Breaking the Word

6^th Week  of Ordinary Time, Wednesday – 16^thFebruary 2022 — Gospel: Mark 8,22-26

Being led by God’s hand

As often happens, Jesus establishes a personal contact with the blind man by taking him by the hand and laying his hands on him. Again for the second time he lays his hands on him and now the healing is complete. This shows that Jesus will not leave the man with only a partial restoration. The distinctive mark of this story lies in the repeated reference to touch and laying hands on the person. This personal gesture of Jesus recalls the Old Testament theme that God himself leads his people by the hand (Is 41,13; Jer 31,32). Particularly in Mark, where there are more references to laying on of hands than in any other Gospel, all but this instance occur in the context of healings. In some instances the infirm and troubled seek to touch Jesus (3,10; 5,27-31; 6,56), and in others Jesus extends a healing touch to them (1,41; 7,33; 8,22). Sometimes healing is accompanied by the actual laying on of Jesus’ (5,23; 7,32; 8,23 &25) or the disciples’ hands (6,5; 16,18). The only instance of laying on of hands as a blessing is the blessing of the children in 10,13. Whether Jesus takes over the laying on of hands from the OT is unclear, for he lays on hands for different purposes than for those prescribed in the OT, i.e. to transfer the profane to the sacred by consecrating them to God. However, when he lays his hands on, he bestows God’s holy and healing presence on ordinary, common, and even sinful people, in this way Jesus brings the sacred to the profane.

6^th Week in Ord. Time, Tuesday – 15^th February 2022 — Gospel: Mark 8,14-21

Salvific Remembrance

The disciples had misunderstood Jesus’ warning “against the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod”. Therefore, Jesus used the Socratic method to open their eyes, ears and minds to the fact of their imperception or slowness to understand. Jesus continues to question their perceptive organs and accuses them of not paying attention. The three perceptive organs play a vital role in each one’s experience and in personalizing them. They also represent a person’s ability to know something more. “Eyes” means to see or to be able to understand, contemplate, and examine. “Ears” means to hear, which has literal and figurative meanings. “Remember” means “to call to mind.” The disciples seemed to have forgotten all they had seen and experienced with the Lord, and so Jesus asked, “And do you not remember…?” They had seen Jesus quieten the storms; raise Jairus’s daughter; heal lepers, the blind, and the deaf; and cast out demons as well as feeding thousands with little. They had heard his teaching, and he had explained it to them. Nevertheless, they failed to see and hear as Jesus does. The way to combat the bad leaven and activate the spiritual senses is to remember the blessings that Jesus has accomplished: “Do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand?” Salvific remembrance is an important aspect of the Judeo-Christian viewpoint. It is looking back to creation through salvation history. It gives the Catholic the macro view that combats the bad leaven. When we keep remembering, the bad leaven is controlled and left disinfected.