http://www.easterbrooks.com/cgi-bin/Cathcal.cgi?20050113

First Reading: Hebrews 3:7-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 95:6-7, 8-9, 10-11
Gospel: Mark 1:40-45

First Reading: Hebrews 3:7-14

7

¹ Therefore, as the holy Spirit says: "Oh, that today you would hear his voice,

8

'Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion in the day of testing in the desert,

9

where your ancestors tested and tried me and saw my works

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for forty years. Because of this I was provoked with that generation and I said, "They have always been of erring heart, and they do not know my ways."

11

As I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter into my rest."'"

12

Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God.

13

Encourage yourselves daily while it is still "today," so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.

14

We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end,

Table of Contents Hebrews 3

Footnotes

¹ [3:7-4:13] The author appeals for steadfastness of faith in Jesus, basing his warning on the experience of Israel during the Exodus. In the Old Testament the Exodus had been invoked as a symbol of the return of Israel from the Babylonian exile (Isaiah 42:9; 43:16-21; 51:9-11). In the New Testament the redemption was similarly understood as a new exodus, both in the experience of Jesus himself (Luke 9:31) and in that of his followers (1 Cor 10:1-4). The author cites Psalm 95:7-11, a salutary example of hardness of heart, as a warning against the danger of growing weary and giving up the journey. To call God living (Hebrews 3:12) means that he reveals himself in his works (cf Joshua 3:10; Jeremiah 10:11). The rest (Hebrews 3:11) into which Israel was to enter was only a foreshadowing of that rest to which Christians are called. They are to remember the example of Israel's revolt in the desert that cost a whole generation the loss of the promised land (Hebrews 3:15-19; cf Numbers 14:20-29). In Hebrews 4:1-11, the symbol of rest is seen in deeper dimension: because the promise to the ancient Hebrews foreshadowed that given to Christians, it is good news; and because the promised land was the place of rest that God provided for his people, it was a share in his own rest, which he enjoyed after he had finished his creative work (Hebrews 3:3-4; cf Genesis 2:2). The author attempts to read this meaning of God's rest into Psalm 95:7-11 (Hebrews 3:6-9). The Greek form of the name of Joshua, who led Israel into the promised land, is Jesus (Hebrews 3:8). The author plays upon the name but stresses the superiority of Jesus, who leads his followers into heavenly rest. Hebrews 3:12, 13 are meant as a continuation of the warning, for the word of God brings judgment as well as salvation. Some would capitalize the word of God and see it as a personal title of Jesus, comparable to that of John 1:1-18.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 95:6-7, 8-9, 10-11

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Enter, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us.

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For this is our God, whose people we are, God's well-tended flock. Oh, that today you would hear his voice:

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¹ Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert.

9

There your ancestors tested me; they tried me though they had seen my works.

10

Forty years I loathed that generation; I said: "This people's heart goes astray; they do not know my ways."

11

² Therefore I swore in my anger: "They shall never enter my rest."

Table of Contents Psalms 95

Footnotes

¹ [8] Meribah: literally, "contention"; the place where the Israelites quarreled with God. Massah: "testing," the place where they put God to the trial. Cf Exodus 17:7; Numbers 20:13.

² [11] My rest: the promised land as in Deut 12:9. Hebrews 4 applies the verse to the eternal rest of heaven.

Gospel: Mark 1:40-45

40

A leper ¹ came to him (and kneeling down) begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean."

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Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean."

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The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.

43

Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.

44

Then 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."

45

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.

Table of Contents Mark 1

Footnotes

¹ [40] A leper: for the various forms of skin disease, see Lev 13:1-50 and the note on Lev 13:2-4. There are only two instances in the Old Testament in which God is shown to have cured a leper (Numbers 12:10-15; 2 Kings 5:1-14). The law of Moses provided for the ritual purification of a leper. In curing the leper, Jesus assumes that the priests will reinstate the cured man into the religious community. See also the note on Luke 5:14.