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SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Saturday
Year II
Readings
First Reading
Jas 5:13–20
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 141:1–2, 3 and 8
Gospel
Mk 10:13–16
Meditation on Today’s Readings Taken from
the Vatican
II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois
These three readings have a sacramental
quality. The Council of Trent found scriptural evidence in this
passage from James for the practice of anointing the sick. According
to Tertullian, some early Christians used this selection from Mark
as scriptural justification for infant baptism. Commenting on these
verses, Wilfrid Harrington goes so far as to suggest that there
may be “a gleam of a baptismal formula”—*
in the words of Jesus: “Let the children come to me; do not
prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
In both cases, the Church discovered in the human words and gestures
of Jesus—his healing the sick and welcoming the children—a
precedent and a pattern for its own sacramental ministry.
The reading from Sirach uncovers the anthropology—the
understanding of the human person—on which sacramental theology
is built. Made in God’s image, human beings are uniquely equipped
to discover and “describe the wonders of his deeds and praise
his holy name.”
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 |
