January 29
Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intentions
9:00 AM – Deceased Members of Cathedral Candle Co.
Prayer for Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Readings
First Reading
2 Samuel 12:1-7a, 10-17
The LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, Nathan said: “Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him. Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor.” David grew very angry with that man and said to him: “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David: “You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.’ Thus says the LORD: ‘I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.’”
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan answered David: “The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the LORD by this deed, the child born to you must surely die.” Then Nathan returned to his house.
The LORD struck the child that the wife of Uriah had borne to David, and it became desperately ill. David besought God for the child. He kept a fast, retiring for the night to lie on the ground clothed in sackcloth. The elders of his house stood beside him urging him to rise from the ground; but he would not, nor would he take food with them.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 51:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
R. (12a) Create a clean heart in me, O God.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Free me from blood guilt, O God, my saving God;
then my tongue shall revel in your justice.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Gospel Acclamation
John 3:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mark 4:35-41
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples: “Let us cross to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” They were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
“Create a clean heart in me, O God.”
Reflection
Today we find out that repentance is a necessity in the building up of the Kingdom of God. David has committed a terrible sin, and Nathan, the prophet, is trying to get him to see the full extent of his transgression against God and his fellow man. Nathan tells him a parable about a rich man who takes the most important thing in the world from a poor man. He is trying to get David to see that in his greed he has taken Uriah’s most treasured possession–his wife Bathsheba. Indeed, Uriah was a loyal soldier to David and for his loyalty he is repaid with treachery and dishonesty on the part of David. God strikes David by making the child of his and Bathsheba’s infidelity sick. David finds true repentance in the possibility of losing this child. He prays night and day for its deliverance. God hears him and saves the child who will grow up to become the great–but flawed–King Solomon.
In the Gospel, Jesus saves the disciples from a sea storm and questions their faith. He shows that he is master of the sea and the wind, and further deepens the disciples’ recognition that he is the Messiah and the very son of God.
For us, these readings can be instructive in that people in our world sometimes violate the rights of others and make God sad. Sometimes people violate our rights and sin against us as well. If we can find it in our hearts to forgive them when they hurt us, then we can be forgiven as well. God wants to forgive us. That’s why Jesus came to earth in the first place.
In God’s peace,
Deacon Dare
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