Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Wednesday 6th Week in Ordinary Time
February 19, 2014
Wednesday 6th Week in Ordinary Time
Jas 1: 19-27 / Ps 15: 2-5 / Mk 8:22-26
Reading: Jas 1:19-27
My beloved, be quick to hear but slow to speak and slow to anger, for human anger does not fulfill the justice of God. So get rid of any filth and reject the prevailing evil, and welcome the Word that has been planted in you and has the power to save you. Be doers of the Word and not just hearers, lest you deceive yourselves. The hearer who does not become a doer is like that one who looked himself at the mirror. He looked and then promptly forgot what he was like. But those who fix their gaze on the perfect law of freedom and hold onto it, not listening and then forgetting, but acting on it, will find blessing on their deeds. Those who think they are religious but do not restrain their tongue, deceive themselves and their religion is in vain. In the sight of God, our Father, pure and blameless religion lies in helping the orphans and widows in their need and keeping oneself from the world's corruption.
Gospel: Mk 8: 22-26
When they came to Bethsaida, Jesus was asked to touch a blind man who was brought to him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had put spittle on his eyes and laid his hands upon him, he asked, "Can you see anything?" The man, who was beginning to see, replied, "I see people! They look like trees, but they move around." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and the man could see perfectly. His sight was restored and he could see everything clearly. Then Jesus sent him home saying, "Do not return to the village."
Reflection:
Jesus always shows compassion on the sick and has done countless miracles, healing them of their diseases. In today's Gospel, he again is moved with pity on a blind man. He performs this miracle outside the village, away from the crowd, so as not to attract attention to himself, not to be admired, not to be glorified by the people. But Christ performs a miracle to increase the faith of the people especially of the person who receives the healing.
Do not think that Christ came mainly to heal our illnesses. Often, he does heal us when we are sick but this is only a sign of the power he has over any kind of evil. For there is a more serious illness than that of the body and that is the illness of the spirit, meaning sin. We are all quick to ask Christ to heal us when we are physically ill, but we rarely ask him to heal us of our sinfulness. Maybe we are comfortable with our sins and do not seriously want to change. But if we do want healing, we need only to approach Christ and beg for his healing.
It is interesting to note that Christ uses his spittle in this healing. The spittle comes from the mouth where speech comes from, where the word comes from. Today, Jesus heals our wounds of sin with his Word. That is why it is so vital for us to listen to his Word when it is proclaimed. Listening to Christ's Word has the power to heal us.
In several of his healings, Christ touches the sick. We may think that it would have been amazing if we had lived in Christ's time so we could touch him physically, but this does not have to be. We are in fact more fortunate than those who actually saw Christ because now we do not need to touch him physically to be healed. As long as we have faith in Christ, we are already touching him. Let us allow him to hold our hand as he did with this blind man and lead us to salvation from our sins.
Prayer Requests:
We pray ...
... for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.
... for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
... for families who are in need of healing.
... for world peace and reconciliation.
... for the special intentions
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
**************************************************
These reflections are distributed free and are for personal use only. Feel free to send the Daily Prayer reflections to your friends, colleagues and relatives; however, if you do, please include the following:
+================================================+
| The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the
| priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish
| http://www.marythequeen.org
| Distributed free and for personal use only.
+================================================+
-- Wednesday 6th Week in Ordinary Time
Jas 1: 19-27 / Ps 15: 2-5 / Mk 8:22-26
Reading: Jas 1:19-27
My beloved, be quick to hear but slow to speak and slow to anger, for human anger does not fulfill the justice of God. So get rid of any filth and reject the prevailing evil, and welcome the Word that has been planted in you and has the power to save you. Be doers of the Word and not just hearers, lest you deceive yourselves. The hearer who does not become a doer is like that one who looked himself at the mirror. He looked and then promptly forgot what he was like. But those who fix their gaze on the perfect law of freedom and hold onto it, not listening and then forgetting, but acting on it, will find blessing on their deeds. Those who think they are religious but do not restrain their tongue, deceive themselves and their religion is in vain. In the sight of God, our Father, pure and blameless religion lies in helping the orphans and widows in their need and keeping oneself from the world's corruption.
Gospel: Mk 8: 22-26
When they came to Bethsaida, Jesus was asked to touch a blind man who was brought to him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had put spittle on his eyes and laid his hands upon him, he asked, "Can you see anything?" The man, who was beginning to see, replied, "I see people! They look like trees, but they move around." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and the man could see perfectly. His sight was restored and he could see everything clearly. Then Jesus sent him home saying, "Do not return to the village."
Reflection:
Jesus always shows compassion on the sick and has done countless miracles, healing them of their diseases. In today's Gospel, he again is moved with pity on a blind man. He performs this miracle outside the village, away from the crowd, so as not to attract attention to himself, not to be admired, not to be glorified by the people. But Christ performs a miracle to increase the faith of the people especially of the person who receives the healing.
Do not think that Christ came mainly to heal our illnesses. Often, he does heal us when we are sick but this is only a sign of the power he has over any kind of evil. For there is a more serious illness than that of the body and that is the illness of the spirit, meaning sin. We are all quick to ask Christ to heal us when we are physically ill, but we rarely ask him to heal us of our sinfulness. Maybe we are comfortable with our sins and do not seriously want to change. But if we do want healing, we need only to approach Christ and beg for his healing.
It is interesting to note that Christ uses his spittle in this healing. The spittle comes from the mouth where speech comes from, where the word comes from. Today, Jesus heals our wounds of sin with his Word. That is why it is so vital for us to listen to his Word when it is proclaimed. Listening to Christ's Word has the power to heal us.
In several of his healings, Christ touches the sick. We may think that it would have been amazing if we had lived in Christ's time so we could touch him physically, but this does not have to be. We are in fact more fortunate than those who actually saw Christ because now we do not need to touch him physically to be healed. As long as we have faith in Christ, we are already touching him. Let us allow him to hold our hand as he did with this blind man and lead us to salvation from our sins.
Prayer Requests:
We pray ...
... for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.
... for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
... for families who are in need of healing.
... for world peace and reconciliation.
... for the special intentions
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
**************************************************
These reflections are distributed free and are for personal use only. Feel free to send the Daily Prayer reflections to your friends, colleagues and relatives; however, if you do, please include the following:
+================================================+
| The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the
| priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish
| http://www.marythequeen.org
| Distributed free and for personal use only.
+================================================+
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