Author: admin

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Gospel: Mark 8: 14-21

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread,
and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out,
guard against the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod.” 
They concluded among themselves that
it was because they had no bread.
When he became aware of this he said to them,
“Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread?
Do you not yet understand or comprehend?
Are your hearts hardened?
Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?
And do you not remember,
when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand,
how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?”
They answered him, “Twelve.”
“When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand,
how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?”
They answered him, “Seven.”
He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Jesus said to them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

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Leaven, also known as yeast, makes dough rise. A tiny amount is all you need to permeate an entire loaf.

Jews often referred to the evil inclinations within us as leaven. When left unchecked, just a touch of evil – a single lie, a single malignant cell, a single evil thought – can take over an entire person.  

Today we call that leaven, Original Sin. 

It’s affected all of us. Our work as Christians centers around uprooting that leaven by doing good and avoiding evil. 

But the day we stop trying is the day that leaven starts growing again.

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Herod and the Pharisees have given in to the leaven. Their hearts are hardened towards Jesus; now they’re plotting to kill him. 

Jesus warns his disciples not to join them.

Although the disciples struggle to grasp the fullness of his teachings, they cannot give up. Rather, they must persevere with open minds and hearts. 

Eventually, the leaven of their doubt will give way to faith. Then, they’ll fully understand.

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In a sense, that’s what Lent is all about – growing in faith.

At times we struggle to understand the Lord; we struggle to understand his teachings and his actions in our lives. But like the disciples, the leaven of doubt must give way to faith.

Tomorrow we begin a penitential season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. If we devote ourselves to these practices, then surely our hearts will not be hardened.

Rather, the opposite; we’ll better understand the Lord, seeing him clearly acting in our lives.

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Reading: Genesis 4: 1-15

The man had relations with his wife Eve,
and she conceived and bore Cain, saying,
“I have produced a man with the help of the LORD.”
Next she bore his brother Abel.
Abel became a keeper of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the soil.
In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD
from the fruit of the soil,
while Abel, for his part,
brought one of the best firstlings of his flock.
The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
but on Cain and his offering he did not.
Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.
So the LORD said to Cain:
“Why are you so resentful and crestfallen.
If you do well, you can hold up your head;
but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door:
his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.”
When they were in the field,
Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the LORD asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
He answered, “I do not know. 
Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The LORD then said: “What have you done!
Listen: your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil!
Therefore you shall be banned from the soil
that opened its mouth to receive
your brother’s blood from your hand.
If you till the soil, it shall no longer give you its produce.
You shall become a restless wanderer on the earth.”
Cain said to the LORD: “My punishment is too great to bear.
Since you have now banished me from the soil,
and I must avoid your presence
and become a restless wanderer on the earth,
anyone may kill me at sight.”
“Not so!” the LORD said to him.
“If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged sevenfold.”
So the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest anyone should kill him at sight.

Adam again had relations with his wife,
and she gave birth to a son whom she called Seth.
“God has granted me more offspring in place of Abel,” she said,
“because Cain slew him.”

The Word of the Lord.

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Autoimmune diseases – such as type 1 diabetes and arthritis – confuse the body’s natural defense system, so that the body can no longer tell the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy cell; meaning, normal cells are mistaken for a threat.

As a result, the body begins attacking itself.

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Doesn’t it feel like our world is attacking itself? 

Although we’re all equal and loved in the eyes of God, sometimes one human being unfairly mistakes another for a threat, as if that person doesn’t belong in our society, much like a malignant cell in the body.

Consider this in the context of religion, racism, economic inequality, or the political division rampant across our country. These are like autoimmune diseases attacking our world.

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In our first reading from the Book of Genesis, Cain mistakes his brother, Abel, for a threat. Cain’s insanely jealous, because the Lord favored Abel’s offering over his. As a result, he lures his brother out into a field and kills him.

Immediately, the Lord reveals himself and says to Cain, “Where is your brother, Abel?” 

Cain’s response becomes the first question human beings ever ask God in the bible: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

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How can we reconcile this ancient and malignant “us versus them” mentality?

Perhaps it will never be completely removed; not until the Lord returns. But you and I should work for greater peace in our homes, in our Church, and in our broader community.

In the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.”

Being proactive in working for peace can start the healing process we’re so direly in need of today.

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Gospel: Mark 1: 40-45

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 
touched him, and said to him, 
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. 

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.”

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

The Gospel of the Lord.

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We continue following Jesus in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus has moved out of the synagogue, out of Simon Peter’s house, and into the open fields, where the impure wandered. 

He’s now in the land of lepers.

Leprosy was a bit like COVID; it quarantined people. But lepers weren’t quarantined for two weeks; they were isolated for the rest of their lives, living like a separated species – defiled; unapproachable; even sub-human.

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When news of Jesus’ healing power reached the lepers, hope began to stir in that wretched community, particularly in the heart of one man, whose life was about to change.

Courage welled so high in his poor soul, that he broke social conventions, barreling through a crowd of people like a bowling ball rolling through pins. 

Knowing his chance had come, he threw himself at the feet of Jesus, looking like no more than a desperate mass of rotting flesh.

In other gospel accounts, this man is described as “full of leprosy,” meaning the disease had run its course. 

He was like a walking dead man, forced by society to maintain a disheveled appearance crying out, “Unclean! Unclean!” anytime his stinking body approached another human being.

It was even illegal to greet him. 

One can only imagine his crushing sense of worthlessness and despair.

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But Jesus changes everything.

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Eight times in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus touches the untouchable. 

He touches Simon Peter’s mother-in-law who was deathly ill; he places his thumbs over a blind man’s eyes; his finger into a deaf man’s ears; his palm on the coffin of a mother’s boy; and today Jesus touches the putrid flesh of a desperate leper.

Lying flat on his face, dragging his lips across the dirt, the desperate leper cries out, “If you will it, you can make me clean.”

You can take my leprosy. My pain. My feelings of worthlessness. My loneliness. 

And make me clean.

Stirred with compassion, Jesus kneels down, touches him, and says, “I do will it. Be made clean.”

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The healing is sudden and complete. 

This man’s eyebrows have grown back; his nubs have grown into hands; the stumps of his legs morphed into feet; the pus and scabs on his body, transformed into silky skin. 

He’s no longer crying out, “Unclean! Unclean!” 

But, “I’m clean! I’m clean!”

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That is what Jesus can do for us.

He can take our impurities, our burdens, our pain, and make us clean.

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After this miraculous healing, Jesus remains in the countryside.

The irony is stunning.

He cannot re-enter the city; by touching this leper, Jesus has become ritually impure, in a sense, making him the leper.

Still, the crowds come to him in droves, desperate to feel his healing touch.

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What Jesus does for this leper foreshadows what he will also do at the Cross. 

Just as he takes this leper’s impurity upon himself, so at Calvary, Jesus will bear the world’s sins, tasting death in order to free us from everlasting death, the greatest impurity of all.

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Think of today’s Gospel as a parable for our own lives.

Just as this leper was infected with leprosy, so we’ve all been affected by sin.

The nature of leprosy, with its deceptive beginnings, its slow progress, its destructive power, and the ultimate ruin it brings, makes it a powerful symbol of sin.

Sin ruins us; it damages our relationships; it separates us from others; it brings us down and can even make us feel unworthy at times.

Jesus wants to take those burdens from us.

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So, where do we need to be made clean? Where are we in need of the Lord’s healing touch?

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“I did not come to call the righteous,” Jesus says, “but sinners.”

Lent is the perfect time for us to grow in self-awareness; to call upon the Lord and ask for his help.

Then Jesus will look at us compassionately and say, “Be made clean.”

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