S Blaise, martyr: "anointed with oil"

... many who were sick and cured them.

-- Mk 6:7-13

The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing so as to make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord. But even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses. Thus St. Paul must learn from the Lord that "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness," and that the sufferings to be endured can mean that "in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church."

-- CCC 1508

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord: "suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek"

"my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”

-- Lk 2:22-40

The presentation of Jesus in the temple shows him to be the firstborn Son who belongs to the Lord. With Simeon and Anna, all Israel awaits its encounter with the Savior-the name given to this event in the Byzantine tradition. Jesus is recognized as the long-expected Messiah, the "light to the nations" and the "glory of Israel", but also "a sign that is spoken against". The sword of sorrow predicted for Mary announces Christ's perfect and unique oblation on the cross that will impart the salvation God had "prepared in the presence of all peoples".

-- CCC 529

Art: Giotto ca. 1267 – 1337, Presentation in the Temple, Fresco — 1304-06. Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padova.

Wednesday, Week 4: "And they took offense at him"

He was amazed at their lack of faith.

-- Mk 6:1-6

The most common yet most hidden temptation is our lack of faith. It expresses itself less by declared incredulity than by our actual preferences. When we begin to pray, a thousand labors or cares thought to be urgent vie for priority; once again, it is the moment of truth for the heart: what is its real love? Sometimes we turn to the Lord as a last resort, but do we really believe he is? Sometimes we enlist the Lord as an ally, but our heart remains presumptuous. In each case, our lack of faith reveals that we do not yet share in the disposition of a humble heart: "Apart from me, you can do nothing."

-- CCC 2732

S John Bosco: "great is the goodness"

which, toward those who take refuge in you, you show in the sight of the children of men.

-- Ps 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24

From the very beginning Christians have brought, along with the bread and wine for the Eucharist, gifts to share with those in need. This custom of the collection, ever appropriate, is inspired by the example of Christ who became poor to make us rich:

Those who are well off, and who are also willing, give as each chooses. What is gathered is given to him who presides to assist orphans and widows, those whom illness or any other cause has deprived of resources, prisoners, immigrants and, in a word, all who are in need.

-- CCC 1351

The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor. There are many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

-- CCC 2208

Monday, Wk 4: "Legion is my name. There are many of us."

"Unclean spirit, come out of the man!"

--Mk 5:1-20

Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God.

-- CCC 414

Sunday 4B: "A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you": Jesus Christ speaks in His Church as prophet for the salvation of the world

"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin."

I don't know about prophets, but from my "kin" God has raised up some of my best critics. Let me tell you what I mean. I have a sibling, name withheld to protect the innocent, who is very good at detecting when I am not listening to her. Sometimes she will stop talking in mid-sentence in order to call me to account, or tell me that she will stop talking to me until I decide to be present to her and truly listen willingly to her, forcing me to examine my behavior. I sometimes don't react well to her honesty, and get irritated sometimes that she forces me to look with such clarity at myself and the ways in which I need to work harder at being "present" to her and others.

Perhaps you have such honest people in your life, too. And though they sometimes get under your skin, in your more reflective moments you probably, as I often do, give thanks for such people who demand your best self. And as I do, you are probably thankful that they speak in truth and love. And because of this, they have "authority", we trust them to tell us what we really need to hear, to help us see ourselves as we really are. Because of such persons we are able to gain the hope that comes from knowing what we must change about ourselves to be real, to be whole, to be good.

Now, as for raising up prophets from among our "kin": it turns out that God in fact does this. A prophet is not someone who, in the first case, predicts the future like a soothsayer or a fortune teller but, in fact, is someone who is willing even to sacrifice himself in order to speak the harsh truth to those to whom he is sent. So, it turns out the sibling I described is, in fact, a prophet: he or she stands as a mirror before others in unflinching honesty to speak the truth that the other needs to hear without regard for self.

God has sent prophets to speak the truth for Him before the people throughout salvation history just as we hear in our first reading. God promises He will provide such truth tellers in order to serve the good of the people. And these prophets did irritate and sometimes anger the people as sometimes do those who do us the service of speaking the truth in our own lives. At times this anger reaches such a crescendo that it results in the death of the prophet.

"Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king. The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them." (CCC 783)

Christ is the "prophet" God has raised up to speak in the Church until the end of world. And He is sometimes attacked just as He was when He died on the Cross. Those who are sent today by Him are the Holy Father in Rome and the bishops who speak the truth with His voice to the great and the small, to the powerful and the little ones of the earth as He promised: "Go, and teach all nations" and "I give you the Holy Spirit to lead you into all the truth". And for this gift the bishops and the Church sometimes earn the hatred and vituperation of the world.

The Lord's role of prophecy, of speaking the inconvenient and unwanted truth, is being carried out right here and now by our bishops who decry and vow to fight the latest attacks by our government upon our God-given right to religious freedom. I urge you to read Cardinal Wuerl's letter in which he, as a prophet of God, stands before the Church and the world to proclaim the truth that "There can no longer be any doubt that religious liberty in our country is in jeopardy."

Let us listen to the voice of Christ who speaks here and now through the Church shedding the harsh glare of honesty born of love with His Divine authority to save us from sin. We go forward to share His voice by speaking the truth in union with our bishop and the Holy Father, sharers in the prophetic mission of the Church for the salvation of the world in Jesus Christ.

"What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."

S. Thomas Aquinas: "after you had been enlightened"

you endured a great contest of suffering.

-- Heb 10:32-39

Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." It is in Christ's Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth "the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe".

-- CCC 272
"Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come" (St. Thomas Aquinas. Comp. theol. 1, 2).

-- CCC 184

Art: The Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas, 1631, Francisco de Zurbaran, Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville, Spain.