Word to the Wise
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - Monday in the First Week in Ordinary Time
[Hebrews 1:1-6 and Mark 1:14-20]In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through the Son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe......</p><p> After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel."
The liturgy of the Eucharist is so structured that the scriptures assigned to be read for the day provide us with a video played backwards! We begin with later things and start rewinding back toward the earlier! If one reads the complete passage from Hebrews today and then reads the Gospel, one wonders how the rabbi from Galilee who is recruiting fishermen for his evangelization team - a virtual nobody recruiting nobodies - fits in the magnificent description of "the Son" provided earlier! Perhaps the simplest answer is that The Letter to the Hebrews represents a longer period of reflection on the meaning of Jesus' life than the Gospel of Mark, which is the earliest of the gospels. Another answer might be that this is too big a question to consider on a Monday!
It seems to me that a serious effort to stay in the "drama of the Word" throughout the year means that we pay attention to the contrast between descriptions of Jesus that come to us in the passages assigned each day for the Church's meditation. We can choose our own passages if we wish and engage in the wonderful spiritual disciple of "lectio divina," but if we allow the liturgical calendar to shape our reflection, then we give our attention on a daily basis (or at least weekly basis) to what the lectionary offers.
God's Son, "whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe," is also the rabbi from Galilee who seems to be a very successful recruiter. How he gets from the latter scene to the former poetic description is food for considerable thought! AMEN
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