February 7, 2013

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Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 326

Reading 1
Heb 12:18-19, 21-24

Brothers and sisters:
You have not approached that which could be touched
and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness
and storm and a trumpet blast
and a voice speaking words such that those who heard
begged that no message be further addressed to them.
Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said,
“I am terrified and trembling.”

St. Paul is talking about the day when God spoke to Moses and the people of Israel from the mountain.

Exodus 20
King James Version (KJV)
1 And God spake all these words, saying,  2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.....17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.  19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

No, you have approached Mount Zion
and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
and God the judge of all,
and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and the sprinkled Blood that speaks more eloquently
than that of Abel.

And he compares that meeting to the New Testament.  Where we enter into the Mountain of God, the Catholic Church and dwell with the Saints.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 9, 10-11

R. (see 10) O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple.
Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, fairest of heights,
is the joy of all the earth.
R. O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple.

Mount Zion, “the recesses of the North,”
the city of the great King.
God is with her castles;
renowned is he as a stronghold.
R. O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple.

This is a prophecy of the Church.  The Temple of God is the Church.  The City of God is the Church.  His holy mountain is the Church.  Mt. Zion is the Church.  These are also metaphors of heaven, where God dwells.

God, though, is also He in whom we live, move and are:

Acts 17:28
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

As we had heard, so have we seen
in the city of the LORD of hosts,
In the city of our God;
God makes it firm forever.
R. O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple.

As we heard and have seen.  I think that is a reference to God appearing before Israel on the mountain. And also to Jesus appearance before mankind.  All who believe in God dwell in His city and are protected by Him.

O God, we ponder your mercy
within your temple.
As your name, O God, so also your praise
reaches to the ends of the earth.
Of justice your right hand is full.
R. O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple.

And those who love God wonder why He condescends to care so much for mankind:
Psalm 8:4
King James Version (KJV)
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark
Mk 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick
–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.

Jesus sent the Apostles to cast out demons.  He sent them two by two and carrying only the minimum that they would need to survive.

He said to them,
“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.

He instructed to stay where ever they are welcomed.

Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them.”

And any place that did not welcome them, He instructed that they not think twice about them.

So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

So the Twelve went out preaching and casting out demons and curing the sick.