General. We shall pray God today to deliver us from all evil (other than in the Our Father) so that we will be free in body and soul to serve Him without any hindrance. The Liturgy gives us the form and the words for the celebration of the Eucharist and reminds us that the Mass is an established ritual for public worship which derives its significance both from its being celebrated in praise of God communally, as one Church which is the community of saints we mention in the Creed, and personally, whereby we might achieve our delivery from the individual temptations of the unsaintly world around us.

First Book of Kings. The obedience shown by the widow of Sarefta to Elijah, a man of God, worked wonders in her life. She did it because she had as much faith in Elijah as in God Himself, believing Elijah’s words that it was He who had sent him. Faith and obedience are hard to come by nowadays. Only were one to believe that one would start seeing wonders being worked in his life.

Letter to the Hebrews. As in all readings from this letter, the author makes a constant throwback to the old times of the Law (the Torah) and compares the functions of the High Priest to those of Christ the Saviour. Today the key words are the temple and heaven, animal blood and the redeeming blood of Jesus, a yearly offering without suffering and an offering of oneself, a self-immolation, for the redemption of sin. Whereas the High Priest offered a liturgy of rituals, rich in awe to the public eye, Jesus introduced us to an everyday liturgy of salvation, by accepting our crosses as he did, putting away sin by sacrificing himself for humanity (those around us).

St Mark. Jesus is here on the attack again against people of the church who are there only for public show, the kind of showmen the Pope has recently criticized. Serving God is definitely not a matter of showmanship, but an offering of oneself wholly to God, in time, status and financial rewards. The poor widow’s contibution shines out in comparison to other hefty contributions. Hers is one she made out of her poverty, putting in everything she had, her whole life. A Christian’s commitment, indeed.

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