January 31, 2016

4th Sun., Ordinary Time

January 31, 2016:  Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

See ten connections with today?
Legend below
Listen
For next Sunday
Pope Francis Angelus
The balloons symbolize peace
The only privilege in God's eyes is to have no privileges and to be abandoned in God's hands.  Don't treat religion as a human investment and think you can bargain with God to obtain your interests, but open your heart to the Lord and his Revelation.  When Jesus spoke at the Synagogue, he mentioned great prophets like Elijah and Elisha who weren't given credit; then he was driven out but passed through their midst.  The passage is fulfilled today as it was during Jesus' time.
God cares for all his creatures, even the smallest and the most insignificant in our eyes, and he always takes the first step, visiting us with his mercy and raising us from our sins.  He holds out his hand to draw us back from the abyss and invites us to welcome the Gospel and walk on the right paths.  He looks for us; and no human condition can exclude us from his heart.
Read
  • Jer 1:4-5, 17-19  Before you were born, I knew you and appointed you prophet.  Tell them all I command you.  I've fortified you and am with you to deliver you.

  • Ps 71:1-6, 15-17  "I will sing of your salvation."  Hear and rescue me; I take refuge in you.

  • 1 Cor 12:31—13:13  If I speak in tongues, or prophesy, or have knowledge and faith, or give away all I have, but don't have love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient and kind, not jealous, pompous, inflated, rude, self-interested or quick-tempered.  Love rejoices in the truth, bears, believes, hopes, and endures; it never fails.  Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will end.  We know and prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  I used to act like a child, but now that I'm grown, I put childish ways aside.  We see indistinctly but will see face to face.  I know partially now but shall know fully.  Faith, hope, love remain, but the greatest is love.
  • Lk 4:21-30  Jesus spoke in the synagogue:  “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”  All spoke highly of him and were amazed. They asked, “Isn’t this Joseph's son?”  He said to them, “No prophet is accepted in his own native place:  there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, but he was sent only to a widow in Zarephath.  There were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha, but only Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.”  When they heard this, they were furious, drove him out, and led him up a hill to hurl him down, but he passed through them and left.
Roamin' Catholic Report for early Sunday morning Mass
Music selections:

    • Preparation of gifts:  classical instrumental
Unfortunately, everything but the Lamb of God was instrumental; fortunately the organist was good and played an especially good arrangement of the Communion song.  I understand the early Mass crowd may want a short Mass, but I'd suggest chanting the Alleluia and Great Amen so they'd be singing (some :-) in both the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist; it wouldn't add any time either.
Homily:  Good, and short:  Trust Jesus, not like the people at the Nazareth synagogue who became furious
(I try to post a "Roamin' Catholic" report whenever I don't play at my home parish.  More reports)
Reflect
    • Creighton:  “The word of the Lord came to me”:  The 1st reading, psalm, and 2nd reading all speak of love.  The Lord and I are entwined in a love relationship beyond understanding.  The Lord's love for me sustains me, and I I struggle to live in the fullness of his love.  Jesus suffered the pain of temptation but was faithful to his Father, then returned, filled with the Spirit, and taught and was praised, but not by his own people, who doubted he could be the fulfillment of scripture.  Though the gospel ends with Jesus going away, we know he returned to those in doubt, pain, hurt, and unbelief and didn't leave.  The Lord's love is constant....
    • One Bread, One Body:  "To love is divine":  We must love, but true love is humanly impossible; we must ask the Lord for it.  He loves us first and purifies us through obedience.  The Spirit graces us with faith, virtue, discernment, self-control, perseverance, piety, care for our brothers and sisters, and finally love.  God, Love, is the Source of love....
    • Passionist:  Today’s Gospel picks up just after Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40 days and remained faithful.  He reveals himself to the people who know him best, who likely had a hard time accepting who he said he was, and his mission.  The reading foreshadows the end of Jesus' life:  it begins with people praising him and being amazed but ends with them furious, taking him up a mountain to hurl him down.  Loved and accepted, but then pushed to death.  Those who praised Jesus on Palm Sunday would later scream, “Crucify him!”  God nevertheless pursued us.  How has God pursued me, and how have I tried to thwart him?  What finally led me to accept him?
    • DailyScripture.net:  Do you believe God wants to act with power in your life today, to heal leprosy of soul and body?  "Naaman was sent to the Jordan as to the remedy capable to heal a human being.  Sin is the leprosy of the soul, though our senses don't perceive it.  We must be delivered from it by Christ's power.  Naaman represents all our purification through baptism." (Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on 2 Kings 5.10-1)  The Lord wants to renew in each of us the gift of faith and regenerating power of baptism and the Spirit that cleanses us of the leprosy of sin and makes us God's "newborn" children.
    When Jesus first proclaimed the good news to his own townspeople, he confronted them with their sin of indifference and unbelief, startling them by saying no prophet could receive honor among his own people.  He then angered them, complimenting Gentile "outsiders" who had shown more faith than Jews.  They threw him out and would have done him harm had he not stopped them.  We all need God's grace and merciful help every day.  He'll set us free if we let him cleanse and heal us.
      • John Bosco, priest, cared for the young (night classes, boarding house...), founded the Salesians
      • Thomas Green (Reynolds) and Alban Roe, priests and martyrs
    Dress legend
    • 'Musical note' tie pin:  "I will sing of your salvation" (psalm)
    • 'Rock' tie pin:  You are my rock (psalm)
    • 'Hand' tie pin:  Rescue me from the hand of the wicked (psalm); "If I 'hand' my body over but don't have love, I gain nothing" (2nd reading)
    • 'Hearts' suspenders:  Love (2nd reading)
    • 'Bear' tie bar:  Love 'bears' all things (2nd reading)
    • 'Eyeball' pin:  We see indistinctly but will see face to face (2nd reading)
    • 'We work together' tie:  Isn't he Joseph [the carpenter]'s son (gospel)
    • 'Car' tie pin:  Furious, they 'drove' him out of the town (gospel)
    • Green shirt and jacket:  Ordinary Time (season)
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