CCC Cross Reference:
Heb 3:7-4:11 1165; Heb 4:3-4 346; Heb 4:4-9 624; Heb 4:7-11 1720
Mk 2:1-12 1421; Mk 2:5-12 1502, 1503; Mk 2:5 1441, 1484, 2616; Mk 2:7 430, 574, 589, 1441; Mk 2:8 473; Mk 2:10 1441
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Reading 1
Heb 4:1-5, 11
Let us be on our guard
while the promise of entering into his rest remains,
that none of you seem to have failed.
For in fact we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did.
But the word that they heard did not profit them,
for they were not united in faith with those who listened.
For we who believed enter into that rest,
just as he has said:
As I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter into my rest,”
and yet his works were accomplished
at the foundation of the world.
For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner,
And God rested on the seventh day from all his works;
and again, in the previously mentioned place,
They shall not enter into my rest.
Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest,
so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 78:3 and 4bc, 6c-7, 8
R. (see 7b) Do not forget the works of the Lord!
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
we will declare to the generation to come
The glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
That they too may rise and declare to their sons
that they should put their hope in God,
And not forget the deeds of God
but keep his commands.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
And not be like their fathers,
a generation wayward and rebellious,
A generation that kept not its heart steadfast
nor its spirit faithful toward God.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
Gospel
Mk 2:1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,
it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.
After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,
“Child, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?”
Jesus immediately knew in his mind what
they were thinking to themselves,
so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’?
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”
–he said to the paralytic,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Hebrews 4:1-5,11
Be careful: the promise of reaching the place of rest that God had for the Israelites still holds good, and none of you must think that he has come too late for it. We received the Good News exactly as they did; but hearing the message did them no good because they did not share the faith of those who listened. We, however, who have faith, shall reach a place of rest, as in the text: And so, in anger, I swore that not one would reach the place of rest I had for them. God’s work was undoubtedly all finished at the beginning of the world; as one text says, referring to the seventh day: After all his work God rested on the seventh day. The text we are considering says: They shall not reach the place of rest I had for them. We must therefore do everything we can to reach this place of rest, or some of you might copy this example of disobedience and be lost.
Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 77(78):3-4,6-8
Never forget the deeds of the Lord.
The things we have heard and understood,
the things our fathers have told us,
these we will not hide from their children
but will tell them to the next generation:
Never forget the deeds of the Lord.
the glories of the Lord and his might
and the marvellous deeds he has done,
that the next generation might know it,
the children yet to be born.
Never forget the deeds of the Lord.
They too should arise and tell their sons
that they too should set their hope in God
and never forget God’s deeds
but keep every one of his commands,
Never forget the deeds of the Lord.
so that they might not be like their fathers,
a defiant and rebellious race,
a race whose heart was fickle,
whose spirit was unfaithful to God.
Never forget the deeds of the Lord.
Gospel Mark 2:1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum, word went round that he was back; and so many people collected that there was no room left, even in front of the door. He was preaching the word to them when some people came bringing him a paralytic carried by four men, but as the crowd made it impossible to get the man to him, they stripped the roof over the place where Jesus was; and when they had made an opening, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic lay. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some scribes were sitting there, and they thought to themselves, ‘How can this man talk like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God?’ Jesus, inwardly aware that this was what they were thinking, said to them, ‘Why do you have these thoughts in your hearts? Which of these is easier: to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven” or to say, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk”? But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ – he said to the paralytic – I order you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go off home.’ And the man got up, picked up his stretcher at once and walked out in front of everyone, so that they were all astounded and praised God saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Friday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 4:1-5, 11
Through Faith We Can Attain God's "Rest"
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[1] Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it. [2] For good news came to us just as to them; but the message which they heard did not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers. [3] For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, "As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall never enter my rest,"' although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. [4] For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works." [5] And again in this place he said, "They shall never enter my rest."
[11] Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience.
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Commentary:
1-11. This chapter is a further exhortation to fidelity and develops the theme of that "rest" which the people of Israel failed to attain. The comparison between Moses and Jesus (cf. 3:1ff) is now extended to Jews and Christians. Moses had tried to get the people of Israel to stay true to God and so enter their place of rest (cf. Deut 12:9-10). He laid down the precept of sabbath rest (Deut 5:12-15; Ex 20:8-11; 35:1-3; Num 15:32-36) in memory of God's resting after the Creation, and as a sign of the Covenant and a symbol of eternal rest. In the Gospel Christ promises a new kind of rest, an eternal one, in the house of the Father (cf. Jn 14:1-3, 27).
The history of the chosen people is not, then, a mere chronicle of past events. It is something meaningful to us today and full of lessons for Christian living. To Christians also, as members of the new Israel, God offers a "rest", one which is richer than the temporal rest the Jews obtained when they took possession of the promised land, for the rest promised to Christians is rest in heaven.
However, the Jews disobeyed God's commandments; they soiled themselves by worshipping idols and failed to grasp the significance of their own history. And they confused God's rest, their true destiny, with the sabbath rest--a physical rest which they practiced in an almost exclusively external way (cf. Mk 3:1-6; Lk 13:10-17). Christians also can run a similar risk if they fail to hold on to everything which Jesus Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant has won for them.
1. God's promise of rest remains valid, but to attain it one needs to be faithful and obedient--to have a vigilance which comes from holy fear of God, a fear of being excluded from eternal blessedness. The text can also be interpreted as meaning "Let us fear, lest any one of you despair because he thinks he has been excluded permanently"; that is, "let us fear despair".
In this context "rest" refers to all the supernatural graces we obtain through grace, particularly that of seeing and enjoying God in the future life. This rest, which will reach its perfection in heaven and which begins in this life with faith and grace, is man's true end or destiny. "God works with creative power by sustaining in existence the world that he called into being from nothing, and he works with salvific power in the hearts of those whom from the beginning he has destined for 'rest"' (John Paul II, "Laborem Exercens", 25).
