Questions for Reflection for February 3, 2023 HD

Reflection on Reading 1, Hebrews 13:1-8 1. As we continue on in Ordinary Time in the Liturgical Calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, we continue with passages from the theologically rich Letter to the Hebrews. Today, the Church, as Mother and Teacher, sets out these verses and invites us to "remember your leaders, who preached the word of God to you, and as you reflect on the outcome of their lives, take their faith as your model." This passage also puts flesh on the bones of the Body of Christ, showing us what it really means to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. To welcome strangers, visit those in prison, honor and esteem marriage, avoid greed... We are reminded that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And we are members of Christ. Therefore, we must live His life by allowing Him to live through us. Do we really understand the depth of the Christian vocation? Do we comprehend that we are freed FROM sin and death?... YES. But we are freed FOR, an entirely new Way of Life? Reflection on Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 27:1, 3, 5, 8-9 2. Our Psalm response calls us to decide against fear and choose to live by faith. The Psalmist David also gives us the means, by focusing not on ourselves but on the Lord. Notice how he continually praises God for His love, His constancy, and His love. Fear need no longer have any power over us if we choose to really choose to trust in the Lord, and allow his gift, we call it grace, to permeate our daily lives. All useless human fears can be overcome. They can be dispelled in the light of a vibrant and growing faith. The Sacred Scriptures, the life-giving words of the Bible, are filled with admonitions against this kind of fear. Yet, the admonitions alone will not help us to overcome it. Only something stronger than fear- with the capacity to change us inside - can liberate us from its chains. That something is some One; the one who understands all of our fears and has opened the way to overcoming them through and in the embrace of His Redemptive Love. That someone is Jesus Christ who became like us? in all things but sin- so that we can become like Him. He understands our fears because in His sacred humanity He experienced them. He also enables us to overcome them. He removes the root and source of fear for those who choose to trust in Him. Have we done that today? Reflection on Gospel, Mark 6:14-29 3. The first reading appointed for today’s Mass, from the Letter to the Hebrews, admonishes us to remember our leaders and imitate their courageous faith. We hear a portion of the Gospel of St. Mark, telling us of the heroic virtue of Saint John the Baptizer. Manifested in both His Holy Life and His martyr’s death. He was the last prophet of the Old Testament and the first Prophet of the New Testament. Other than the Lord Himself and His Blessed Mother, Mary, John is the only Saint for whom we celebrate both his birth and his death. Our image of John is as the austere ascetic, the odd fellow who lived in the desert eating an odd diet thundering to Israel about repentance. We forget the joy that was associated with his birth and the happiness which accompanied his prophetic life and vocation. He always pointed the way to Jesus. So, must we in our age. John is a man to be imitated in both life and death. We learn from him to live our lives as joyful penitents, ever aware of our utter dependency on God's grace. It is sin which leads us into slavery and takes away our joy. Only by being freed from its entanglement can we become happy. (See, Romans 6: 6, 7 and Gal. 5:1) John still points to Jesus, in both his birth and his martyr's death. That is why we celebrate both. Two millennia after his illustrious mission as the harbinger of Christ, we also readily accept, as we should, his prophetic role in the revelation of God's plan of salvation and the advent of the Gospel. Yet how might we have seen John if we had been his contemporaries? Would we have so readily accepted him, or might we have rejected him as a fanatic or extremist? By standing apart, boldly calling out evil doers without regard to their prestige or rank, by even challenging his own co-religionists, John made himself terribly unpopular. At the end, he publicly and relentlessly criticized the personal behavior of the most powerful politician in Judea, Herod. As a result, he was arrested and executed as a traitor. What a Man of courage! How will people view us after we have died? More on Daily Readings: https://www.catholic.org/bible/daily_... We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away. Hi, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. https://ycvf.org/products/donate