Daily Reflection – Feb 13, 2016
Saturday 13 February 2016
First Reading: Isaiah 58:9-14
Responsorial Psalm:
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may be faithful in your sight
Psalm 85(86):1-6
Gospel Reading: Luke 5:27-32
Today’s Note: Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Gospel Reading:
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”
Reflection:
If this Lent we offer the fast that God wants, Isaiah records what God will do for us (and for our world): Again, use the method of reading slowly, carefully, perhaps out loud this passage of hope three times:
If you remove from you the yoke, the pointing finger, the speaking evil; if
you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then
your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom like the noonday…
the Lord will satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones
strong. You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water.
O God, in the abundance of your mercies, look upon us, guide us, free us, love us with your unbounded kindness. We want to bring your light, your fruitful waters to all the parched places of our world and to each human heart.
Picture it: Solomon’s two sons: Jeroboam is king of the northern kingdom of Israel (10 tribes) and Rehoboam king in the southern kingdom of Judah (2 tribes). Jerusalem is located in Judah, and Jeroboam is fearful that his people will want to return to the temple in the south. As a result, he creates his own religion, gold calves, altars, priests. With God’s promise to destroy Israel, here ends our continuous reading of Kings.
In the gospel, again Jesus has compassion on the large crowds who follow him and have nothing to eat. Again he finds a few loaves and fishes with which to feed 4,000 people.
In an Ignatian contemplation, be one of the listening crowd or one of the disciples. See, feel, hear, smell, taste. Be there. Then–why will you choose one over the other? If a listener, what do you want to hear from Jesus? Be silent and listen. If a server, why do you serve? What is your motivation? Ask the Spirit to show you. Be silent and listen.
Thank you, Jesus, for constantly feeding us – with yourself, with the Spirit, with the beauty of creation, through our loved ones, and even through those who do not love us.