The saints have often liked to describe the joy which heaven gives, that eternal rest which God deigns to grant souls who depart this world. "Who can measure the happiness of heaven, where no evil at all can touch us, no good will be out of reach; where life is to be one long laud extolling God, who will be all in all [...]. This, indeed, will be that ultimate Sabbath that has no evening and which the Lord foreshadowed in the account of his creation [...]. Only when we are remade by God and perfected by a greater grace shall we have the eternal stillness of that rest in which we shall see that he is God. Then only shall we be filled with him when he will be all in all" (St Augustine, "The City of God", XXII, 30).
Losing this "rest" is the only thing one should really fear.
2. The good news was proclaimed to the Jews in the sense that they also heard the preaching of Moses which aimed at preparing the chosen people to be generous in their fidelity to the Lord's promises. The Israelites, however, rebelled against those who were the first to hear the divine message--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses himself, Joshua and the prophets.
The preaching of the Word can actually harden a person's heart if he does not listen to it with the right dispositions. "To obtain salvation it is not enough to hear the words. One needs to take them in with faith and keep a firm hold on them. What good was God's promise to those who received it if they did not receive it faithfully or failed to put their trust in his power--if they did not, so to speak, fuse with, become one with, the divine words?" (Theodoret of Cyrus, "Interpretatio Ep. Ad Haebreos", IV). What proves a person's true obedience to God's word is his solidarity with those to whom God had given the authority to proclaim it.
3-8. The believer can be said to "enter God's rest" because in this life he already begins to be intimate with the three divine Persons. In biblical terms the "rest" is connected with the Covenant which God establishes with men. "Rest" is the reward for faithfulness to the Covenant; it begins in this life in the form of serenity and interior peace and the enjoyment of material things (such as the promised land), but will reach its perfection only in heaven. In this sense, as Psalm 95 reminds us, God promised his people rest repeatedly: the psalm speaks of a "today" when they will enter his "rest": everyone can begin to enjoy "today" the rest of divine friendship, provided he does not harden his heart, provided he repents and becomes faithful again.
Christians have received a further invitation from God to enter his rest: because many Jews proved to be unfaithful, a new people of God was established. This marks a new "today", a new point when one can opt for fidelity and enter the promised land. This "today" has two characteristics: it requires our free response to God's decision to call us; and it does not happen immediately: for the new people of God, also, there is a future "sabbath", that is, heaven.
To appreciate the subtle play of words, one should remember that the same term is used in Hebrew for the word "rest" and for the sabbath as a day of the week.
11. The sacred writer ends his commentary on Psalm 95 with a short, concise exhortation summing up what he has been saying and inviting his readers to enter God's rest without delay.
"There are a number of reasons why the text speaks of striving to enter (God's) rest," St Thomas comments. "First, because, there is a long road ahead. Then because time is short--and we do not know how much time we have. Third, because ours is a pressing interior call which urges us on with the stimulus of love. Finally, because of the danger of delaying, as happened in the case of the foolish virgins (Mt 25:1-13), who arrived late and failed to gain entry" ("Commentary on Heb.", 4, 2).
The central idea is not only urgency and eagerness but also dogged perseverance with the help of grace.
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From: Mark 2:1-12
The Curing of a Paralytic
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[1] And when [Jesus] returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that He was at home. [2] And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and He was preaching the word to them. [3] And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic carried by four men. [4] And when they could not get near Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay. [5] And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven."
[6] Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, [7] "Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" [8] And immediately Jesus, perceiving in His spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question thus in your hearts? [9] Which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your pallet and walk?' [10] But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"-- He said to the paralytic -- [11] "I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home." [12] And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
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Commentary:
4. Many Jewish houses had a terraced roof accessible by steps at the back. The same structure can be found even today.
5. Here Jesus emphasizes the connection between faith and the forgiveness of sins. The boldness of the people who brought in the paralytic shows their faith in Christ, and this faith moves Jesus to forgive the man's sins. We should question how God views our faith: the faith of these people leads to the instantaneous physical and spiritual curing of this man. We should notice also that one person's need can be helped by the merits of another.
In this man's physical paralysis, St. Jerome sees a type or figure of spiritual paralysis: the cripple was unable to return to God by his own efforts. Jesus, God and man, cured him of both kinds of paralysis (cf. "Comm. in Marcum, in loc."). Cf. notes on Matthew 9:2-7.
Jesus' words to the paralytic--"Your sins are forgiven"--reflect the fact that his pardon involves a personal encounter with Christ; the same happens in the Sacrament of Penance: "In faithfully observing the centuries-old practice of the Sacrament of Penance--the practice of individual confession with a personal act of sorrow and an intention to amend and make satisfaction--the Church is defending the human soul's individual right, man's right to a more personal encounter with the crucified forgiving Christ, with Christ saying, through the minister of the Sacrament of Reconciliation: 'Your sins are forgiven'; 'Go, and do not sin again' (John 8:11). As is evident, this is also a right on Christ's part with regard to every human being in the soul's life constituted by the moment of conversion and forgiveness" (John Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis", 20).
7-12. Here we find a number of indicators of Jesus' divinity: He forgives sins, He can read the human heart and has the power to instantly cure physical illnesses. The scribes know that only God can forgive sins. This is why they take issue with our Lord's statement and call it blasphemous. They require a sign to prove the truth of what He says. And Jesus offers them a sign. Thus just as no one can deny that the paralytic has been cured, so no one can reasonably deny that he has been forgiven his sins. Christ, God and man, exercised power to forgive sins and, in His infinite mercy, He chose to extend this power to His Church. Cf. note on Matthew 9:3-7.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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