is God’s life in us.  God’s love for us, as through the Son, is limitless.  Living our faith, like the disciples do when he calls them on their journey, is saying “yes” to Jesus’s call to bring the reign of God.  This reign of God is His saving love fully manifest in the world.  We this transmitted to those who have faith, to the disciples, to us. Miracles are only one sign of this love, and we hear about them a little today as the disciples share the reign of God through their call for repentance and to receive God’s love.  It is an affirmation too that although God is everywhere, although temporarily limited in His human form, we are likewise called to share in His work.   By professing God, by sharing the teachings of Christ, the disciples were publicly professing their faith.  We are called to do that too.  This is one of the reasons that we state our creed, our beliefs at mass.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Whoever says ‘I believe’ says, “I pledge myself to what we believe.” (CCC 185) 

In the first reading today we meet David and Solomon.  Solomon receives the kingdom to rule and keep.  They are our examples of men of faith.  Both, like us are sinners.  The difference is that David, as many bad things as he did, repented of his sins and asked God forgiveness.  He received the gift of humility.  We do not see that with Solomon.  So which do we use as our example today when we hear the call to follow the Word of God?  Are we ready to go with as little as the disciples, except for our great faith?

Mark 2: 23-28 Picking the Grains of Wheat

Have you ever judged anyone before learning about their circumstances?  Sometimes this happens to each of us.  This happens within today's Gospel, and even the first reading (1 Sam16:1-13 where Samuel is seeking for God's anointed one, not the strong and mighty, but the young inconspicuous boy, David.) In today's Gospel the scribe watches Jesus picking the wheat and eating it on the Sabbath.  Based on his strict religious laws, he is judging Jesus and the disciples.  The scribe isn't looking at them with the love, compassion and understanding that they laws could originally have held, especially if he understood how hungry they were carrying nothing for food and wandering for days without shelter overhead.  No, the scribe looks upon them in judgement with the rigidity of the old law. 

Jesus on the other hand reminds the scribe of how David long ago ate what was apportioned to the priests even though it was unlawful because he and his companions were hungry.  Then he makes a further statement, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even over the Sabbath."  The Sabbath is that day set aside for rest and worship.  Yes, what Jesus and the disciples was doing was considered work, but it was necessary so they did not starve.  Jesus' point is that it was necessary for life and thus overruled the law.  The Sabbath was created to remind all of human kind to give thanks to their creator, and that is why the Son of Man, God made manifest is ruler of the Sabbath.