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SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Monday
Year II
Readings
First Reading
Jas 1:1–11
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 119:67, 68, 71, 72, 75, 76
Gospel
Mk 8:11–13
Meditation on Today’s Readings Taken from
the Vatican
II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois
The mysterious story of Cain and Abel offers
no explanation why God accepts Abel’s sacrifice and rejects
Cain’s. “Nor should one be sought,” says Wilfrid
Harrington. “The acceptance of the sacrifice is placed completely
within God’s free will.”—* This
inequality, originating in the free will of God, gives rise to Cain’s
resentment. Yet God makes it clear to Cain that his resentment need
not control him, understandable though it may be. He can master
it and live in dignity with the tension of divine freedom. A similar
tension underlies the Gospel story. Jesus’ opponents want to
solve the mystery of his claims with a sign from heaven. They would
force God’s hand, as it were.
But Jesus says that no such sign will be
given.
The Letter of James calls us to full maturity
in the Christian life and says that this requires endurance among
other things. Endurance is not passivity but patience. It is the
ability to live in dignity with the tension of God’s freedom
and the mystery of God’s ways.
The copyright for the Sunday
Missal Introductions is:
Copyright (c) 2001, Daughters of St. Paul
The copyright for the Weekday
Missal Introduction is:
Copyright (c) 2002, Daughters of St. Paul |
