General. The faithful are this Sunday urged to do their utmost to obtain God’s promised grace. We are faithful by virtue of the Baptism received in our childhood, but in early times persons were only baptised after a time of instruction on the first rudiments of the faith. They were then known as catechumens and were the children of believing parents or pagans themselves who were not fully initiated in the principles of Christianity. They were bound to hear the repetitive sermons of their catechists so that during the Easter Vigil they might be admitted to becoming faithful by the imposition of hands and the sign of the Cross in Baptism.

Deuteronomy. The Lesson contains a truncated version of the Shema’ Israel, Hear oh Israel, the prayer uttered three times a day by devout Jews the same way we say our most frequent prayers. The message the Church wants to get through, other than the correlation with the Gospel reading, is that by hearing (the catechumen’s job) God’s word and obeying it, one instils the fear of God within himself. It would be worth explaining that the full Shema’ (verses 4 to 9) actually stresses the unique nature of God, man’s love towards God with all his might, the keeping of His commandments while passing them on to one’s children and keeping them in high reverence in every day life.

Letter to the Hebrews. The priesthood of Jesus continues permanently because he is in heaven standing on the Father’s right hand continuously interceding for us before Him. He thus saves all who want to get to the Father through Him. The attributes given to the High Priest are those as should apply to modern-day priests: they are to be holy, blameless, unstained and separated from sinners but still going out to seek them. This way the High Priest and the modern-day priest saves, by interceding for those who draw near to God through him.

St Mark. Jesus replies to a questioning scribe that the first commandment is to love God fully, as in the first reading, and the second to love one’s neighbour as oneself. The Christian is baptised with the sign of the cross and he is duty bound to live by that sign and the meaning it portends of accepting the will of God in one’s lifetime. Here Jesus is preaching the love the Cross signifies – the love which man shows towards God (vertical) by showing love towards those persons whom God Himself places close to him in his life-story (transversal). After all, Jesus proceeded up Calvary carrying the transversal cross-bar, showing great love towards all those around him who were causing his passion and death, to fulfil his love and obedience to his Father who was the One Who started this love in the first place, as in our individual stories.

Homilies Index Page - Liturgy of the Hours - Home