LECTIONARY READINGS
First reading: Genesis 3:9-15
Responsorial psalm: Ps 129(130)
Second reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:1
Gospel: Mark 3:20-35
Link to readings
The readings this week reflect on our severing ourselves from the love of God through our sins, and on the mercy and forgiveness that is always available to us when we turn to the Lord.
In the First Reading, we see Adam and Eve wilfully disobeying God and refusing to acknowledge their error. Their blaming each other separates them from God. The verses of the Psalm tell of a contrite person longing and waiting for the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness.
St Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, tells them that the raising of the Lord Jesus will in turn also raise us believers, so that we can be united with God and live close to him. (Second Reading) Finally, the Gospel shows us a Jesus pressed by the crowds and by his relatives, who do not understand what he is about. Doing the will of God will make us part of his family.
This week, we might pray for all those who do not fully appreciate the mercy and forgiveness the Lord is offering. We may also want to pray for all those, who for whatever reason, do not seek to do the will of God.
PSALM 129 (130)
R./ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.
My soul is waiting for the Lord,
I count on his word
My soul is longing for the Lord
more than watchman for daybreak.
Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption.
Israel indeed he will redeem from all its iniquity.
REFLECTION
Before settling to pray this psalm, I spend some time slowing down and leaving aside the ‘baggage’ I am carrying with me today. Perhaps I can imagine putting it all in a backpack and, for now, setting it at the Lord’s feet.
When I am ready, I read the verses of this psalm. They may be familiar, at least in part, but I try to focus on them as if it I was encountering them for the first time. What strikes me? In what ways does the psalm resonate with my own life? Perhaps I am in great need of forgiveness and want to plead to the Lord. Or perhaps I have already experienced his mercy and want to express my gratitude in my own words.
It may help to change the second stanza and put it in the first person, addressing God directly: ‘If you, O Lord, should mark my guilt . . .’ However, the Lord’s forgiveness does not only apply to me, but to everyone, whatever they might have done. I pause awhile and reflect on how this makes me feel.
I speak to the Lord about this, openly, without fear, trusting that he will hear me. I listen to him. I conclude my prayer with my own words of thanksgiving, conscious that With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
GOSPEL
MARK 3: 20–35
Jesus went home with his disciples, and such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal. When his relatives heard of this, they set out to take charge of him, convinced he was out of his mind. The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘Beelzebul is in him’, and ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out.’ So Jesus called them to him and spoke to them: ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last. Now if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he cannot stand either – it is the end of him. But no one can make his way into a strong man’s house and burgle his property unless he has tied up the strong man first. Only then can he burgle his house. ‘I tell you solemnly, all sins will be forgiven and all blasphemies; but let anyone blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and that one will never have forgiveness but be guilty of an eternal sin.’ This was because they were saying, ‘An unclean spirit is in him.’ His mother and brothers now arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message. The message was passed to Jesus, ‘Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.’ He replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking round at those sitting in a circle about him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.’
REFLECTION
After coming to some inner quiet in the way that works best for me, I read this long passage. If I find parts of it challenging, I ask the Lord to help me. I wait for a few moments, and then read it again, stopping where I feel drawn. Perhaps I reflect on what life was like for Jesus and his disciples, so pressed by the crowd that they cannot even stop to eat.
Maybe there have been times in my own life where my relatives have sought to ‘help’ me as the relatives of Jesus did with him. How did I respond to them? I spend a few moments speaking with the Lord about this. I may now want to focus on Jesus’s mother and kin, wondering how they felt: worried, rejected, anxious, loving, supportive …? Reading the last sentence several times may help me.
In what way am I doing the will of God in my everyday circumstances? To what extent does that make me Jesus’s brother, sister or mother? As I conclude my prayer, I give thanks to the Lord in my own words.
Courtesy of St Beuno’s Outreach in the Diocese of Wrexham, UK