The Return of the Twelve

February 06, 2021, Saturday

Memorial of Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Red)

CYCLE B - YEAR I

RDGS: HEB 13:15-17. 20-21/ PS 23:1-3. 3-4. 5. 6

GOSPEL: MK 6:30-34

The Apostles gathered together with Jesus

and reported all they had done and taught.

He said to them,

"Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." 

People were coming and going in great numbers,

and they had no opportunity even to eat.

So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.

People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.

They hastened there on foot from all the towns

and arrived at the place before them.

When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd,

his heart was moved with pity for them,

for they were like sheep without a shepherd;

and he began to teach them many things.

GOSPEL REFLECTION:

Jesus cares about me and invites me too to come away and rest a while. I will be helped if I can go to a ‘deserted place’ occasionally to allow my soul to catch up. Otherwise, as T. S. Eliot says, I have the experience of God’s action in my life, but miss its meaning because I don’t give time to reflection.

I may be too busy or too poor ‘to get away from it all’. It can restore my frayed nerves and re-orient me to what really matters. I will never regret the time I give to this daily encounter with God.

PRAYER:

Lord, there are times when I want to get away from the crowds, when I feel oppressed by company. There are other times when I just wish that somebody knew that I exist; I can have too much of aloneness. If I can reach you in prayer, and know that you are more central to me than my own thoughts, I feel at peace, as the apostles must have felt.

The Death of John The Baptist

February 05, 2021, Friday

Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin & Martyr (Red)

CYCLE B - YEAR I

RDGS: HEB 13:1-8/PS 27:1.3.5.8-9

GOSPEL: MK 6:14-29

King Herod heard about Jesus, for his fame had become widespread,

and people were saying,

"John the Baptist has been raised from the dead;

That is why mighty powers are at work in him."

Others were saying, "He is Elijah";

still others, "He is a prophet like any of the prophets."

But when Herod learned of it, he said,

"It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up."

Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison

on account of Herodias,

the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.

John had said to Herod,

"It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."

Herodias harbored a grudge against him

and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.

Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,

and kept him in custody.

When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,

yet he liked to listen to him.

Herodias had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday,

gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers,

and the leading men of Galilee.

His own daughter came in and performed a dance

that delighted Herod and his guests.

The king said to the girl,

"Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you."

He even swore many things to her,

"I will grant you whatever you ask of me,

even to half of my kingdom."

She went out and said to her mother,

"What shall I ask for?"

Her mother replied, "The head of John the Baptist."

The girl hurried back to the king's presence and made her request,

"I want you to give me at once on a platter

the head of John the Baptist."

The king was deeply distressed,

but because of his oaths and the guests

he did not wish to break his word to her.

So he promptly dispatched an executioner

with orders to bring back his head.

He went off and beheaded him in the prison.

He brought in the head on a platter

and gave it to the girl.

The girl in turn gave it to her mother.

When his disciples heard about it,

they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

GOSPEL REFLECTION:

John the Baptist was a channel of grace for King Herod, and the king ‘liked to listen to him’. But the people around Herod, and his own unruly appetites, got in the way. Doesn’t that sound so familiar? Do I get trapped too, and then act out of my lack of freedom?

‘Remember those who are in prison as though you were in prison with them’, says the letter to the Hebrews. The Gospel tells the sordid story of the final hours of John the Baptist, beheaded for a frivolous promise of Herod.

How did those who loved John, including Jesus, feel when they heard why and how he had died? What do they do? How do I react when evil occurs?

PRAYER:

Lord Jesus, you spent your last night before your crucifixion in prison. Bring comfort to the thousands of good people who are languishing behind bars. They are my sisters and brothers. There but for the grace of God I would be too.

Jesus Sends the Twelve Two by Two

February 04, 2021, Thursday

Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Green)

CYCLE B - YEAR I

RDGS: HEB 12:18-19. 21-24/PS 48:2-3. 3-4. 9. 10-11

GOSPEL: MK 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two

and gave them authority over unclean spirits.

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick

–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.

He said to them,

"Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.

Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,

leave there and shake the dust off your feet

in testimony against them."

So they went off and preached repentance.

The Twelve drove out many demons,

and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

GOSPEL REFLECTION:

We are all sent out by Jesus to do the things he gave most of his time to. So each of us is invited to pray so that we remain in touch with the Good News that we are then invited to preach, each in his or her unique way. Mostly, we do this by our love for those we meet each day for it is this that more than anything else heals people and sets them free from the demons that make them feel insignificant or bad about themselves.

The best portion of a good person's life “is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love” (William Wordsworth). Be with Jesus in a quiet place for some time and then listen to his appreciation of how life-giving are your “little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love”.

PRAYER:

Lord I pray that strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit, I may radiate the light of your love to those I encounter in my daily life. Help me to have a deeper understanding of the needs of others and give me the courage to witness to the joy of my faith.