February
3, 2016
Wednesday
of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading 1
2King
David said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him, “Tour
all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and
register the people, that I may know their number.”
9Joab
then reported to the king the number of people registered: in
Israel, eight hundred thousand men fit for military service; in
Judah, five hundred thousand.
10Afterward,
however, David regretted having numbered the people, and
said to the LORD: “I
have sinned grievously in what I have done. But
now, LORD, forgive the guilt of your servant, for
I have been very foolish.”[1]
11When
David rose in the morning, the
LORD had spoken to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying: 12“Go
and say to David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I
offer you three alternatives; choose
one of them, and I will inflict it on you.”
13Gad
then went to David to inform him. He
asked: “Do you want a three years’ famine to come upon your land, or
to flee from your enemy three months while he pursues you, or
to have a three days’ pestilence in your land? Now
consider and decide what I must reply to Him who sent me.”
14David
answered Gad: “I am in very serious difficulty. Let
us fall by the hand of God, for He is most merciful; but
let me not fall by the hand of man.” 15Thus
David chose the pestilence. Now
it was the time of the wheat harvest when
the plague broke out among the people. The
LORD then sent a pestilence over Israel from
morning until the time appointed, and
seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba died.
16But
when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the
LORD regretted the calamity and
said to the angel causing the destruction among the people, “Enough
now! Stay your hand.” The
angel of the LORD was then standing at
the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17When
David saw the angel who was striking the people, he
said to the LORD: “It is I who have sinned; it
is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong. But
these are sheep; what have they done? Punish
me and my kindred.”[2]
Responsorial Psalm
1Blessed
is he whose fault is taken away, whose
sin is covered. 2Blessed
the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt, in
whose spirit there is no guile.
R.
Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
5Then
I acknowledged my sin to you, my
guilt I covered not. I
said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,” and
you took away the guilt of my sin.
R.
Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
6For
this shall every faithful man pray to You in
time of stress. Though
deep waters overflow, they
shall not reach him.
R.
Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
7You
are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me; with
glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.
R.
Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
Alleluia
John 10:27
R.
Alleluia, alleluia.
My
sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I
know them, and they follow me.
R.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
1Jesus
departed from there and came to His native place, accompanied by His disciples.[3]
2When
the sabbath came He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him
were astonished. They
said, “Where did this Man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given Him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by His hands![4]
3Is He not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother (see Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC500 for the words brothers and sisters) of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at Him.[5]
4Jesus
said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and
among his own kin and in his own house.”[6]
5So He was not able to perform any
mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying His hands on
them.[7]
6He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Notes on Readings:
[1] 2 Samuel 24:10 - The narrative supposes that since the
people belonged to the Lord rather than to the king, only the Lord should know
their exact number.
[2] 2
Samuel 24:17 - Before this verse a Qumran manuscript (4Q Sam[a]) gives the
fuller text of 1 Chronicle 21:16 an alternative to
the words When David saw the angel who was striking the people.
[3] Mark 6:1 - His native place: the
Greek word patris here refers to Nazareth (compare with Mark 1:9; Luke 4:16, 23-24) though it can also mean native land.
[5] Mark 6:3 - Is He not the carpenter?:
no other gospel calls Jesus a carpenter. Some witnesses have "the
carpenter's son," as in Matthew 13:55. Son of Mary: contrary to Jewish custom, which calls a
man the son of his father, this expression may reflect Mark's own faith that
God is the Father of Jesus (Mark 1:1, 11; 8:38; 13:32; 14:36). The brother of James . . . Simon: in Semitic usage, the
terms "brother," "sister" are applied not only to children
of the same parents, but to nephews, nieces, cousins, half-brothers, and
half-sisters; compare with Genesis 14;16; 29:15; Leviticus 10:4. While one cannot suppose that the meaning of a Greek
word should be sought in the first place from Semitic usage, the Septuagint
often translates the Hebrew ah by the Greek word adelphos, "brother,"
as in the cited passages, a fact that may argue for a similar breadth of
meaning in some New Testament passages. For instance, there is no doubt that in
verse 17, "brother" is used of Philip, who was actually the half-brother
of Herod Antipas. On the other hand, Mark may have understood the terms
literally; see also ⇒
Mark 3:31-32; Matthew 12:46; 13:55-56; Luke 8:19; John 7:3,5. The question of meaning here would not have arisen but
for the faith of the church in Mary's perpetual virginity.
[6] Mark 6:4 - A prophet is not without
honor except . . . in his own house: a saying that finds parallels in other
literatures, especially Jewish and Greek, but without reference to a prophet.
Comparing Himself to previous Hebrew prophets whom the people rejected, Jesus
intimates His own eventual rejection by the nation especially in view of the
dishonor His own relatives had shown Him (Mark 3:21) and now His townspeople as well.
[7] Mark 6:5 - He was not able to perform
any mighty deed there: according to Mark, Jesus' power could not take effect
because of a person's lack of faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Dear Humanity,
I personally encourage everyone to emulate JESUS' values on LOVE, FAITH, HOPE
and CHARITY, as the humanity has been a failure; which resulted to the more than two (2) years of pandemic and its after-effects on economy, not only here in the Philippines but worldwide.
And the saddest part of it, is that, it affected the POOREST of the POOR to even extremely be more poorer, in exchange of the affluent to be more richer.
Thank you and may GOD bless you and the whole family to have an enjoyed life's journey at home, Church, schools/universities, corporate commitments, public and places of interest.