Monday, February 16, 2015
6th Week in Ordinary Time
1st reading:
Genesis 4.1-15, 25 s
Gospel: Mk 8:11–13
The Pharisees came and started to argue with Jesus. Hoping to embarrass him, they asked for some heavenly sign. Then his spirit was moved. He gave a deep sigh and said, “Why do the people of this present time ask for a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this people.” Then he left them, got into the boat again and went to the other side of the lake.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus went through the process of ordinary human existence from birth to death and never escaped from the ordinary even in times when it seemed expedient. At Calvary, for example, he never came down from the cross, but went through the normal course of death by crucifixion. In today’s Gospel we notice again this reluctance to disrupt the ordinary. “Why do the people of this present time ask for a sign?” he asked. “Truly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this people.”
What is in the ordinary that God values so much? The lives of saints show us the answer. St. John Bosco found out one day that his student Dominic Savio was doing extraordinary sacrifices to become holy. He couldn’t allow even the night to disrupt his efforts to become a saint Thus he supplemented the mortifications he did during the day by sleeping on sharp objects at night. St. John Bosco reprimanded him and told him that the secret of sanctity is doing one’s ordinary duties extraordinarily well.
Faith grows strong not when a person makes extraordinary manifestations of religiosity. Faith deepens through performance of the daily duties. One will not please the Lord by escaping his daily duties. A woman who prays all day in Church and in the process neglects her duty to her family pleases the Lord no more than a person who hardly prays. Ordinary life is the seedbed of faith. Outside the ordinary, faith grows no roots; it wilts and withers away.
This is probably one reason why in the calendar of the Church which begins with Advent and ends with the celebration of Christ the King, the so called Ordinary Time is the longest, spanning more than thirty three Sundays. The Church has allotted longer period for Ordinary Time so that we have ample time to assimilate the spiritual lessons derived from the special celebrations and, like trees growing silently in a forest, grow strong in our faith in the Lord.
Now we understand why God is reluctant in performing miracles. He prefers to see us advance in faith rather than escape life’s predicaments but never grow in the process. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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