January 17, 2013

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Memorial of Saint Anthony, Abbot

Read more about St. Anthony, Abbot

Lectionary: 308

Reading 1 from St. Paul's letter to the Hebrews
Heb 3:7-14

The Holy Spirit says:
Oh, that today you would hear his voice,“Harden not your hearts as at the rebellionin the day of testing in the desert,where your ancestors tested and tried meand saw my works for forty years.

The Holy Spirit reminds St. Paul of the rebellion in the desert of Meriba, when the Israelites accused Moses of taking them to the desert to die:

Exodus 17
King James Version (KJV)
17 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?
3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
4 And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

Because of this I was provoked with that generationand I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart,and they do not know my ways.’As I swore in my wrath,‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”

Therefore, God did not let them enter into the Land of Milk and Honey.  But they roamed the desert for 40 years until they all died there.  But their children entered the Promised Land, led by Joshua.  Even Moses did not enter the Promised Land.

Take care, brothers and sisters,
that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,
so as to forsake the living God.

This is a very powerful statement against those who claim to be saved.  St. Paul admonishes the Hebrew Christians to take care not to harbor evil or unfaithfulness in their hearts so as to forsake God.  Obviously, he does not assume they are all saved.

Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,”
so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.
We have become partners of Christ
if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.

And again, we must persevere in goodness from the beginning of our Christian life, until the end.

Responsorial Psalm
PS 95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11

R.(8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Forty years I was wearied of that generation;
I said: “This people’s heart goes astray,
they do not know my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my anger:
“They shall never enter my rest.”

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Let us pray that we are not wearisome to God but that we become like St. Anthony the Abbot.  Seeking to do the good in confidence of God rather than continually rebelling against His commands.  

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark
Mk 1:40-45

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”

We are spiritual lepers.  And when we approach the fount of Baptism, we are doing the same as this leper.  We are asking Jesus Christ to make us clean.

The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”

Then Jesus instructed the man not to mention this to anyone.

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.

But the man was so overjoyed that it would have been easier for him to stop breathing than for him to remain silent on the matter.  But just as St. Anthony was understanding when the people knocked down his door in order to see him.  Jesus understood that this was not disobedience, but the overflowing of that which resides in the heart:


Luke 6:45
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; .... for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Jesus became so famous that people came from everywhere seeking Him out.